Barracks

thumb|300px|Late 18th century barracks from the reign of [[George III, Edinburgh Castle, Scotland]]

Barracks are buildings used to accommodate military personnel and quasi-military personnel such as police. The English word originates from the 17th century via French and Italian from an old Spanish word 'soldier's tent', but today barracks are usually permanent buildings. The word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes, and the plural form often refers to a single structure and may be singular in construction.

The main objective of barracks is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training, and esprit de corps. They have been called "discipline factories for soldiers". Like industrial factories, some are considered to be shoddy or dull buildings, although others are known for their magnificent architecture such as Collins Barracks in Dublin and others in Paris, Berlin, Madrid, Vienna, or London. From the rough barracks of 19th-century conscript armies, filled with hazing and illness and barely differentiated from the livestock pens that housed the draft animals, to the clean and Internet-connected barracks of modern all-volunteer militaries, the word can have a variety of connotations.

History

thumb|left|upright=.8|Barracks in [[Nijmegen, the Netherlands.]]

thumb|right|upright=.8|Barracks of the 117th infantry regiment in [[Le Mans, France ().]]

thumb|right|upright=.8|The [[Russian Empire|Russian-period barracks in Vaasa, Ostrobothnia, Finland]]

thumb|left|upright=.8|Carlo De Cristoforis Barracks in [[Como]]

thumb|right|upright=.6|Barracks housing [[conscription|conscripts of Norrbotten Regiment in Boden, Sweden.]]

thumb|left|upright=.8|German barracks for troops of [[German Federal Police|Bundespolizei (federal police) in Frankfurt, Germany.]]

Early barracks such as those of the Roman Praetorian Guard were built to maintain elite forces. There are a number of remains of Roman army barracks in frontier forts such as Vercovicium and Vindolanda. From these and from contemporary Roman sources we can see that the basics of life in a military camp have remained constant for thousands of years.

In the Early Modern Period, they formed part of the Military Revolution that scholars believe contributed decisively to the formation of the nation state by increasing the expense of maintaining standing armies. Large, permanent barracks were developed in the 18th century by the two dominant states of the period, France the "caserne" and Spain the "cuartel". The English term 'barrack', on the other hand, derives from the Spanish word for a temporary shelter erected by soldiers on campaign, barraca; (because of fears that a standing army in barracks would be a threat to the constitution, barracks were not generally built in Great Britain until 1790, on the eve of the Napoleonic Wars). There are several surviving British Army barracks built between 1814 and 1815 at that site today. Multiple limestone barracks were built half a mile west of Fort York in 1840, only one of which survives. The British Army handed over "New Fort York", as the second fort was called, to the Canadian Militia in 1870 after Confederation.

thumb|right|upright=.8|Officers' barracks at [[New Fort York made of Queenston limestone (1840), the site's only surviving structure.]]

The Stone Frigate, completed in 1820, served as barracks briefly in 1837–38, and was refitted as a dormitory and classrooms to house the Royal Military College of Canada by 1876. The Stone frigate is a large stone building originally designed to hold gear and rigging from British warships dismantled to comply with the Rush–Bagot Treaty.

Poland

thumb|left|upright=.8|Old barracks building in Września

In Poland barracks are represented usually as a complex of buildings, each consisting of a separate entity or an administrative or business premises. As an example, the Barracks Complex in Września.

Portugal

Each of the Portuguese Army bases is referred as a quartel (barracks). In a barracks, each of the dormitory buildings is referred as a caserna (casern). Most of them are regimental barracks, constituting the fixed component of the Army system of forces and being responsible for the training, sustenance and general support to the Army. In addition to the regimental administrative, logistic and training bodies, each barracks can lodge one or more operational units (operational battalions, independent companies or equivalent units). Although there are housing blocks within the perimeter of some regimental barracks, the Portuguese usual practice is for the members of the Armed Forces to live outside the military bases with their families, inserted in the local civilian communities.

Many of the Portuguese regimental barracks are of a model developed by the old Administrative Commission for the New Infrastructures of the Armed Forces (CANIFA). Because of this, they are commonly referred as "CANIFA type barracks". These types of barracks were built in the 1950s and 1960s, following a standardized architectural model, usually with an area of between 100,000 and 200,000 square metres, including a headquarters building, a guard house, a general mess building, an infirmary building, a workshop and garage building, an officer house building, a sergeant house building, three to ten rank and file caserns, fire ranges and sports facilities. In average each CANIFA type barracks was intended to lodge around 1000 soldiers and their respective armament, vehicles and other equipment.

Russia

thumb|right|upright=.8|The [[Preobrazhensky Life Guards Regiment barracks in Saint Petersburg]]

Until the end of the 18th century personnel of the Imperial Russian Army were billeted with civilians homes or accommodated in slobodas in a countryside. First barracks were built during the reign of Emperor Paul I. For these purposes, Paul I established a one-time land tax based on the amount of land owned by citizen. This tax was not mandatory, but person who paid it was permanently exempted from billets.

From the end of 1882, the money collected for exemption from billet was transferred to the military ministry. This has made it possible to step up the construction of barracks for the army. By 1 January 1900, 19,015 barracks had been built, which accommodated 94% of the troops.

United Kingdom

thumb|right|upright=.8|Barracks at [[Hampton Court Palace (1689), Greater London; these are Britain's oldest surviving purpose-built barracks.]]

In the 17th and 18th centuries there were concerns around the idea of a standing army housed in barracks; instead, the law provided for troops routinely to be billeted in small groups in inns and other locations. (The concerns were various: political, ideological and constitutional, provoked by memories of Cromwell's New Model Army and of the use of troops in reign of James II to intimidate areas of civil society. Furthermore, grand urban barracks were associated with absolutist monarchies, where they could be seen as emblematic of power sustained through military might; and there was an ongoing suspicion that gathering soldiers together in barracks might encourage sedition.)

thumb|right|upright=.8|The former cavalry barracks in [[Christchurch, Dorset (1795): officers' accommodation in the end blocks, ground-floor stables with men's accommodation over.]]

In the aftermath of the French Revolution, though, things changed. The size of the army grew from 40,000 to 225,000 between 1790 and 1814 (with the Militia adding a further 100,000).

thumb|left|upright=.8|Officers' accommodation at the former Cambridge Infantry Barracks in [[Portsmouth (1820s).]]

It was not until some years after the end of the Napoleonic Wars (and post-war recession) that barrack-building began again. John Nash built four as part of his London improvements: Regent's Park and St John's Wood for the Cavalry, Wellington Barracks for the Guards, and St George's Barracks (since demolished) behind the National Gallery. In several instances elsewhere, buildings were converted rather than newly built (or a mixture of the two, as at Cambridge Barracks, Portsmouth where a new frontage, housing officers, was built in front of a range of warehouses converted to house the men). In response to the Chartist riots three barracks were established in north-west England in the 1840s, Ladysmith Barracks at Ashton-under-Lyne, Wellington Barracks at Bury and Fulwood Barracks at Preston.

thumb|right|upright=.8|[[Kempston Barracks was built to serve as depot for the Bedfordshire Regiment in 1875 (one of a number of similar barracks established following the Cardwell reforms)]]

A review conducted following the demise of the Board of Ordnance in 1855 noted that only seven barracks outside London had accommodation for more than 1,000.