Elevated entrance
In the case of circular towers, a large opening in the main wall at ground level was a potential weakness and experts on castle design have argued that the elevated entrance served a structural as well as defensive purpose.
The majority of elevated entrances were between five and ten metres above the ground level and facing the courtyard side in order to protect them from shell fire.
A steep stairway and narrow landing in front of the entrance made it difficult for attackers to use heavy demolition equipment such as battering rams.
Such a structure is shown in a 1449 votive picture by the Bavarian castle builder (Burgpfleger), Bernd von Seyboltsdorf (Schärding, Upper Austria).
The entrance of the oriel opens at the side and access is gained over a wooden staircase, complete with railings, that is clearly firmly fixed.
Several authors even suggest that rope ladders could have been the most common means of entering and leaving the building (Hans Max von Aufseß).
A miniature in the Codex Manesse shows how the poet Kristan von Hamle is hoisted in a basket up to an elevated entrance by a woman with the help of a rope.
However, she deliberately leaves the basket hanging half way up and the jilted Virgil becomes the laughing stock of the local people the following morning when they see him there.
[2] The German sayings "to leave someone hanging in the air" (jemanden in der Luft hängen lassen) and "to give someone a basket" (einen Korb geben) probably go back to this legend.
In the more recent castle science literature the rope lift is rarely seen as a method of reaching an elevated entrance.
[5] Several early castle researchers deduced from that, that long wooden ladders which could not be stowed within the building, were hauled up and fixed to the external wall (Karl August von Cohausen).
Considerably more spectacular are the rope lifts to the monasteries and hermitages around the holy mountain of Athos, some of which are still accessible today using these means.
A medieval construction crane with a pulley was reconstructed at the Alsace castle of Fleckenstein and set on an elevated opening in the rock face of the inner ward.
Late medieval entrances sometimes have straight or stepped lintels and even trefoil arches (e.g. Kronsegg Castle, Lower Austria).
An elevated entrance fulfilled two functions: firstly, it protected the building's occupants and, secondly, the castellan could invite visitors into the domestic area of the castle.
Various types of elevated entrance are also found on watchtowers (e.g. in Luginsland) and tower houses, French donjons, English keeps or Spanish torre del homenaje.
For example, the entrance to the ravelin in front of Bishop Gemmingen's schloss at the Willibaldsburg above Eichstätt is several metres above the height of the moat, for security reasons.
