Fire power changes the way fortresses are built

With the emergence of firearms in the 14th and 15th centuries, high walls and towers had served their purpose when it came to effective defence: they weren't able to resist cannonballs, and there was often insufficient space for the defenders' own cannons. The solution was so-called bastions – pentagonal projections which jutted out at regular intervals from of the wall of the fortress.

The combination resulted in a star-shaped layout. This type of construction did away with blind spots. Slightly sloping walls helped to minimise damage from enemy cannonballs. Cannons such as the heavy kartouwe and the movable falconet stood on the platforms.

  Between fortress and residence

In the 16th century more bastioned castles were built – a combination of residence and fortress. Apart from defence, representation also had a role to play, and a well-fortified palatial edifice demonstrated power and modernity. Between 1563 and 1569, Count Johann IV too had the old castle compound extended and bastions built. But the project remained unfinished.

  Homburg: the bastion extension, completed

Before Johann IV began with the expansion of Saarbrücken Castle, he had the mediaeval Homburg Castle converted into a bastioned renaissance castle as early as 1557. Unlike the work in Saarbrücken, that project was continued after Johann's death by his successor Albrecht von Nassau-Weilburg, and completed in 1593. Although the comital interest to sway again more toward Saarbrücken and Ottweiler after Albrecht's demise, Homburg continued to be used as an important fortress.