Glossary - French castles for sale Patrice Besse Castles and Mansions of France is a Paris based real-estate agency specialised in the sale of castles, historic dwellings.

Re-use

Use of construction components taken from an older building.
Recumbent figure

Reclining statue representing the deceased, decorating a tomb.
Redoubt

Small self-contained fieldwork, a refuge for soldiers outside the main defenses.
Refectory

Communal dining hall; A dining room in a monastery.

Refectory

The dining hall of a monastery.
Relieving arch

A supportive arch constructed within a wall to absorb weight upon a passageway or portal below.
Renaissance-style

Style of the era following that of the gothic period (16th century).
Rib vault

A framework of diagonal arched ribs carrying the cells which cover in the spaces between them.

Ring

Row of quoins forming an arch.
Roman

First applied by critics in the early nineteenth century to describe the architecture of the later eleventh and the twelfth centuries, because certain architectural elements, principally the round arch, resembled those of ancient Roman architecture.
Rotunda

A building or room of circular plan, usually domed.
Rough-hewn

Formed roughly by trimming with straight cuts to give the required shape .