Castle, Castle Ruins

Synonyms / Other Terms Used

Fortress, Fort, Citadel, Stronghold, Bastion

Category

Tourism, Heritage Attractions, Cultural Attractions, History, Historical Attractions

Message / Function

To indicate the location of a castle or castle ruins

	Source	Description
2)	Schloss Walchen	Symmetric building with hipped roof and projections on each side, showing windows and entrance
	BS 8501:2002	Crenellated castle and tower with door, window, and cross shaped opening
	FHS	Crenellated castle with three towers, door and windows
	SVI	Crenellated castle with two towers, door and windows
	Aragón	Crenellated castle with two towers, door and windows
	RtB	Building with two crenellated towers, two gables and door
	Slovenia 2015	Crenellated castle with two towers with windows
	McLaren & Braunstein	Building with two crenellated towers and door
	Stadt Wien	Building with two crenellated towers and door
	BTA 1989	Crenellated castle and tower with door
	KRESZ	Building with crenellated tower, door, windows and additional walls
1)	WI 1974	Building with crenellated tower with arrow loops, additional walls
	Slovenia 2015	Building with crenellated tower with window, irregular shape on the right
*)	ÖNORM A 3011	Crenellated castle and tower in side view
3)	Aicher & Krampen	Crenellated castle and tower in side view and outline
6)	Aicher & Krampen	Crenellated castle with door and tower
4)	SN 640 827	Crenellated tower with door and window in side view
5)	France Camping	Crenellated tower
	ADAC F	Crenellated building with door in side view
	ADAC F	Side view of crenellated building with door, one side skewed
	LBD OÖ 1977	Crenellated castle and tower in side view
	Kapitzki	Side view of stairs like object with square opening
	W-RSN	Rectangle with two rectangular indentations at top side indicating crenellations
	freizeitkarte osm.de	Rectangular object with indentations at top, rectangle
	adlerschmidt	Edge of crenellated building, banner with pointed ends above, all inside circle
	BEV	Outline shape of building with triangular roof
	BEV	Outline shape of simple building with tower
	BTA 1989	Rectangle surrounded by lines pointing to the center
	ADAC	Filled circle with triangular flag pointing to the right
	Böhm	Filled circle with pennant on tilted pole pointing to the right

Discussion

Most graphical symbols found rely on images of some kind of crenellated object, often with one or two towers and some more details like a door or windows. Just the map symbols tend to be free from all additions and are therefore more abstract. Crenellations seem to be a signficant aspect that could be seen as visual stereotype used in pictograms regarding remains of medieval fortified structures.

Research concerning the referent Castle found in our database covers several image contents in use:

First systematic attempts to develop pictograms in this field were aimed at finding a general symbol for castle, castle ruins as well as palace. Brugger (1977 a) examined fourteen pictogram variants for the referent Castle, Palace, Ruin using an Appropriateness Ranking Test. The numbering 1) to 6) in the table above reflects the final rank order of the pictograms judged as most appropriate. Conventional signs used for maps - shown at the bottom of the table above - are too abstract to be understood without explanation (usually a map legend), and such variants were rated less comprehensible.

A follow-up Comprehension Test of the three best ranked pictograms marked 1) to 3) (Brugger, 1977 b) showed that variants either worked for castle and castle ruin, or for palace, but not for all. Applying lenient scoring 82 %, 88 % and 62 % of the answers for these pictograms were classified as correct, with 64 % of the responses for 1) and 2) explicitly for Castle or Ruins. Variant 3) elicited much broader associations: Answers like Palace (22 %) and Castle (20 %) were the most frequent, followed by Sight (12 %), City Hall (12 %), and Museum (8 %).

On basis of these results the Working Group Pictogram Design AG 133.06 of the Austrian Standards Institute decided to develop two separate pictograms, one for a referent named Castle, Castle Ruins and another pictogram for Palace. The later symbol No 24 of ÖNORM A 3011, marked with *) in the table above, was examined in another Comprehension Test (Brugger, 1978), were it reached a score of 86.8 % correct, applying lenient scoring.

The relevant ISO committee focused on a very general referent: Item of Cultural Interest. The results of the ISO 1979/80 Test Series (Easterby & Graydon, 1981) showed that the strategy of focusing on rather specific and well-defined concepts, as followed before, proved more successful.

Recommendation

ÖNORM A 3011 Symbol No. 24 Castle, Castle ruins

Based on test results available and regarding design aspects like visibility, small scale application, etc., we recommend the use of public information symbol No 24 of ÖNORM A 3011 to signify Castle and Castle Ruins.

Tests of pictograms of the referents Castle, Palace, Ruins, Item of Cultural Interest

Brugger, Ch. (1977 a): Abschlußbericht über den Reihungstest. Report to the Austrian Standards Institute, Vienna, 1977-07-27.

Brugger, Ch. (1977 b): Abschlußbericht über den Erkennungstest. Report to the Austrian Standards Institute, Vienna, 1977-10-04.

Brugger, Ch. (1978): Bericht über die Auswertung des Erkennungstests vom November/Dezember 1977. Report to the Austrian Standards Institute, Vienna, 1978-03-06.

Easterby, R.S. & Graydon, I.R. (1981): Evaluation of Public Information Symbols: ISO 1979/80 Test Series. Part II: Comprehension/Recognition Tests. AP Report 100, Applied Psychology Department, University of Aston in Birmingham, January 1981.