Corner Towers (Jiao Lou)
At each of the four corners of the Forbidden City is an exquisite corner tower. Standing atop the city wall, the towers, along with their reflections in the moat, have become one of the iconic images of the Forbidden City.
The corner towers were renovated several times during the Ming and Qing dynasties.
The main body is a pavilion-style building, with a harmonious, multi-layered outline. They feature vertical and horizontal intersecting hip-and-gable roofs with triple eaves, covered with yellow glazed tiles and culminating in a gilt copper pinnacle.
Their architectural structure is complex and exquisite, composed of a variety of roof ridges, beams, and columns. Each employs as many as 56 corner beams alone. In the construction process, a variety of wood structure techniques were flexibly used, making them masterpieces in ancient Chinese architecture.
As watchtowers for defense purposes, the corner towers, alongside the city wall, gate towers, and moat, formed the defense system of the Forbidden City, guarding the former imperial palace for hundreds of years.
They inherited flexible and varied traditional techniques for wooden buildings in China, and perfectly combined functions and decorative effects, demonstrating superb skills and outstanding talent of ancient Chinese craftsmen.
角樓
紫禁城城墻的四個(gè)拐角，各矗立著一座精美絕倫的角樓。它們坐落于城墻上，優(yōu)雅身姿倒映于護(hù)城河的波光之中，是紫禁城極具標(biāo)志性的景觀之一。
角樓明清多次修繕。主體為亭式建筑，整體輪廓和諧，層次豐富。屋頂為三重檐，由縱橫相交的歇山頂構(gòu)成，上覆黃琉璃瓦，頂部中間置銅鎏金寶頂。角樓的建筑結(jié)構(gòu)復(fù)雜而精妙，由多種脊、梁、柱構(gòu)成，實(shí)則僅翼角用梁就多達(dá)56根。其建造過(guò)程更是靈活使用了多種木結(jié)構(gòu)工藝，為中國(guó)古代營(yíng)造技藝之大成。
角樓作為瞭望警戒的城防設(shè)施，與城垣、城門樓和護(hù)城河共同構(gòu)成紫禁城防御體系，守衛(wèi)紫禁城數(shù)百年。它們繼承了我國(guó)古代木構(gòu)建筑靈活多變的傳統(tǒng)作法，使用功能和裝飾效果得以巧妙地結(jié)合，展現(xiàn)出我國(guó)古代匠師們的高超技藝和卓越才能。
