Russian Medieval Military Architecture

Resumen

In Russia defensive works were not less important than in Western Europe. Russian chronicles are full of reports of the building of towns, of their siege and defence. In Ancient Russian the word town meant not a town in the modern sense, but only a fortified settlement as distinct from an unfortified one. Thus the concept town applied to medieval towns proper and to citadels, feudal castles and even fortified villages. Every population centre with a wall round it was called a town. Moreover, until the 17th century this word was frequently applied to mean the fortifications themselves.