House £s? Garden 
place and a fortification. 1 o study it accu¬ 
rately one should confine oneself to the deso¬ 
late ruins still crowning forbidding heights 
where long ago the Roman soldier held his 
vigil. Those burgs which are still inhabited 
have been changed by many additions and 
renovations; but with this fact in mind, 
one may, nevertheless, gather a fair idea of 
the ancient burg from examples which to-day 
are even attractive country-seats or well- 
kept museums. The type of plan is readily 
traced through a confusion of modern wings, 
and towers, and consisted of several partly 
separated buildings surrounding a courtyard. 
The main buildings were usually so situated 
that they encircled this space and at the same 
time gave the protection of their ramparts on 
all sides of the castle. Upon the highest and 
most inapproachable part of the hill rose the 
bergfried or donjon , the strongest part of the 
whole structure. Frequently it overlooked the 
enemy’s heaviest attack and frequently too it 
contained the main entrance, as if to give there 
the utmost protection of its inhospitable walls. 
In the XII and XIII Centuries, when 
crusaders were returning from the Fast, a 
love of warfare and new needs of defense 
wrought many changes in the old Roman 
burgs in the Alps. The rocks of the moun¬ 
tain sides were freely cut and excavated and 
rooms for dwelling purposes were formed in 
them. Battlements began to appear and the 
thick encircling walls were pierced with stair¬ 
ways and corridors. The dingy and cramped 
dwelling apartments of the lord were enlarged 
into the roomy pallas, while the draw-bridge 
and portcullis became an important feature 
of the exterior. An outer wall or zingel, 
the space behind which was called the 
zwinger, was one of the innovations for the 
purpose of defense. Another change of this 
class was the device of an abruptly projecting 
bay, rectangular in plan, and called an erker. 
The outside of the walls was commanded 
from this point, from which boiling water or 
melted pitch could be poured upon assailants. 
If the situation permitted it, the castles 
were provided with two entrances. One was 
a wide easy road and the other a difficult and 
hidden one, used only by the servants or as 
a secret means of junction with the belea¬ 
guered inmates. The tower communicated 
with the other buildings by means of an 
upper corridor or staircase; there was no 
entrance near the ground for the dungeon 
was there within the base of the main strong- 
IN THE FURSTENHAUS, MERAN A RUINED STAIRWAY AT TAUFERS 
2 7 
