In architecture, a machicolation (French: mâchicoulis) is an opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement through which defenders could target attackers who had reached the base of the defensive wall.

The meaning of MACHICOLATION is an opening between the corbels of a projecting parapet or in the floor of a gallery or roof of a portal for discharging missiles upon assailants below.

A machicolation is a little like a balcony with holes in the floor, built high on the side of a castle. Those defending a castle could throw objects through this hole at attackers below. In fact, the word machicolation probably comes from the old French words …

While the basic function of a machicolation was to enable defenders to drop objects on attackers below, their placement and features differed. In general, machicolations were positioned over entrances, gatehouses, and other vulnerable areas of a castle’s fortifications.

Related to castle murder holes are machicolations: openings in the corbels, or the parts jutting out from the top of walls. As with murder holes, stones, boiling water, heated sand, quicklime, and other unpleasant things could be dropped from machicolations on enemies at the base of the wall.

Machicolations were of two kinds: some were openings in the roof of the passage through which missiles were… Hoardings gave way to machicolations, permanent overhanging galleries of stone that became a distinctive feature of medieval European fortress architecture. Chatbot answers are created from Britannica articles using AI.

A machicolation is an opening in a medieval castle for dropping rocks or boiling water on an enemy. It’s like a sneaky window in a castle that lets people drop stuff on their enemies to keep them from coming in.

Machicolations and the murder holes they provided were perfect for the defence of vulnerable parts of a medieval castle, the early Machicolations were commonly made from wooden hoardings that protruded from the main castle walls, they became more permanent stone fixtures that were part of the castle design in later Plantagenet and Norman periods.

MACHICOLATION meaning: 1. a series of holes in a floor that projects (= sticks out over the edge) around the top of a…. Learn more.

2 meanings: 1. (esp in medieval castles) a projecting gallery or parapet supported on corbels having openings through which.... Click for more definitions.