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33-505: Initially, the property was a part of the Villa Cimbrone , owned by Ernest Beckett, 2nd Baron Grimthorpe . His daughter Lucy had La Rondinaia built around 1930 and began living there. It is built on the edge of a cliff, hence its name "The swallows nest" ( rondine means swallow in Italian). It has six floors and is 600 square metres (6,500 sq ft) in size. The surrounding garden

66-468: A "stepped" form, with each merlon shaped like an inverted 'T'. European architects persistently used battlements as a purely decorative feature throughout the Decorated and Perpendicular periods of Gothic architecture. They not only occur on parapets but on the transoms of windows and on the tie-beams of roofs and on screens, and even on Tudor chimney-pots. A further decorative treatment appears in

99-402: A basic deterrent against wandering bands of thieves, and it is suggested that the function of battlements was comparable to the modern practice of householders fitting highly visible CC TV and burglar alarms, often merely dummies. The crown usually did not charge for the granting of such licences, but occasionally charged a fee of about half a mark . Battlements may be stepped out to overhang

132-535: A bright winter's day when the sky and the sea were each so vividly blue that it was not possible to tell one from the other. 40°38′39.96″N 14°36′39.86″E  /  40.6444333°N 14.6110722°E  / 40.6444333; 14.6110722 Battlement A battlement , in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles , comprises a parapet (a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at intervals to allow for

165-473: A gap of any kind, for example a parking space at the side of the road between two cars, interval between groups of marching troops or a timeslot in a broadcast. In medieval England and Wales a licence to crenellate granted the holder permission to fortify their property. Such licences were granted by the king, and by the rulers of the counties palatine within their jurisdictions, e.g. by the Bishops of Durham and

198-575: A private family home, and for the past few years as a hotel. In 1976, the American writer Gore Vidal , who lived in La Rondinaia (a nearby house built by Lucy Beckett) from 1972 to 2004, wrote of Villa Cimbrone: Twenty-five years ago I was asked by an American magazine what was the most beautiful place that I had ever seen in all my travels and I said the view from the belvedere of the Villa Cimbrone on

231-407: Is 4 hectares (9.9 acres). It was owned by American writer Gore Vidal and his partner Howard Austen , from 1972 to 2006, who added a pool and sauna in 1984. While he owned the villa, Vidal hosted Paul Newman , Mick Jagger , Greta Garbo , Princess Margaret, Bruce Springsteen , Tennessee Williams , Italo Calvino and Hillary Clinton . Critic David Cunningham referred to La Rondinaia as "perhaps

264-573: Is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Villa Cimbrone Villa Cimbrone is a historic villa in Ravello , on the Amalfi Coast of southern Italy . Dating from at least the 11th century, it is famous for its scenic belvedere , the Terrazza dell'Infinito (Terrace of Infinity). Much altered and extended in the early 20th century by Ernest William Beckett (later Lord Grimthorpe),

297-407: Is more blest than when the mind, Cares dispelled, puts down its burden And we return, tired from our travelling, to our home To rest on the bed we have longed for? After Beckett's death, the villa passed to his son. Beckett's daughter Lucy ( Lucille Catherine Beckett , 1884–1979) also lived at the villa, where she was a keen gardener and breeder of roses, including the "Rose of Ravello" in

330-585: Is said to have given advice about the garden, though her own gardening ventures at Long Barn still lay some years in the future. Beckett died in London in 1917 and his body was brought to Villa Cimbrone to be buried at the base of the Temple of Bacchus in the gardens; apt lines of Catullus are inscribed on the frieze: Quid solutis est beatius curis cum mens onus reponit, ac peregrino labore fessi venimus larem ad nostrum, desideratoque adquiescimus lecto? Oh what

363-459: Is that battlements became an architectural status-symbol much sought after by the socially ambitious, in Coulson's words: "Licences to crenellate were mainly symbolic representations of lordly status: castellation was the architectural expression of noble rank". They indicated to the observer that the grantee had obtained "royal recognition, acknowledgment and compliment". They could, however, provide

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396-445: Is to crenellate the tops of church towers, and often the tops of lower walls. These are essentially decorative rather than functional, as are many examples on secular buildings. The solid widths between the crenels are called merlons . Battlements on walls have protected walkways, termed chemin de ronde behind them. On tower or building tops, the often flat roof is used as a protected fighting platform . The term originated in about

429-570: The Arabs had a more decorative and varied character, and were continued from the 13th century onwards not so much for defensive purposes as for a crowning feature to the walls. They serve a function similar to the cresting found in the Spanish Renaissance architecture . "Irish" crenellations are a distinctive form that appeared in Ireland between the 14th and 17th centuries. These were battlements of

462-577: The Earls of Chester and after 1351 by the Dukes of Lancaster . The castles in England vastly outnumbered the licences to crenellate. Royal pardons were obtainable on the payment of an arbitrarily-determined fine by a person who had fortified without licence. The surviving records of such licences, generally issued by letters patent , provide valuable evidence for the dating of ancient buildings. A list of licences issued by

495-484: The 14th century from the Old French word batailler , "to fortify with batailles " (fixed or movable turrets of defence). The word crenel derives from the ancient French cren (modern French cran ), Latin crena , meaning a notch, mortice or other gap cut out often to receive another element or fixing; see also crenation . The modern French word for crenel is créneau , also used to describe

528-625: The 1930s. Many famous visitors came to the villa during the Beckett family's ownership. It was a favourite haunt of the Bloomsbury Group , including Virginia Woolf , Leonard Woolf , E. M. Forster , John Maynard Keynes , and Lytton Strachey . Other visitors included D. H. Lawrence , Edward James , Diana Mosley , Henry Moore , T. S. Eliot , Jean Piaget , Winston Churchill and the Duke and Duchess of Kent. The actress Greta Garbo and her then-lover,

561-577: The English Crown between the 12th and the 16th centuries was compiled by Turner & Parker and expanded and corrected by Philip Davis and published in The Castle Studies Group Journal . There has been academic debate over the purpose of licensing. The view of military-focused historians is that licensing restricted the number of fortifications that could be used against a royal army. The modern view, proposed notably by Charles Coulson,

594-471: The South ... redesigned and enriched with countless ... ornamental features, small temples, pavilions, bronze and stone statues. and referring to the belvedere (known as the Terrazza dell'Infinito ): While contemplating from those Armida's orchards, among the roses and the hydrangeas, that magic sea in which the blue colour of a very limpid sky is reflected, the wish of being able to fly comes out ... Right at

627-513: The conductor Leopold Stokowski , stayed at the villa several times in the late 1930s; a visit of 1938 is memorialized on a plaque. The villa was featured in the 1953 John Huston film Beat the Devil , in particular an extended scene of Humphrey Bogart and Jennifer Jones romancing on the Terrazza dell'lnfinito . The villa was sold in the 1970s to the Vuilleumier family, who used it first as

660-713: The defender might stand so as to gain complete protection on one side. Loop-holes were frequent in Italian battlements, where the merlon has much greater height and a distinctive cap. Italian military architects used the so-called Ghibelline or swallowtail battlement, with V-shaped notches in the tops of the merlon, giving a horn-like effect. This would allow the defender to be protected whilst shooting standing fully upright. The normal rectangular merlons were later nicknamed Guelph. Many South Asian battlements are made up of parapets with peculiarly shaped merlons and complicated systems of loopholes, which differ substantially from rest of

693-455: The defenders by giving them part of the parapet to hide behind, from which they can quickly expose themselves to launch projectiles, then retreat behind the parapet. A defensive building might be designed and built with battlements, or a manor house might be fortified by adding battlements, where no parapet previously existed, or cutting crenellations into its existing parapet wall. A distinctive feature of late medieval English church architecture

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726-521: The edge of the crag there was a terrace commanding an enchanting view; it was surrounded by horrible marble statues which, however, from afar, had a sort of appeal. Ernest Beckett had visited the villa during his travels in Italy and had fallen in love with it. He bought it from the Amici family in 1904, and enlisted the help of Nicola Mansi, a tailor-barber-builder from Ravello whom he had met in England, to help with

759-516: The existence of battlements. The Great Wall of China has battlements. In the European battlements of the Middle Ages the crenel comprised one-third of the width of the merlon: the latter, in addition, could be provided with arrow-loops of various shapes (from simply round to cruciform), depending on the weapon being utilized. Late merlons permitted fire from the first firearms . From the 13th century,

792-451: The last great author's home/artistic salon". After Austen's death in 2003 and due to his failing health, Vidal posted it for sale around 2004 for around € 14,000,000. It was eventually sold to Vincenzo Palumbo, a local hotelier. In 2015, Palumbo offered the property for sale at £ 20,000,000. The villa was one location for the 2004 movie The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou . This article about an Italian building or structure

825-408: The launch of arrows or other projectiles from within the defences. These gaps are termed embrasures , also called crenels or crenelles , and a wall or building with them is described as crenellated ; alternative older terms are castellated and embattled . The act of adding crenels to a previously unbroken parapet is termed crenellation. The function of battlements in war is to protect

858-433: The merlons could be connected with wooden shutters ( mantlets ) that provided added protection when closed. The shutters were designed to be opened to allow shooters to fire against the attackers, and closed during reloading. The Romans used low wooden pinnacles for their first aggeres ( terrepleins ). In the battlements of Pompeii , additional protection derived from small internal buttresses or spur walls, against which

891-466: The old entrance gate. From the 17th century, the villa's history is vague, but by the latter half of the 19th century it had passed to the Amici family of Atrani . It was visited by the historian Ferdinand Gregorovius , who described it thus in his Siciliana: Wanderings in Naples and Sicily (1861): Incomparable ... where the most beautiful flowers you can imagine flourished, coming from numerous plants of

924-479: The restoration and enlargement of the villa and gardens. He embarked on an ambitious programme of works, including the construction of battlements , terraces and cloister in a mixture of mock-Gothic, Moorish, and Venetian architectural styles. The gardens, strung out along the cliff face, were similarly redeveloped. Beckett was reputed to be the father of Violet Trefusis ; the connection with Violet brought Vita Sackville-West and Harold Nicolson as visitors, and Vita

957-551: The villa date back to the 11th century, when the villa belonged to the Accongiogioco, a noble family. It later passed to the ownership of a wealthy and influential family, the Fusco, who are also recorded in 1291 as owning the local church of S. Angelo de Cimbrone. Later, the villa became part of the nearby monastery of Santa Chiara, and during this period of the villa's history the papal arms of Cardinal Della Rovere were placed over

990-447: The villa is today composed of many salvaged architectural elements from other parts of Italy and elsewhere; little of the original structure remains visible. The gardens were redeveloped by Beckett at the same time. The villa is now a hotel and its gardens are open to the public. Villa Cimbrone stands on a rocky outcrop known as "Cimbronium", and it is from this landscape feature that the villa takes its name. The earliest references to

1023-635: The wall below, and may have openings at their bases between the supporting corbels , through which stones or burning objects could be dropped onto attackers or besiegers; these are known as machicolations . Battlements have been used for thousands of years; the earliest known example is in the fortress at Buhen in Egypt . Battlements were used in the walls surrounding Assyrian towns, as shown on bas reliefs from Nimrud and elsewhere. Traces of them remain at Mycenae in Greece , and some ancient Greek vases suggest

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1056-411: The wall). Sometimes a merlon was pierced with two or three loopholes, but typically, only one loophole was divided into two or three slits by horizontal or vertical partitions. The shape of loopholes, as well as the shape of merlons, need not have been the same everywhere in the castle, as shown by Kumbhalgarh . In Muslim and African fortifications, the merlons often were rounded. The battlements of

1089-452: The world. Typical Indian merlons were semicircular and pointed at the top, although they could sometimes be fake: the parapet may be solid and the merlons shown in relief on the outside, as is the case in Chittorgarh . Loopholes could be made both in the merlons themselves, and under the crenels. They could either look forward (to command distant approaches) or downward (to command the foot of

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