This section is from "The Encyclopaedia Britannica". Also available from Amazon: Great Books of the Western World (60 Volumes).
Barbette (Fr. diminutive of barbe, a beard), a platform inside a fortification raised sufficiently high for artillery placed thereon to be able to fire en barbette, viz. over the top of the parapet; also in warships a raised platform, protected by armour on the sides, upon which guns are mounted en barbette.
 
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