Place-of-arms

A place-of-arms (Italian: piazza d'armi, French: place d'armes) is any place in a fortification where troops can gather. The term has a number of meanings, but it generally refers to an enlarged area of the covertway designed as an assembly point for soldiers, or a square in the centre of a fortress, also known as a parade ground.^[1]

Plan of a bastioned fortification, with re-entrant places-of-arms marked W

A place-of-arms on the covertway of Valletta

There are two types of places-of-arms:^[2]

• Salient place-of-arms: a place-of-arms which protrudes outside the polygonal shape of the fortification
• Re-entrant place-of-arms: a place-of-arms which does not protrude outside the polygonal shape of the fortification