page_title: Cavalier (fortification)
hierarchical_section_title: Cavalier (fortification)
caption_attribution_description: Français&#160;: ...Voici (1) un de ces cavaliers copié sur l'un de ces bas-reliefs représentant la ville d'Arras...
context_page_description: A cavalier is a fortification which is built within a larger fortification, and which is higher than the rest of the work. It usually consists of a raised platform within a fort or bastion, so as to be able to fire over the main parapet without interfering with the fire of the latter. Through the use of cavaliers, a greater volume of fire can be obtained, but its great height also makes it an easy target for a besieger's guns.
  There are two types of cavaliers:
  Common cavalier – a raised gun platform without any additional defensive features
  Defensible cavalier – a raised gun platform surrounded by a ditch. If the ditch cuts across the bastion's terreplein and is supported by cuts, the cavalier can also be considered as a retrenchment.
context_section_description: A cavalier is a fortification which is built within a larger fortification, and which is higher than the rest of the work. It usually consists of a raised platform within a fort or bastion, so as to be able to fire over the main parapet without interfering with the fire of the latter. Through the use of cavaliers, a greater volume of fire can be obtained, but its great height also makes it an easy target for a besieger's guns.
  There are two types of cavaliers:
  Common cavalier – a raised gun platform without any additional defensive features
  Defensible cavalier – a raised gun platform surrounded by a ditch. If the ditch cuts across the bastion's terreplein and is supported by cuts, the cavalier can also be considered as a retrenchment.
caption: Illustration of a cavalier (the structure on the right, marked as "B") from Dictionnaire raisonné de l’architecture française du XIe au XVIe siècle by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
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