You see the turret and the turret is the tower at the corner of the building. The turret is a small tower that projects from the wall and the projecting from the wall means the turret extends the building beyond its own footprint. In a castle the turret gave the defender a wider angle of fire. In a house the turret gives the occupant a wider angle of view. The function changed but the form did not. The turret is round or polygonal and the round or polygonal rises above the roofline and the rising above the roofline means the turret is the part of the building that sees furthest.

The turrets of Carcassonne have watched the French countryside since eleven thirty and the watching since eleven thirty means the turrets predate the nation they defend. Carcassonne is a fortified city in southern France and the fortified city has fifty two towers and the fifty two towers include turrets at every vulnerable angle of the double ring of walls. The Visigoths built the first walls in the fifth century. The French rebuilt them in the twelfth. Viollet-le-Duc restored them in the nineteenth century and the restoring in the nineteenth century means the turrets you see today are partly medieval and partly Victorian interpretation of medieval. The turrets at Carcassonne have conical roofs covered in slate and the conical roofs give the city its silhouette. Every postcard of Carcassonne is a photograph of turrets. The turrets are the identity. Remove the turrets and Carcassonne is a walled town. With the turrets Carcassonne is a fortress that looks like a crown.

The turret rooms of San Francisco Victorians were built for light not defense and the building for light turned a military form into a bay window. The turret on a Queen Anne Victorian in Pacific Heights rises two or three stories at the corner of the house and the rising at the corner means the turret catches light from two directions. The turret is a room. The turret has windows on three or five or seven sides and the windows on multiple sides mean the turret room is the brightest room in the house. San Francisco builders in the eighteen eighties and nineties added turrets to houses because turrets sold houses. The turret said wealth. The turret said ambition. The turret said this is not just a house this is a castle on a hill. The painted ladies of Alamo Square have turrets and the turrets are painted in three or four or five colors and the painting in multiple colors emphasizes the turret as a separate element. The turret is the exclamation point. The house says something. The turret says it louder.

Every castle in every fairy tale has a turret because the turret is the part of the building that touches the sky. Rapunzel lets down her hair from a turret. The sleeping princess sleeps in a turret. The imprisoned knight waits in a turret. The turret is where the story happens because the turret is the most isolated room in the building. The turret is separated from the rest of the structure by its projection and its height. You climb a spiral stair to reach the turret and the climbing a spiral stair means the turret requires effort. The turret rewards the effort with the view. The Disney castle at every Disney park has turrets and the turrets are exaggerated and multiplied because the turrets are what make a castle recognizable. Remove the turrets and the castle is a large building. Add the turrets and the building becomes a story. The turret is the narrative element. The turret is the promise that something is happening at the top.

You look up at the turret and the turret looks down at you. The turret. The tower at the corner. The fifty two towers at Carcassonne. The bay windows of San Francisco. The fairy tale promise at the top of the spiral stair. The part of the building that sees furthest. The part that touches the sky. The wall sends the turret up. The turret sends the view out. The building ends. The turret keeps going.