Corner Towers (Jiao Lou)

At each of the four corners of the Forbidden City is an exquisite corner tower. Standing atop the city wall, the towers, along with their reflections in the moat, have become one of the iconic images of the Forbidden City.

The corner towers were renovated several times during the Ming and Qing dynasties.

The main body is a pavilion-style building, with a harmonious, multi-layered outline. They feature vertical and horizontal intersecting hip-and-gable roofs with triple eaves, covered with yellow glazed tiles and culminating in a gilt copper pinnacle.

Their architectural structure is complex and exquisite, composed of a variety of roof ridges, beams, and columns. Each employs as many as 56 corner beams alone. In the construction process, a variety of wood structure techniques were flexibly used, making them masterpieces in ancient Chinese architecture.

As watchtowers for defense purposes, the corner towers, alongside the city wall, gate towers, and moat, formed the defense system of the Forbidden City, guarding the former imperial palace for hundreds of years.

They inherited flexible and varied traditional techniques for wooden buildings in China, and perfectly combined functions and decorative effects, demonstrating superb skills and outstanding talent of ancient Chinese craftsmen.

角樓

紫禁城城墻的四個拐角，各矗立著一座精美絕倫的角樓。它們坐落于城墻上，優雅身姿倒映于護城河的波光之中，是紫禁城極具標志性的景觀之一。

角樓明清多次修繕。主體為亭式建筑，整體輪廓和諧，層次豐富。屋頂為三重檐，由縱橫相交的歇山頂構成，上覆黃琉璃瓦，頂部中間置銅鎏金寶頂。角樓的建筑結構復雜而精妙，由多種脊、梁、柱構成，實則僅翼角用梁就多達56根。其建造過程更是靈活使用了多種木結構工藝，為中國古代營造技藝之大成。

角樓作為瞭望警戒的城防設施，與城垣、城門樓和護城河共同構成紫禁城防御體系，守衛紫禁城數百年。它們繼承了我國古代木構建筑靈活多變的傳統作法，使用功能和裝飾效果得以巧妙地結合，展現出我國古代匠師們的高超技藝和卓越才能。