A palas (German: [ˈpaːlas]) is a German term for the imposing or prestigious building of a medieval Pfalz or castle that contained the great hall. Such buildings appeared during the Romanesque period (11th to 13th century) and, according to Thompson, are "peculiar to German castles".[1]
Thanks to 19th-century studies of castles ("castle science"), the term palas is often used as a generic term used for covered halls in castles; however, the architectural and historical use of the term is restricted by other authors to the Romanesque hall building.[2]
- ^ Thompson, M. W. The Rise of the Castle. Cambridge: CUP, 1991, p. 22.
- ^
Thomas Biller (1993), Die Adelsburg in Deutschland : Entstehung, Form und Bedeutung (in German), München: Deutscher Kunstverlag, pp. 149f, ISBN 3-422-06093-6:
Amongst the persistent legacies of "castle science" is the habit of applying the term palas not only to those Romanesque halls, whose earliest examples are to be found in the imperial palaces (Pfalzen), but to apply it to every habitable building within a castle, regardless of size, spatial subdivision, formal design or development time. In this way the term is of no use, not just because it lumps together rooms of different shape and function, but also because it obscures an important point in the development of castles.