List of cities with defensive walls

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The following cities have, or have had, defensive walls.

This list is incomplete; you can help by expanding it.

Contents

[edit] Europe

[edit] Albania

[edit] Austria

[edit] Azerbaijan

  • Baku, retains most of its city walls that separate the historic Inner City from the newer parts of the city developed after 19-th century.

[edit] Belgium

The walled city of Dubrovnik in Croatia
The walled city of Dubrovnik in Croatia

[edit] Croatia

  • Dubrovnik has well-preserved city fortifications including towers, gate, rampart walk and two citadels guarding the docks.
  • Krk city walls which obtained their current appearance between the 12th and the 15th century but the town itself was fortified since Roman period
  • Ston: Walls built in 14th-16th century, at the isthmus of the Pelješac peninsula, to the north of Dubrovnik; 890 meters long town wall and 5 km Great Wall outside the town Ston.
  • Karlovac city walls, built in 1579 as a six-point star with bastions.
  • The town of Split retains much of its ancient wall.
  • Zadar retains about half of its wall

[edit] Cyprus

  • Famagusta has well preserved city fortifications
  • Nicosia the heart of the city is enclosed by 16th century Venetian walls

[edit] Czech Republic

[edit] Estonia

  • Tallinn old town has a 2 km long town wall with 26 defence towers.

[edit] France

The walled city of Carcassonne in southern France
The walled city of Carcassonne in southern France

[edit] Georgia

Mestia towers, Georgia.
Mestia towers, Georgia.

[edit] Germany

Tower and wall in town of Braubach, Germany
Tower and wall in town of Braubach, Germany
The great bulwark in Büdingen
The great bulwark in Büdingen
Towers in Cologne, Germany part of former city wall
Towers in Cologne, Germany part of former city wall
Tower in Regensburg, Germany part of former city wall
Tower in Regensburg, Germany part of former city wall
Rothenburg city wall
Rothenburg city wall
Worms, Germany city walls
Worms, Germany city walls

[edit] Greece

[edit] Hungary

[edit] Republic of Ireland

[edit] Italy

Towers for city wall in Genoa
Towers for city wall in Genoa

[edit] Latvia

[edit] Lithuania

[edit] Republic of Macedonia

  • Ohrid Ancient city wall surrounds the old part of Ohrid, which is called Varos.

[edit] Malta

[edit] Montenegro

[edit] Netherlands

[edit] Poland

City walls in Warsaw
City walls in Warsaw
  • Chełmno - almost whole length of walls (2.2 km), with 17 watch towers and city gate, 13th-14th cent.
  • Lębork - city ruins from the Medieval era
  • Lubań - partially preserved
  • Kraków - only the barbican, Floriańska Gate, two watch towers and some traces preserved
  • Paczków - very well preserved walls with 19 towers and 3 gates
  • Pyrzyce - until World War II best preserved city walls in Pomerania region, from 14th cent.
  • Stargard Szczeciński - significant parts survived with 3 gates (including unique water gate - Brama Młyńska); one of the most interesting city walls in Poland
  • Szydłów - city walls with Krakowska Gate and watch towers built in 14th cent.
  • Toruń - several watch towers, three city gates and some sections (the longest and most impressive from Vistula) from 13th-15th centuries
  • Warsaw - partially preserved, partially restored after World War II, barbican restored
  • Zamość - complete renaissance and 19th century walls preserved

[edit] Portugal

[edit] Russia

[edit] Serbia

[edit] Slovakia

[edit] Slovenia

  • Kranj evidence of 1st century fortifications with parts of medieval fortifications with four of the original 8 towers preserved
  • Piran 7th century fortification expanded between 1470 and 1533

[edit] Spain

[edit] Sweden

  • City wall of Visby
  • Gothenburg has a part of the western city wall left, the bastion Carolus Rex at Esperanto platsen (Esperanto square) and most of the city moat is still left.
  • Stockholm has a small remainder of the medieval city wall preserved.

[edit] Switzerland

  • Bellinzona (Dominated by its three castles: Castelgrande, Castello di Montebello and Castello di Sasso Corbaro)
  • Gruyères
  • Lucerne: The wall on the northern bank of Reuss River is well preserved and amongst the principle landmarks of the city.

[edit] United Kingdom

[edit] England

Colchester Town Walls
Colchester Town Walls
  • Colchester - the town was surrounded by a wall built by the Romans after Boudica had sacked the town. Approximately half of the walls remain.
  • Coventry - the walls were demolished in 1662. Two gates survive, connected by a section of wall that runs through Lady Herbert's garden. Other small fragments dotted around the city centre, mainly hidden by modern buildings, include the remains of a bastion near Upper Well Street. Several fragments have been incorporated into newer buildings.
  • Exeter
  • Great Yarmouth - about two-thirds of the wall remains. Of the original eighteen towers, eleven survive.
  • Hartlepool
  • Hereford
  • Kingston upon Hull
  • Leicester
  • Lincoln - fragmentary remains
  • London - fragments of London Wall, the wall that once surrounded the Roman town of Londinium, are still visible just outside the Museum of London and at Tower Hill in the City of London.
  • Ludlow
Newcastle town wall
Newcastle town wall

[edit] Northern Ireland

[edit] Scotland

  • Edinburgh's city wall (part of which survives as the Flodden Wall) was so restrictive that it led to the development of an underground slum to accommodate its high population density. More remains of the now abandoned slum than does of the wall, of which only fragmentary sections remain.[citation needed]
  • Stirling

[edit] Wales

[edit] Asia

[edit] Afghanistan

  • Balkh, the ancient city

[edit] China

Main article: Chinese city wall
Watch towers on the citywall in Xi'an, China
Watch towers on the citywall in Xi'an, China

[edit] India

View onto the city of Bam in Iran
View onto the city of Bam in Iran

[edit] Iran

[edit] Israel

[edit] Pakistan

Almost every old city in Pakistan had a defensive wall. Much of these walls were destroyed by the British in order to defortify the cites. Few cities which were fortified are:

A surviving section of the stone base of the walls of Troy, Turkey
A surviving section of the stone base of the walls of Troy, Turkey

[edit] Philippines

[edit] Thailand

  • Chiang Mai The Old City is surrounded by a moat and city walls which were rebuilt in the 19th century.

[edit] Turkey

  • Troy. The ancient city of Troy was famous for its defensive walls. There is archaeological evidence that Troy VII, generally identified as the stage of the of the legendary Trojan War of Homer's Iliad, usually dated between 1194 BC – 1184 BC, had walls with a carefully built stone base over four meters thick and some nine meters high in places, which was surmounted by a larger superstructure with towers in mudbrick. The walls in Homer's epic are so mighty that the siege of Troy by Achaeans lasts more than nine years, and only could be finished with the trickery of the Trojan Horse. Sections of the stone base of Trojan walls still survive on the archaeological site in present day Hisarlık, in Çanakkale province.
  • Istanbul. The system of walls around (as it was then known) Constantinople built in 412 by the Roman emperor Theodosius II was a complex stone barrier that stretched 6.5 kilometers and is often called the Wall of Theodosius. This barrier stood impregnable for ten centuries and resisted several violent sieges until 1453 when the Ottomans succeeded in breaching the walls. There was a new element in the battlefield: the Ottoman army had powder cannon and the walls offered limited resistance to them.
Old Entrance into Itchan Kala of the city of Khiva, Uzbekistan
Old Entrance into Itchan Kala of the city of Khiva, Uzbekistan

[edit] Syria

[edit] Iraq

[edit] Lebanon

Surrounded by a fortified wall, the 16th-century city of Shibam, Yemen
Surrounded by a fortified wall, the 16th-century city of Shibam, Yemen

[edit] Uzbekistan

[edit] Vietnam

[edit] West Bank

[edit] Yemen

[edit] Africa

[edit] Algeria

[edit] Egypt

newly Discovered Eastern Walls of Cairo
newly Discovered Eastern Walls of Cairo

[edit] Libya

[edit] Mali

[edit] Morocco

[edit] Niger

  • Zinder, Niger was well known for its city wall, the remains of which can still be seen

[edit] Nigeria

  • Kano, in Nigeria, is also well known for its city walls, the remains of which can still be seen around the city.

[edit] Tunisia

[edit] North / South America and the Caribbean

[edit] Canada

  • The Ramparts of Quebec City are the only fortified city walls in the Americas north of Mexico that still exist.
  • Montreal, Quebec Remnants of Montreal's nearly demolished city wall remain surrounding the Old Port neighborhood.

[edit] Cuba

[edit] Dominican Republic

  • Santo Domingo was a fortified city from the 16th century to the early 20th century. Parts of the wall are still visible in the Colonial Zone. One of the main gates is very well preserved and centuries ago was named "The Gate of the Count" after the Count of Peñalba, who stopped the invasion of Penn and Venables in 1655.

[edit] Mexico

[edit] Peru

[edit] Puerto Rico

[edit] United States

[edit] See also