One thing which fascinates me is the amount of human history we’ve lost. The barbican is one of those historical architectural features we’ve almost lost. In fact in Coimbra, Portugal, one of the remaining few is often confused with something else.

As a species we’ve only been preserving our history for a few hundred years.

I’ve written about our ancestors disregard for history before. The Knights of Malta plundered Greek temples for marble. Ancient Bohemians reused building material from castles to build their homes. Everyone did this.

Since this is a recent phenomenon, I can only wonder how many things we’ve lost. Archeology tries to answer that question and I am fascinated by how much we do know about our distant past.

But when people dismantled or destroyed older buildings, it’s hard for an archeologist to figure out that something used to exist.

This train of thought struck me as I walked along the old walls of Coimbra, Portugal.

Coimbra fortifications

Coimbra used to be Portugal’s capital city which tells you a lot about its importance in days gone by. As a settlement, it dates back to Roman times¹. In the 12th century, King Alfonso Henriques restored these walls, and if they needed restoring 800 years ago, it shows how old they are.

The main gate in the fortified wall is still there. Most of the old walls have disappeared into the mists of time but the gate is a central part of modern-day Coimbra. Many tourists pass through it to get to the cathedral which is a prime tourist attraction.

Apart from being a gate, the city built a tower on top of it making it more imposing. It is the Torre de Almedina, or Tower of Almedina. It’s not obvious that this is the main gate when it’s called a ‘tower’.

Coimbra barbican

To add to the confusion, when you turn off Coimbra’s main thoroughfare to get to the Torre you need to pass through a gate of sorts. Many people think this is the gate in the old city walls and that the Torre is some other feature which was inside the city.

Which is misleading.

The first gate, or archway, is actually a barbican.

A barbican is a fortified gate at an outer defense perimeter². Its prime purpose is to be a defensive structure². By being outside the city walls defenders can sacrifice a barbican in times of siege without endangering the city. And an invading army has to waste time, resources and ammunition to take the barbican before getting to the main gate.

It’s a useful feature to have.

Where have they all gone?

Think about cities that have or had fortifications. Many of them must have had barbicans of some sort but few examples still exist. It’s important to remember that once siege technology changed in the 15th century, there was no need for barbicans anymore.

If you’re running a city and need building material it would be logical to dismantle your unnecessary barbicans and re-use the material for other purposes like repairing your walls.

Think of cities that had pre-15th century fortifications:

• Prague, Czechia
• Mdina, Malta
• Coimbra, Portugal

How many of them have a barbican? I’m not aware of any barbican in the first two but it strikes me that they could have had one.

If you know of any information about barbicans, please do write in!

References

1. Coimbra; Encyclopedia Britannica; 2013-08-07[↩]
2. Castle architecture; Encyclopedia Britannica; 2020-07-30[↩][↩]

Remember: links were correct at time of publication.