Casemate
A casemate (or casement) is a fortified gun emplacement or armoured structure from which guns are fired. Nowadays the word bunker is used more extensively.
The origins of the word are a bit hazy. It might come from Italian (casamatta: fake house), Arabic (kasaba), Spanish (casa matar: a house where killing takes place), Greek (khasmata: pits) or again Italian (casa matte: dark house). Since casemates were also used as prisons and the lack of light added to the punishment, the last one seems to be the most correct one.
The canon or gun I am standing in front of is in the Casemates of Luxembourg (city) and it overlooks the city itself. We had to climb up a fair bit to arrive at this point, since the casemates are built in the hills overlooking the city, hence the weary look on my face.
More recent casemates are the ones that were built by the Germans overlooking the beaches of Normandy (where the allied forces landed on June 6th 1944).
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Photo taken in July 1997 in Luxembourg (the city)
Photo taken in July 1997 in Luxembourg (the city)
