192. ENCEINTE OF GUÉRANDE. GATE OF ST. MICHEL
The castle of Vitré, which was built, or at least completed at the close of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century, illustrates the system in the gateway of its châtelet.
The gate-house, known as the Porte St. Michel, at Guérande, which was built together with the enceinte by John V., Duke of Brittany, in 1431, still preserves the lateral grooves which indicate the shape and arrangement of the postern drawbridge.
When raised, the two drawbridges closed the apertures of gateway and postern, while the open gulf of the great ditch, either empty, or full of water, cut off the approach to the entrance.
The Abbey of Mont St. Michel, which we have already studied under various aspects, has further information to give us with regard to the construction of fortified gateways. In accordance with contemporary usage, the Abbot Pierre Le Roy built a gate-house or bastille (Fig. 163), the entrance of which was guarded by a portcullis and a wide machicoulis; he masked this gate-house by a barbican, which was connected north and south with the great stairway leading to the abbey. The northern staircase is rendered specially interesting by the ingenious arrangement of its gates, which opened within the barbican. The apertures were filled by a panel which worked horizontally, on a system necessitated by the exceptional situation of the abbey, where the military, as well as the domestic buildings, were superposed, communicating with each other only by an elaborate series of staircases and inclines. The doors pivoted upon horizontal axes. Resting upon salient jambs in the embrasures of the doorways, they opened in a direction parallel with the slope of the steps, and could be shut at the least alarm, being carried into place by their own weight. They were kept fastened by lateral bolts, the slots of which still exist in the jambs.[68]
[68] Ed. Corroyer, Description de l'Abbaye du Mont St. Michel et de ses Abords; Paris, 1877.
193. RAMPARTS OF MONT ST. MICHEL. GATEWAY KNOWN AS THE PORTE DU ROI