A merlon is the solid, upright section of a battlement (a crenellated parapet) in medieval architecture or fortifications.[Friar, Stephen (2003). The Sutton Companion to Castles, Sutton Publishing, Stroud, 2003, p. 202. ] Merlons are sometimes pierced by narrow, vertical , or tooth-like slits designed for observation and fire. The space between two merlons is called a crenel, and a succession of merlons and crenels is a crenellation.
Etymology
The term
merlon comes from
French language 1704, adapted from the
Italian language merlone, possibly a shortened form of mergola, perhaps connected to
Latin mergae ("two-pronged
pitchfork"),
or from a diminutive moerulus, from murus or moerus (a
wall). An alternative
etymology suggests that the
medieval Latin merulus (mentioned from the end of the 10th century) functioned as a diminutive of Latin merle, "
Common Blackbird", expressing an image of this bird sitting on a wall.
As part of battlements
As an essential part of
, merlons were used in fortifications for millennia. The best-known examples appear on
medieval buildings, where battlements, though defensive, could be attractively formed, thus having a secondary decorative purpose. Some (especially later) buildings have false "decorative battlements". The two most notable European variants in Middle Ages merlons shape were the
Ghibelline and the Guelph merlon: the former ended in the upper part with a swallow-tailed form, while the latter term indicates the normal rectangular shape merlons (
wimperg).
Other shapes include: three-pointed, quatrefoil, shielded, flower-like, rounded (typical of Islamic and African world), pyramidal, etc., depending either from the type of attacks expected or aesthetic considerations.
In Ancient Rome, the merlons had a width sufficient to shelter a single man. As new weapons appeared in the Middle Ages (including and the first firearms), the merlons were enlarged and provided with loop-holes of various dimensions and shapes, varying from simply rounded to cruciform. From the 13th century, the merlons could also be used to pivot wooden shutters; these added further protection for the defenders when they were not firing, or were firing downwards near the base of the wall. The shutters, also known as , could be opened by hand, or by using a pulley.
File:Creneau.romain.png|Usage of merlons, from Eugène Viollet-le-Duc's Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle
File:Castello di St.Pierre.jpg|Ghibelline merlons at Saint-Pierre Castle, Italy
File:Castello_montechino_torrione.jpg|Guelphs merlons in the Castle of Montechino, Italy
Later use
After falling out of favour when the invention of the cannon, forced fortifications to take a much lower profile, merlons re-emerged as mostly decorative features in buildings constructed in the
Gothic Revival style of the 19th century.
See also
