Round Towers
round towers
Over 100 of these, built from about the 8th to the 13th centuries, exist in Ireland, most of them now in ruins. The lower part is constructed of solid masonry, with a high doorway accessible only by ladder, and with walls tapering inward to the top. Of varied size, their height is from 60 to 132 feet, that at Kilcullen being the highest. Having Christian embellishments and always built near a church, they were doubtless constructed by Christians for purposes of refuge. On the side of Scotland remote from Ireland, strangely enough, there are three round towers of the Irish type, viz., Egilshay in Orkney, Abernethy, and Brechin; there is one in the Isle of Man, and several Norman examples in Norfolk, Suffolk, and Essex. Lower and wider round towers existed in various European localities in pre-Christian times, e.g., the Nuraghi of Sardinia.
Fuente: New Catholic Dictionary
Round Towers
occur of the time of Justinian, attached to the Church of St. Apollinaris-ad- Classem, in Verona; two in the same city, cir. 1047; others of minaret like shape, and divided by string courses, at St. Mary’s and St. Vitalis’, Ravenna; also at Pisa, Bury, near Beauvais, and at St. Desert, near Chalons-sur-Saone. The French round towers appear to have come from the north of Italy. In the 9th century they were erected at Centula, Charroux, Bury, and Notre Dame (Poictiers), Gernrode, and Worms. Those of Ireland are mainly of the 11th or 12th century, though some are of an unknown date, and were at once treasuries, belfries, refuges, and places of burial. Round towers are found in East Anglia, at Rickingale Inferior, at Welford and Shefford, Bucks; Welford, Gloucestershire (13th century); in the Isle of Man, at Bremless, Breconshire, Brechin, built by Irish ecclesiastics (cir. 1020); Abemethy, and Tchernigod, near Kief (cir. 1024). The East Anglian form, and those of Piddinghoe and Lewes, have been attributed to the peculiar character of the material employed, and a desire to evade the use of coins. At Brixworth a round is attached in front of a square tower.