Spis Castle - Located in Eastern Slovakia, this is one of the largest Medieval castles in Europe. Hohensalzburg Castle - Sitting on top of a hill in Austria, it was originally built in 1077, but was greatly expanded in the late 15th century. The 15 Most Beautiful Medieval Castles in the World Pierrefonds, France. Pierrefonds Castle is located in Picardy a region in northern France between. Loches, France. Situated in Loire Valley, Loches Castle was built in the 12th century. Mont Saint Michel, France. Mont Saint Michel is located on.
Castle construction was an expensive undertaking; King Edward I nearly bankrupted the royal treasuries by spending about 100,000 pounds on his castles in Wales. Castle building employed about 3,000 workers (like carpenters, masons, diggers, quarrymen and blacksmiths) under the direction of a master builder (Master James of St. George built the Welsh castles of King Edward I). Castles generally took two to 10 years to build.
To learn and understand medieval castle building techniques, let's look at a modern castle building project. As an experiment in archaeology, Michel Guyot and Maryline Martin have assembled a team of 50 workers (architects, archaeologists and skilled workers) to build a medieval castle from scratch by using techniques and materials of the Middle Ages. The project, in Treigny in the Burgundy region of France, is called Project Gueledon. The design is based on 13th-century castle architecture -- it consists of a dry moat, curtain walls, corner towers and a large tower keep. Construction started in 1997 and is expected to last about 25 years. After the initial investment, the cost of the project has been covered by tourism. In 2006, the site hosted more than 245,000 visitors, and the project brought in about $2.6 million.
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The building materials are stone, clay soil and oak trees that are found near the site. The workers use traditional techniques from the 13th century. To split stones for the walls, quarrymen 'read' the rock face to see the lines where it will fracture. They then drive a line of holes into the stone and then pound corners into the holes, which makes shock waves go through the stone and break it.
Workers use horse-drawn wagons to haul the stones from the quarry to the building site. Stone masons then chisel the raw stone into blocks. Workers use man-powered cranes to lift the finished stones to the scaffolding on the castle wall.
Other workers make mortar on the site from lime, soil and water. The masons on the wall fit the stones together and use the mortar to hold the blocks together.
Workers use traditional tools to measure and lay out castle pieces. For example, craftsmen use a long rope with knots placed every meter to measure wood beams and layout pieces. They also use wooden right angles and calipers for measurements. They use a wooden triangle with a line and plumb bob suspended from one angle as a level when placing stones.
As the castle wall gets higher, new scaffolding must be placed in the wall and the old ones removed, leaving square holes in the walls. As of 2007, Castle Guedelon is about a third complete.
Once a castle was completed, it was ready for defense. Let's look at medieval siege techniques and the strategies used by both sides.
Castles are perhaps the most iconic buildings of medieval Europe. These fortified structures began to be built in the 9th century by royals or wealthy nobles and would continue to be constructed for the next 900 years. Here are 10 facts about them. There were four different typesThe first were Roman forts, reused by the following their. Although the Normans were the leading castle-builders of the medieval period, it was initially easier for them to move into pre-existing structures. These reused fortresses were in disrepair but the Norman invaders built their own constructions inside the original Roman walls.A good example of a reused Roman fort is Pevensey Castle in East Sussex.
Pevensey Castle. Credit: / CommonsThe Normans then built the first fortifications of their own, known as motte and bailey castles. These consisted of two parts: the “motte” was a large rounded heap of earth upon which a wooden keep was built, surrounded by a defensive wooden wall, while the “bailey” was the outer part of the castle, occupied by common people and animals.If necessary, the bridge that separated the motte from the bailey could be removed – a useful tactic during a siege.
The whole construction was often surrounded by a ditch or a moat and access was granted via a drawbridge.The Normans developed their castle-building skills quickly and, before long, motte and baileys were replaced with imposing stone fortifications. A stone keep formed the centre of these castles, while the bailey was situated outside of it – though within the castle’s large defensive outer wall. Although we remember it predominantly for its involvement in several conflicts during the medieval period, Edinburgh Castle’s history stretches some 3,000 years, from prehistoric times right up to the present day.This stone outer wall had turrets that served as lookouts and was often used by people as a solid structure against which to perch trade stands or animal pens. This wall in turn was then surrounded by a defensive moat and drawbridge.The iconic stone castle was a lasting fortification of the medieval period, but its design evolved in the 12th and 13th centuries to offer more protection against invasion. A lower wall was added in between the moat and the turreted defensive wall, enabling archers to shoot arrows from both levels and enhancing the overall defence of the castle. The first and most famous castle in England was the Tower of London’s White TowerBuilt by William the Conqueror between 1078 and 1097, the White Tower was designed to deter any potential invaders through shock and awe. The 90-foot fortress must have been a dominating feature of medieval London, and likely terrified the local population.This early fortress served as an example of what castle-building would become under Norman rule; today the White Tower remains an iconic example of the Normans’ building power post 1066.
Medieval historian Marc Morris answers the key questions about 1066. The circular defensive wall of stone castles was up to two metres deepThis wall was filled with rubble on the inside, making it very difficult to break down. As a result, stone castles could withstand sieges for months on end, even when under bombardment from trebuchets. One such example is the siege of Harlech Castle, which held off assailants for almost one year – the castle only eventually falling as a result of food shortages.Despite what popular movie portrayals of sieges suggest, it took a significant amount to penetrate the defensive wall of medieval stone castles. The cost of building and maintaining castles amounted to around 40 per cent of a king’s annual incomeCastle-building was a luxury that very few members of the nobility could afford. Dover Castle in Kent was one of the most expensive castles ever built, with Henry II spending £6,400 of his £20,000 annual income on its refurbishment alone. Smaller castles could cost around £1,000 to build.
In this episode Dan visits Lincoln Castle to learn more about this fortification's fascinating history and its central role in Britain's national story.The progression from the motte and bailey design to stone was an expensive one. While the wooden structures of the former were cheap, swift and easy-to-build, the latter involved having to pay for stonemasons, expensive stone, transportation, mining and a larger construction force.Once a stone castle was built, its owner would then have to spend a vast sum on furnishing and decorating it. The interior walls were usually plastered and painted, often with elaborate frescos and bright, expensive colours. Ultimately, the castle was a symbol of its owner’s wealth and power.
The toilet was in the wardrobeThe privy, or latrine, shared the same space as residents’ personal belongings in rooms called “garderobes”. Inside the garderobe was a toilet hole through which people released waste into a shoot. This shoot then fell into the moat surrounding the castle.Clothes were kept close to the toilet in a bid to prevent insects from damaging them – the idea being that the odour would act as a deterrant. The garderobe at Peveril Castle in Derbyshire, as seen from the outside.It is true that one unpleasant way of breaking into a castle was by crawling through the waste shoot and into the garderobe. The most famous example of this allegedly took place during the siege of Chateau Gaillard in 1204.According to legend, two soldiers climbed up the latrine chute and into the castle where they set light to the chapel. This then enabled the castle’s French attackers to infiltrate the building and take control of it.
Stairs always turned clockwiseA constant feature in the design of medieval castles was that staircases were built in a spiralling form and always turned clockwise. The reason for this was entirely practical, with stairs forming part of a castle’s internal defence system.If incoming attackers were able to infiltrate a castle then the majority would struggle to use their sword arms as they ascended any staircase. Of course, this would have no impact on any soldier who wielded a sword in his left hand. Arundel Castle is one West Sussex’s greatest attractions with a history spanning nearly a thousand years.
It has its roots in Norman times, originally built at the end of the 11th century by the then Earl of Arundel, Roger de Montgomery. The keep Montgomery created was initially made out of wood, but was later replaced by stone. The well was the most vulnerable part of a medieval castleThe leading water supply for a castle in times of both war and peace, wells were an incredibly vulnerable part of fortifications in the Middle Ages.During a siege, a castle’s well also provided water for citizens taking refuge inside the castle walls.
If the well had been built externally to the castle, one of the most successful methods of siege warfare would be to poison it, often with a decomposing corpse. Without clean water, the castle would be forced to surrender. The oldest functioning royal castle in the world was originally built in the Middle AgesWindsor Castle, which is still used by the British royal family today, was originally built by William the Conqueror as a motte and bailey castle, and has subsequently been occupied by 39 reigning monarchs.This list includes the medieval King Edward III, who. Under Edward, Windsor Castle hosted jousts, tilts and festivities to promote the popular cult of chivalry.
The Scottish Highlands are filled with wild, dramatic cliffs, soaring mountains and skies that stretch out across the lochs. But they are also steeped in history, and filled with powerfully emotive and atmospheric sites.The main secret entrance was known as the postern. Small and easy to defend, it was often secured with metal grates and protected by battlements above, while traditionally lying at the base of a castle’s walls.But the secretive nature of a postern could also be exploited by invaders, as seen during the 1645 siege of Corfe Castle when Royalist officer Colonel Pitman colluded with one of the castle’s Parliamentarian attackers, a man named Colonel Bingham.Pitman helped some of Bingham’s troops to enter the fortification in disguise, via its postern. The Parliamentarians then attacked the castle from both the inside and the outside simultaneously and the fortification soon fell. The location of a castle was its main defenceDespite the elaborate design of castles and their impenetrable two-metre thick outer walls, the chosen location of a fortification was its most important form of defence and strategy.