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puerta en codo

English translation: bent gateway / entrance

GLOSSARY ENTRY (DERIVED FROM QUESTION BELOW)
Spanish term or phrase:puerta en codo
English translation:bent gateway / entrance
Entered by: Charles Davis

05:02 Mar 20, 2017
Spanish to English translations [PRO]
Tech/Engineering - Architecture
Spanish term or phrase: puerta en codo
"El acceso se realiza a través de unas escaleras y de una interesante puerta en codo, tallados a pico y cincel sobre la roca de base."

Appears to be a specific type of entryway in Spanish castles: http://www.glosarioarquitectonico.com/glossary/puerta-en-cod...

Is there an equivalent English term? "Elbow-shaped doorway", to be literal?

Thanks.
Lindsey Ford
United Kingdom
Local time: 08:40
bent gateway / entrance
Explanation:
The term of art is "bent", strange though it may sound.

"Puerta en codo" means the same as "en recodo" or "en quiebro", which we've had before:
http://www.proz.com/kudoz/spanish_to_english/architecture/58...

They all mean an entrance or gateway that you had to approach from the side, making a 90º turn, so attackers couldn't use battering rams. It's a feature of Islamic castle-building adopted in the Christian West.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bent_entrance

Here are a couple more references from academic works on the subject to add to those I cited in my answer to the previous question:

"This system was replaced in the thirteenth century by a bent entrance, set in the north side of an elongated tower"
The Medieval City Under Siege, ed. Ivy A. Corfis & Michael Wolfe, 91
https://books.google.es/books?id=OJIFpd09vCgC&pg=PA91&lpg=PA...

"and further sophistication of the bent gateway"
Peter Fraser Purton, A History of the Early Medieval Siege, C. 450-1220, 245
https://books.google.es/books?id=_vSjtwGLBiAC&pg=PA245&lpg=P...

"The reason for concentricity was of course military, but it was also religious, because the inner court, entered through a bent gateway"
Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Knights Hospitaller in the Levant, C.1070-1309, 112
https://books.google.es/books?id=8wNY3gLWMqoC&pg=PA112&lpg=P...
Selected response from:

Charles Davis
Spain
Local time: 02:40
Grading comment
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



Summary of answers provided
4 +1dogleg entrance
philgoddard
4 +1bent gateway / entrance
Charles Davis


  

Answers


24 mins   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
dogleg entrance


Explanation:
.

Example sentence(s):
  • The entrance was via a dog-leg passage through a gate tower midway along the north wall.
  • Once through the entrance, any attacker would have had to negotiate a dog-leg passage

    Reference: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craignethan_Castle
    Reference: http://www.castlesandmanorhouses.com/page.php?key=Blackness%...
philgoddard
United States
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 83

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  neilmac: Was going to post L-shaped, not sure if it's the same thing...
3 hrs
  -> Yes, that's another possibility. Thanks.
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)

5 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +1
bent gateway / entrance


Explanation:
The term of art is "bent", strange though it may sound.

"Puerta en codo" means the same as "en recodo" or "en quiebro", which we've had before:
http://www.proz.com/kudoz/spanish_to_english/architecture/58...

They all mean an entrance or gateway that you had to approach from the side, making a 90º turn, so attackers couldn't use battering rams. It's a feature of Islamic castle-building adopted in the Christian West.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bent_entrance

Here are a couple more references from academic works on the subject to add to those I cited in my answer to the previous question:

"This system was replaced in the thirteenth century by a bent entrance, set in the north side of an elongated tower"
The Medieval City Under Siege, ed. Ivy A. Corfis & Michael Wolfe, 91
https://books.google.es/books?id=OJIFpd09vCgC&pg=PA91&lpg=PA...

"and further sophistication of the bent gateway"
Peter Fraser Purton, A History of the Early Medieval Siege, C. 450-1220, 245
https://books.google.es/books?id=_vSjtwGLBiAC&pg=PA245&lpg=P...

"The reason for concentricity was of course military, but it was also religious, because the inner court, entered through a bent gateway"
Jonathan Riley-Smith, The Knights Hospitaller in the Levant, C.1070-1309, 112
https://books.google.es/books?id=8wNY3gLWMqoC&pg=PA112&lpg=P...


Charles Davis
Spain
Local time: 02:40
Works in field
Native speaker of: English
PRO pts in category: 248

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Robert Carter: That's a clever idea.
16 hrs
  -> Very much so. Visiting castles is much more fun when they explain all these things to you. Thanks!
Login to enter a peer comment (or grade)



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