A tower or an elevated work, used for the defense, or in the siege, of a fortified place.
"The Bastille", formerly a castle or fortress in Paris, used as a prison, especially for political offenders; hence, a rhetorical name for a prison.
Redoubt or outwork. (military architecture) (Davis, H.W. C. (ed.) Medieval England, 615) Wooden tower on wheels for assault, used in siege warfare. (Seward, Desmond. Henry V: The Scourge of God, 221) Related terms: Castle
A medieval fortress in Paris, which served as a gaol, and had become symbolic of oppression by the time of the Revolution. It was stormed by the Parisian mob on 14th July 1789, and traditionally marks the end of the ancien régime.
One of the slang names for the workhouse, along with Spike, Grubber etc. probably reflecting the prison/fortress-like nature of some early workhouse designs. GR Wythen Baxter's book The Book of the Bastiles was an early polemic against the post-1834 workhouse system.
Ancient fortress with very few prisoners in 1789 which was captured and later demolished by the Parisian populace in their search for weapons
The Bastille was a prison in Paris, known formally as Bastille Saint-Antoine—Number 232, Rue Saint-Antoine—best known today because of the storming of the Bastille on July 14, 1789, which along with the Tennis Court Oath is considered the beginning of the French Revolution. The event was commemorated one year later by the Fête de la Fédération. The French national holiday, celebrated annually on July 14 is officially the Fête Nationale, and officially commemorates the Fête de la Fédération, but it is commonly known in English as Bastille Day.