Postern

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Postern

A postern is a secondary door

Door

A door is a moveable barrier used to cover an opening. Doors are used widely and are found in walls or partitions of a building or space, furniture such as cupboards, cage s, vehicles, and containers....
or gate

Gate

A gate is a point of entry to a space enclosed by walls, or an opening in a fence. Gates may prevent or control entry or exit, or they may be merely decorative....
, particularly in a fortification

Fortification

Fortifications are military constructions and buildings designed for defense in warfare and military bases. Humans have constructed defensive works for many thousands of years, in a variety of increasingly complex designs....
such as a city wall or castle

Castle

A castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. The term has a history of scholarly debate surrounding its exact meaning, but it is usually regarded as being distinct from the general terms fort or fortress in that it describes a residence of a monarch or noble and commands a specific defensive territor...
curtain wall

Curtain wall (fortification)

A curtain wall is a type of defensive wall forming part of the defences of some medieval castles.The curtain wall surrounded and protected the interior courtyard, or bailey, of a castle....
. Posterns were often located in a concealed location, allowing the occupants to come and go inconspicuously. In the event of a siege

Siege

A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by Battle of attrition and/or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit." A siege occurs when an attacker encounters a city or fortress that cannot be easily taken by a coup de main and refuses to surrender ....
, a postern could act as a sally port

Sally port

The primary modern meaning for sally port is a small controlled space, usually into a fortification. The entrance is usually protected in some way, such as with a fixed wall blocking the door which must be circumvented before entering, but which prevents direct enemy fire from a distance....
, allowing defenders to make a sortie

Sortie

Sortie is a term for deployment or dispatch of one military unit, be it of aircraft, ship or, in older times, of columns of troops from a fort....
on the besiegers.

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