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 THE MUNICIPAL ORGANIZATION the fifteenth century; thus we know that the barbican was only erected in 1498, King Albert (of the Jagellons) contributing the sum of 100 marks towards the building of it. This barbican, a very fine building, usually called Rondel ("the round bastion") by the people, is one of the very few monuments that are preserved of medieval fortress architecture—like that of Carcassonne in France, It is a round outwork enclosing in its

powerful walls a large court, and formerly communicating with St. Florian's Gate by means of a covered gangway. In this sort of building, whose 'name seems to point to Arabic origin, we see one of the oldest means of systematic defence against fire-arms (illustration 16). In its outline it is an arch, with two slanting walls adjoining on the side of the town. The loopholes in the middle, on the ground-floor, were designed for cannon. Round the upper story there is a gangway running, widened by a row of