Medieval castle buildings
People at all times had to protect themselves and their property from the encroachments of their neighbors, and therefore the art of fortification, that is, the construction of fortifications, is very ancient. In Europe and Asia, one can see fortresses built in antiquity and the Middle Ages, as well as in the New and even the Newest time, everywhere. It may seem that the castle is just one of all the other fortifications, but in reality it is very different from the fortifications and fortresses that were built in previous and subsequent times. The large Iron Age Celtic "duns" and "campuses" of the ancient Romans, built on the hills of Ireland and Scotland, were fortifications, behind the walls of which, in case of war, the population and armies took refuge with all their property and livestock. The Burghs of Saxon England and the Teutonic countries of continental Europe served the same purpose. Aethelfred, daughter of King Alfred the Great, built the burgh of Worcester as "the refuge of all the people". The modern English words "borough" and "burgh" come from this ancient Saxon word "burn" (Pittsburgh, Williamsburg, Edinburgh), just as the names Rochester, Manchester, Lancaster come from the Latin word "castra" which means "fortified camp" . These fortresses should by no means be likened to a castle; the castle was a private fortress and the residence of the lord and his family. In European society during the late Middle Ages (1000-1500), in a period that can rightfully be called the era of castles or the era of chivalry, the rulers of the country were lords. Naturally, the word "lord" is used only in England, and it comes from the Anglo-Saxon word hlaford. Hlaf is “bread”, and the whole word means “distributing bread”. That is, this word was called a kind father-protector, and not a martinet with iron fists. In France, such a lord was called seigneur in Spain senor, in Italy signor, and all these names are derived from the Latin word senior, which means "senior" in translation, in Germany and the Teutonic countries the lord was called Herr, Heer or Her.
The English language has always been distinguished by great originality in word formation, as we have already seen in the example of the word knight. The interpretation of a sovereign lord as a lord distributing bread was generally true for Saxon England. It must have been difficult and bitter for the Saxons to call by this name the new powerful Norman lords who began to rule England from 1066 onwards. Exactly these lords built the first large castles in England, and until the XIV century, the lords and their knightly retinue spoke exclusively Norman-French. Until the thirteenth century they considered themselves French; most of them owned lands and castles in Normandy and Brittany, and the names of the new rulers themselves came from the names of French cities and villages. For example, Baliol is from Belleux, Sachevrel is from Sote de Chevreuil, as well as the names of Beauchamp, Beaumont, Bur, Lacey, Claire, etc.
The castles we know so well today bear little resemblance to the castles that the Norman barons built for themselves, both in their own country and in England, as they were usually built of wood rather than stone. There are several early stone castles (the great tower of the Tower of London is one of the surviving and almost unchanged examples of such architecture that have survived to this day), built at the end of the 11th century, but the great era of building stone castles did not begin until about 1150. The defenses of the early castles were earthworks, the appearance of which has changed little in the two hundred years that have passed since the construction of such fortifications on the continent began. The first castles in the world were built in the Frankish kingdom to protect against Viking raids. Castles of this type were earthen structures - an elongated or rounded ditch and an earthen rampart, surrounding a relatively small area, in the center or on the edge of which there was a high mound. From above, the earthen rampart was crowned with a wooden palisade. The same palisade was placed on the top of the hill. A wooden house was built inside the fence. Except for the bulk hill, such buildings are very reminiscent of the houses of the pioneers of the American Wild West.
At first, this type of castle dominated. The main building, erected on an artificial hill, was later surrounded by a moat and an earthen rampart with a palisade. Inside the square, bounded by a rampart, was the courtyard of the castle. The main building, or citadel, stood on top of an artificial, rather high hill on four powerful corner pillars, due to which it was raised above the ground. The following is a description of one of these castles, given in the biography of Bishop John of Terwen, written around the 1930s: “Bishop John, going around his parish, often stopped at Marcham. Near the church there was a fortification, which with good reason can be called a castle. It was built according to the custom of the country by the former lord of the area many years ago. Here, where noble people spend most of their lives in wars, they have to defend their homes. To this end, a mound of earth is made as high as possible, and surrounded by a moat, as wide and deep as possible. The top of the hill is surrounded by a very strong wall of hewn logs, with small turrets around the circumference of the hedge - as many as funds allow. Inside the hedge they put a house or a large building, from where you can observe what is happening around. You can enter the fortress only by the bridge, which starts from the counterscarp of the moat, supported by two or even three pillars. This bridge goes up to the top of the hill. The biographer goes on to relate how one day, as the bishop and his servants were climbing the bridge, it collapsed, and people from a height of thirty-five feet (11 meters) fell into a deep ditch.
The height of the bulk hill usually ranged from 30 to 40 feet (9-12 meters), although there were exceptions - for example, the height of the hill on which one of the Norfolk castles near Thetford was built reached hundreds of feet (about 30 meters). The top of the hill was made flat and the upper palisade surrounded a courtyard of 50-60 square yards. The vastness of the yard varied from one and a half to 3 acres (less than 2 hectares), but was rarely very large. The shape of the territory of the castle was different - some had an oblong shape, some - square, there were courtyards in the form of a figure eight. Variations were very diverse depending on the size of the host state and the configuration of the site. After the site for construction was chosen, it was first dug in with a moat. The excavated earth was thrown onto the inner bank of the ditch, resulting in a rampart, an embankment called scarp. The opposite bank of the moat was called, respectively, the counterscarp. If it was possible, then the ditch was dug around a natural hill or other elevation. But as a rule, the hill had to be filled, which required a huge amount of earthwork.
Rice. eight. Reconstruction of an 11th-century castle with a mound and courtyard. The courtyard, which in this case is a separate closed area, is surrounded by a palisade of thick logs and surrounded on all sides by a moat. The hill, or embankment, is surrounded by its own separate moat, and on the top of the hill there is another palisade around a high wooden tower. The citadel is connected to the courtyard by a long suspension bridge, the entrance to which is protected by two small towers. The upper part of the bridge is lifting. If the attacking enemy captured the courtyard, then the defenders of the castle could retreat over the bridge behind the palisade on top of the bulk hill. The lifting part of the suspension bridge was very light, and retreaters could simply throw it down and lock themselves behind the upper palisade.
Such were the castles built everywhere in England after 1066. One of the tapestries, woven a little later than the event depicted, shows how Duke William's men - or, more likely, the Saxon slaves gathered in the district - are building the castle mound at Hastings. The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1067 tells how "the Normans build their castles all over the country and oppress the poor people." There is a record in the Domesday Book of houses that had to be demolished to build castles - for example, 116 houses were demolished in Lincoln and 113 in Norwich. It was precisely such easily erected fortifications that the Normans needed at that time in order to consolidate the victory and subdue the hostile English, who could quickly gather strength and rebel. It is interesting to note the fact that when a hundred years later the Anglo-Normans, under the leadership of Henry II, tried to conquer Ireland, they built exactly the same castles on the occupied lands, although in England itself and on the Continent, large stone castles had already replaced the old wood-and-earth fortifications with bulk hills. and palisades.
Some of these stone castles were completely new and built on new sites, while others were rebuilt old castles. Sometimes the main tower was replaced with a stone one, leaving the wooden palisade that surrounded the castle courtyard intact, in other cases a stone wall was built around the castle courtyard, leaving the wooden tower intact on top of the bulk hill. For example, in York the old wooden tower stood for two hundred years after a stone wall was erected around the courtyard, and only Henry III between 1245 and 1272 replaced the wooden main tower with a stone one, which has survived to this day. In some cases, new stone main towers were built on the tops of old hills, but this only happened when the old castle was built on natural elevation. An artificial hill, poured only a hundred years ago, could not withstand the heavy weight of a stone building. In some cases, when the man-made mound had not settled sufficiently by the time of construction, the tower was erected around the mound, including it in a larger foundation, as, for example, in Kenilworth. In other cases, a new tower was not built on the top of the hill, but instead the old palisade was replaced with stone walls. Residential buildings, outbuildings, etc. were erected inside these walls. Such buildings are now called fences(shell keeps) - a typical example is the Round Tower of Windsor Castle. The same ones are well preserved in Restormel, Tamworth, Cardiff, Arundel and Carisbrooke. The outer walls of the courtyard supported the slopes of the hill, preventing them from slipping, and were connected on all sides with the walls of the upper enclosure.
For England, the main buildings of castles in the form of towers are more characteristic. In the Middle Ages, this building, this main part of the citadel, was called a donjon or simply a tower. The first word in the English language has changed its meaning, because in our time, hearing the word "dungeon" (dungeon), you imagine not the main tower of the castle citadel, but a gloomy prison. And of course, the Tower of London retained its former historical name.
The main tower formed the core, the most fortified part of the castle citadel. On the ground floor there were storage rooms for most of the food supplies, as well as an arsenal where weapons and military equipment were stored. Above were the premises of the guards, kitchens and living quarters for the soldiers of the castle garrison, and on the upper floor lived the lord himself, his family and retinue. The military role of the castle was purely defensive, since in this impregnable nest, behind incredibly strong and thick walls, even a small garrison could hold out for as long as food and water supplies allowed. As we shall see later, there were moments when the main towers of the citadel were attacked by the enemy or damaged so that they became unsuitable for defense, but this happened extremely rarely; usually castles were captured either as a result of treason, or the garrison surrendered, unable to withstand hunger. Problems with the water supply were rare, as there was always a source of water in the castle - one such source can still be seen today in the Tower of London.
Rice. 9. Pembroke Castle; shows a large cylindrical keep built in 1200 by William Marshal.
Enclosures were very common, probably because it was the easiest way to rebuild an existing castle with a courtyard and mound, but still the most typical feature of a medieval, and especially English, castle is a large square tower. It was the most massive building that was part of the castle buildings. The walls were gigantic in thickness and were set on a powerful foundation, capable of withstanding the blows of picks, drills and battering rams of the besiegers. The height of the walls from the base to the crenellated top averaged 70-80 feet (20-25 meters). Flat buttresses, called pilasters, supported the walls along their entire length and at the corners, at each corner such a pilaster was crowned with a turret on top. The entrance was always located on the second floor, high above the ground. An external staircase led to the entrance, located at a right angle to the door and covered by a bridge tower, installed outside directly against the wall. For obvious reasons, the windows were very small. On the first floor there were none at all, on the second they were tiny and only on the next floors they became a little larger. These distinguishing features - the bridge tower, the outer staircase and the small windows - can be clearly seen at Rochester Castle and Headingham Castle in Essex.
The walls were built of rough stones or rubble, lined with hewn stone inside and out. These stones were well worked, although in rarer cases the outer facing was also made of unhewn stones, for example in the white Tower of London. At Dover, a castle built by Henry II in 1170, the walls are 21-24 feet (6-7 meters) thick, at Rochester they are 12 feet (3.7 meters) thick at the base, gradually decreasing towards the roof to 10 feet (3 meters). The upper, non-endangered parts of the walls were usually somewhat thinner - their thickness decreased on each successive floor, allowing a little gain in space, reducing the weight of the building and saving building material. In the towers of such large castles as London, Rochester, Colchester, Hedingham and Dover, the internal volume of the building was divided in half by a thick transverse wall that ran through the entire building from top to bottom. The upper parts of this wall were lightened by numerous arches. Such transverse walls increased the strength of the building and facilitated flooring and roofing, as they reduced the spans that had to be blocked. In addition, the transverse walls were beneficial in a purely military sense. For example, in Rochester in 1215, when King John was besieging the castle, his sappers dug under the northwest corner of the main tower, and it collapsed, but the defenders of the castle moved to the other half, separated by a transverse wall, and held out for some more time.
The more massive and tall main towers were divided into a basement and three upper floors; in smaller castles, two floors were erected on the basement, although there are, of course, exceptions. For example, Corfe Castle - very tall - had only two upper floors, just like Guildford, but Norchem Castle had four upper floors. Some castles, such as Kenilworth, Rising, and Middleham, all of which were elongated and not particularly high, had only a basement and one upper storey.
Rice. ten. Main tower of Rochester Castle, Kent. Built in 1165 by King Henry II, this castle, besieged in 1214 by King John, was taken after a mine was dug under the northwest corner tower. The modern round tower was completed to replace the collapsed one by Henry III (the original text says that this happened in 1200, which is impossible, since Henry was born in 1207. – Transl.). The bridge tower is visible on the right in the figure.
Each floor was one large room, divided in two if the castle had a transverse wall. The basement was used as a storeroom: they kept provisions for the garrison and fodder for horses, food for servants, as well as weapons and various military equipment, among other things, necessary to ensure the life of the castle in peacetime and wartime - stones and wood for repairs, paints, lubricants, leather, ropes, bales of fabrics and linen, and, probably, supplies of quicklime and combustible oil, which were poured on the heads of the besiegers. Often the uppermost floor was divided by wooden walls into smaller rooms, and in some castles, such as Dover or Hedingham, the main room - the hall of the second floor - was made double-height; the hall had a very high vault, and galleries ran along the walls. (The main tower of the castle in Norwich, which is now a museum, is arranged in this way and gives an idea of what it looked like in real life.) Fireplaces were installed in the larger main towers on the upper floors, many of the early examples of which survive to this day.
Rice. eleven. The main building of Hedingham Castle in Essex, built in 1100. On the left side of the picture you can see the stairs leading to the front door. Initially, as in Rochester, this staircase was covered by a tower.
Stairs leading to all floors of the main building were arranged in its corners, they led from the basement to the turrets and went out to the roof. The stairs were spiral, twisted clockwise. This direction was not chosen by chance, since the defenders of the castle had to fight on the stairs if the enemy broke into the castle. In this case, the defenders had an advantage: naturally, they tried to push the enemy down, while the left hand with the shield rested against the central pillar of the stairs, and there was enough space for the right hand, which acted as a weapon, even on a narrow staircase. The attackers, on the other hand, were forced, overcoming resistance, to make their way up, while their weapons constantly ran into the central pillar. Try to imagine this situation, being on a spiral staircase, and you will understand what I mean.
Rice. 12. The main hall of Hedingham Castle in Essex. The arch, stretching from left to right in the figure, is the upper part of the transverse wall dividing the castle volume into two halves. The transverse wall, very thick in the basement, turns into an arch in the upper floor, which makes it possible to lighten the weight of the building and make the main hall more spacious.
In the upper floors of the main building, many small rooms were arranged directly in the wall. These were private quarters, rooms in which the lord of the castle, his family and guests slept; latrines were also located in the thickness of the walls. The toilets are very elaborate; medieval ideas about sanitation and hygiene are not as primitive as we tend to think. The latrines of medieval castles are more comfortable than the latrines still found in rural areas, and besides, they were easier to keep clean. The toilets were small rooms that protruded from the outer wall. The chairs were made of wood, they were located above the hole that opened outward. All, so to speak, waste, as in trains, poured directly into the street. Restrooms in those days were evasively called wardrobes (translated from French, “wardrobe” literally means “take care of the dress”). In Elizabethan times, the euphemism for the word lavatory was jake, just as we in America call the lavatory john, and the English use the word lu for the same purpose.
The source or spring was extremely important for the survival of the inhabitants and the defenders of the castle. Sometimes, as was the case in the Tower, the source was located in the basement, but more often it was brought to the living quarters - this was more reliable and convenient. Another detail of the castle, which at that time was considered absolutely necessary, was the house church or chapel, which was located in the tower in case the defenders were cut off from the courtyard if it was captured by the enemy. An excellent example of a chapel is located in the main tower of the white Tower of London, but more often the chapels were located at the top of the porch that covered the front door.
At the end of the 12th century, important changes were planned in the architecture of the main tower of the castle. Rectangular in plan, the towers, despite the fact that they were very massive, had one significant drawback - sharp corners. The enemy, remaining practically invisible and inaccessible (it was possible to shoot only from the turret located at the top of the corner), could methodically remove stones from the wall, destroying the castle. In order to do away with this inconvenience and reduce the risk, they began to build round towers, such as the main tower of Pembroke Castle, built in 1200 by William Marshal. Some towers had an intermediate, transitional look, a compromise, so to speak, between the old rectangular design and the new cylindrical one. These were polygonal towers with beveled obtuse corners. Examples include the towers of Orford Castle in Suffolk and Conisborough in Yorkshire, the former built by King Henry II between 1165 and 1173 and the latter by Earl Gamlin de Weyrenne in the 1290s.
The stone walls that replaced the old palisades around the castle courtyards were built based on the same military engineering considerations as the main towers. The walls were built as high and as thick as possible. The lower part was usually wider than the upper part, in order to provide strength to the most vulnerable section of the wall, and also to make the wall surface sloping so that stones and other projectiles dropped from above would bounce off the lower part, ricochet and hit the besieging enemy harder. The wall was serrated, that is, it was crowned with structural elements, which we now call loopholes, located between the battlements. Such a wall with loopholes was arranged as follows: a fairly wide passage or platform stretched along the top of the wall, which in Latin was called alatorium, from which the English word is derived allure- wall balustrade. From the outside, the balustrade was protected by an additional wall 7 to 8 feet (about 2.5 meters) high, interrupted at equal distances by transverse slot-like openings, openings. These openings were called embrasures, and the sections of the parapet between them were merlons, or teeth. The openings allowed the defenders of the castle to shoot at the attackers or drop various projectiles on them. True, for this, the defenders had to show themselves to the eyes of the enemy for some time before hiding behind the battlements again. To reduce the risk of being hit, narrow slits were often made in the battlements through which the defenders could fire their bows while still in cover. These slots were located vertically in the wall or in the battlement, had a width of no more than 2-3 inches (5-8 centimeters) on the outside, and were wider on the inside to make it easier for the shooter to manipulate the weapon. Such shooting slots were up to 6 feet (2 meters) high and were provided with an additional transverse slot just above half the height of the slot. These transverse slots were intended to enable the shooter to throw arrows laterally at an angle of up to forty-five degrees to the wall. There were many designs of such slots, but in fact they were all the same. One can imagine how difficult it was for an archer or crossbowman to get an arrow into such a narrow gap; but if you visit any castle and stand at the shooting gap, then you will see how clearly the battlefield is visible, what a magnificent view the defenders had and how convenient it was for them to shoot through these cracks with a bow or crossbow.
Rice. 13. Reconstruction of the flank tower and wall of the castle courtyard of the 13th century. The tower is cylindrical on the outside and flat on the inside. On the inside of the tower, you can see that a small lift sticks out of the wall, with the help of which ammunition was supplied to the defenders who were behind the fence inside the platform on the tower. The high roof is made of thick wooden rafters covered with tiles, flat stones or slate. The crown of the tower under the roof is surrounded by a wooden fence. One can imagine that the attackers, having overcome the moat filled with water, came under fire from the archers who were in the tower on its top and behind the fence of the gallery. A pedestrian platform is shown on the top of the wall, as well as buildings adjacent to the wall in the courtyard of the castle.
Of course, the even wall surrounding the castle has a lot of shortcomings, since if the attackers reached its foot, they became inaccessible to the defenders. Anyone who dares to lean out of the embrasure will be immediately shot dead, while those who would remain under the protection of the battlements could not cause any harm to the attackers. Therefore, the best solution was to dismember the wall and build along its perimeter at regular intervals watchtowers or bastions that protruded forward beyond the plane of the wall in the field, and through the shooting slots in their walls, the defenders got the opportunity to shoot from loopholes in all directions, that is, shooting through the enemy in the longitudinal direction, along the enfilade, as they expressed in those days. At first, such towers were rectangular, but then they began to be erected in the form of half-cylinders protruding from the outer side of the walls, while the inner side of the bastion was flat and did not protrude beyond the plane of the castle courtyard wall. The bastions rose above the upper edge of the wall, dividing the pedestrian parapet into sectors. The path continued through the tower, but if necessary, it could be blocked by a massive wooden door. Therefore, if some detachment of the attackers managed to penetrate the wall, then it could be cut off in a limited section of the wall and destroyed.
Rice. fourteen. Various types of shooting slots. In many castles in their various parts there were rifle slots of various shapes. Most of the slots had an additional transverse slot, which allowed the archer to shoot not only straight ahead, but also in lateral directions at an acute angle to the wall. However, such slots were also made that did not have a transverse part. The height of the shooting slots ranged from 1.2 to 2.1 meters.
The castles seen today in England are usually flat-topped and unroofed. The upper edge of the walls is also flat, except for the battlements, but in those days when castles were used for their intended purpose, the main towers and bastions often had steep roofs, such as can be seen today in the castles of continental Europe. We tend to forget when we look at such dilapidated castles as Usk at Dover or Conisborough, succumbed to the onslaught of inexorable time, as they were covered with wooden roofs. Very often, the upper part - the parapets and walkways - of the walls, bastions and even the main towers were crowned with long wooden covered galleries, which were called enclosures, or in English hoarding(from the Latin word hurdicia), or sail. These galleries protruded from the outer edge of the wall by about 6 feet (about 2 meters), holes were made in the floor of the galleries, which made it possible to shoot through them at the attackers at the foot of the wall, throw stones at the attackers and pour boiling oil or boiling water on their heads. The disadvantage of such wooden galleries was their fragility - these structures could be destroyed with the help of siege engines or set on fire.
Rice. fifteen. The diagram shows how fences, or "lintels", were attached to the walls of the castle. Probably, they were placed only in those cases when the castle was threatened with a siege. In many walls of the castle courtyards, one can still see square holes in the walls under the battlements. Beams were inserted into these holes, on which a fence with a covered gallery was placed.
The most vulnerable part of the wall surrounding the castle courtyard was the gate, and at first close attention was paid to the defense of the gate. The earliest way to protect the gates was to place them between two rectangular towers. A good example of this type of protection is the arrangement of gates in the Exeter Castle of the 11th century that has survived to this day. In the 13th century, square gate towers give way to the main gate tower, which is a merger of the two former ones with additional floors built on top of them. Such are the gate towers in the castles of Richmond and Ludlow. In the 12th century, the more common way to protect the gate was to build two towers on both sides of the entrance to the castle, and only in the 13th century did gate towers appear in their finished form. Two flanking towers are now connected into one above the gate, becoming a massive and powerful fortification and one of the most important parts of the castle. The gate and entrance are now transformed into a long and narrow passage, blocked at each end. porticoes. These were doors sliding vertically along the gutters cut in stone, made in the form of large lattices of thick timber, the lower ends of the vertical bars were sharpened and bound with iron, thus, the lower edge porticoes It was a series of pointed iron stakes. Such lattice gates were opened and closed using thick ropes and a winch located in a special chamber in the wall above the passage. In the "bloody tower" of the Tower of London and today you can see portico with a working lifting mechanism. Later, the entrance was protected by mertieres, deadly holes drilled into the vaulted ceiling of the passage. Through these holes, on anyone who tried to break through to the gates by force, objects and substances that were common in such a situation - arrows, stones, boiling water and hot oil - poured and poured. However, another explanation seems more plausible - water was poured through the holes if the enemy tried to set fire to the wooden gates, since the best way to get into the castle was to fill the passage with straw, logs, soak the mixture well with combustible oil and set it on fire; they killed two birds with one stone - they burned the lattice gates and roasted the defenders of the castle in the gate rooms. In the walls of the passage there were small rooms equipped with shooting slots, through which the defenders of the castle could hit from close range with bows a dense mass of attackers who were trying to break into the castle.
In the upper floors of the gate tower there were quarters for soldiers and often even living quarters. In special chambers there were gates, with the help of which a drawbridge was lowered and raised on chains. Since the gate was the place that was most often attacked by the enemy besieging the castle, they were sometimes supplied with another means of additional protection - the so-called barbicans, which began at some distance from the gate. Usually the barbican consisted of two high thick walls running parallel outward from the gate, thus forcing the enemy to squeeze into a narrow passage between the walls, exposing themselves to the arrows of the archers of the gate tower and the barbican's upper platform hidden behind the battlements. Sometimes, to make access to the gate even more dangerous, the barbican was set at an angle to it, which forced the attackers to go to the gate on the right, and parts of the body not covered by shields turned out to be a target for archers. The entrance and exit of the barbican was usually very fancifully decorated. At Goodrich Castle near Herfordshire, for example, the entrance was made in the form of a semicircular vault, and the two barbicans covering the gates of Conway Castle looked like small castle courtyards.
Rice. 16. Reconstruction of the gate and barbican of the castle of Arc in France. The Barbican is a complex structure with two drawbridges covering the main entrance.
Built in the mid-14th century by Thomas Beauchamp, Earl of Warwick (Earl Richard's grandfather), the gatehouse watchtower is a good example of a compact watchtower and barbican combined into a superbly designed ensemble. The gate tower is built in the traditional plan in the form of two towers, connected from above over a narrow passage, it has three additional floors with high jagged turrets at each corner, rising above the battlements of the walls. Ahead, outside the castle, two battlements form another narrow passage leading to the castle; at the far end of these barbican walls, beyond them, there are two more towers - smaller copies of the gate tower. In front of them is a drawbridge across a water-filled moat. This means that the attackers, in order to break through to the gates, first had to make their way with fire or a sword through a raised drawbridge that blocked the path to the first gate and the porticos located behind them. Then they would have to fight their way through the narrow passage of the barbican. After that, finally finding themselves in front of the actual gate, the attackers would have been forced to force a second ditch, break through the next raised bridge and porticoes. Having accomplished these feats, the enemy found himself in a narrow corridor, showered with arrows and doused with boiling water and hot oil from numerous mertiers and rifle slots in the side walls, and at the end of the enemy’s path, the following porticoes were waiting. But the most interesting thing about this gate tower was the truly scientific way in which the staggered battlements covered each other. First came the walls and turrets of the barbican, behind them and above them rose the walls and the roof of the gate tower, over which the corner turrets of the gate tower dominated, the first pair was located below the second, from each subsequent shooting platform it was possible to cover the one below. The turrets of the gate fortification were connected by transitional hanging arched stone bridges, so the defenders did not have to go down to the roof to move from one turret to another.
Today, when you enter the gate leading to the courtyard and main tower of a castle such as Warwick, Dover, Kenilworth or Corfe, you are crossing a large expanse of cut grass in the courtyard. But everything here was different in those days when the castle was used for its intended purpose! The entire space of the courtyard was filled with buildings - mostly wooden, but there were also stone houses among them. Numerous covered rooms were located near the walls of the courtyard - some stood next to the wall, some were arranged directly in its thickness; there were stables, kennels, cowsheds, all kinds of workshops - masons, carpenters, gunsmiths, blacksmiths (one should not confuse a gunsmith with a blacksmith - the first was a highly qualified specialist), sheds for storing straw and hay, dwellings of a whole army of servants and hangers-on, open kitchens, dining rooms , stone premises for hunting falcons, a chapel and a large hall - more spacious and spacious than in the main tower of the castle. This hall, located in the courtyard, was used in the days of peace. Instead of grass, there was hard-packed earth or platforms paved with cobblestones or even paving stones, or, in a very few castles, the courtyard was covered with a mess of impassable mud. Instead of tourists idly resting in the shadow of the ruins, people were constantly walking here, busy with their daily work. Cooking took place almost continuously, horses were fed, watered and trained all the time, cattle were driven into the yard for milking and driven out of the castle to pasture, gunsmiths and blacksmiths repaired armor for the owner and the soldiers of the garrison, shod horses, forged iron objects for the needs of the castle , repairing wagons and carts - there was the incessant noise of continuous work.
Rice. 17. The figure shows one of the ways to construct a drawbridge.
A. An open drawbridge, such as the barbican bridge at Arc Castle. The bridge is attached by a chain to two powerful horizontal beams, each of which is hinged to the tops of pillars dug vertically into the ground. The chains attached to the edges of the bridge were attached with their other ends to the outer ends of the horizontal bars, while weights were attached to their opposite ends, balancing the weight of the bridge. These rear ends of the weighted horizontal bars were connected by chains to winches. Since the weights balanced the weight of the bridge, two people could easily lift it. B. This drawing shows a drawbridge located in front of the actual gates of the castle. The principle of its work is the same. The internal, weighted ends of the horizontal bars are located behind the walls of the castle, the bars themselves are passed through holes in the wall directly above the entrance. The outer ends protrude beyond the walls. When the bridge was raised, the horizontal bars lay in special slots in the wall and were recessed flush with the wall; in the same way, the canvas of the bridge lay in a special recess in the wall, and its plane, in the raised state, merged with the outer surface of the wall. Some drawbridges were simpler - they were raised on chains attached to the outer edge of the bridge deck, passed through holes in the wall and wound around the winch gate. True, the lifting of such a bridge required great physical effort due to the lack of a counterweight.
The huntsmen and grooms were also busy all the time, since there was a whole army of animals in the castle - dogs, falcons, hawks and horses, which had to be looked after and which had to be trained and trained, preparing for hunting. Every day, parties of hunters for deer or small game - hares and rabbits, and sometimes expeditions of hunters for wild boar were equipped from the castle. There were also lovers to hunt birds with a falcon. Hunting, whether driven or falconry, which seemed to be the main leisure activity of the high society of that time, was a much more important part of everyday life than we are inclined to think. With such an abyss of eaters who lived in the castle, all the game obtained during the hunt went into the boiler.
Despite the fact that the type of castle with a courtyard and a main tower was the main one in continental Europe and in England throughout the Middle Ages, one should not think that this type was the only one. The diversity stemmed from the fact that during the 13th century castles began to undergo rebuilding and improvements to keep pace with advances in siege art and innovations in the way fortresses were defended. For example, Richard the Lionheart was an excellent military engineer; it was he who introduced many new ideas into practice, rebuilding such previously erected castles as the Tower of London, and embodying all the innovations in the great castle of Les Andelys in Normandy, in his famous Château Gaillard. The king boasted that he could hold this castle even if its walls were made of butter. In fact, this castle fell only a few years after its construction, unable to withstand the onslaught of the French king, but, as in most such cases, traitors inside the castle opened the gates to the winner.
In that century many of the old castles were enlarged and completed; new towers, gatehouses, bastions and barbicans were erected; There are also completely new elements. The old wooden fences on the walls were gradually replaced by stone hinged loopholes. These loopholes essentially reproduced in stone the shape of old wooden fences - open galleries. Such hinged loopholes are a characteristic feature of castles of the 13th century.
Rice. eighteen. One of the towers of the castle of Sully-sur-Loire; hinged loopholes are visible around the edge of the roof of the tower and along the upper edge of the wall. In this castle, the ancient roofs of the XIV century have been preserved unchanged to this day.
But at the end of this century, castles of a completely new type appear in England, several of them were built in Wales. After Edward I seized power twice - in 1278 and 1282, this king, in order to keep what he had conquered, began to build new castles, in the same way that King William I began to build two centuries earlier with the same goal. But Edward's buildings were strikingly different from their predecessors - castles built on artificial hills, surrounded by wooden palisades and earthen ramparts. In short, in terms of the new type of architecture, there was no main tower, but the walls and towers of the courtyard were significantly strengthened. In the castles of Conway and Caernarvon, the outer walls reached almost the same height as the former main towers, and the flanking towers became simply prohibitive. There were two more open courtyards within the walls, but they were smaller than those of the older, more extensive and open castles. Conway and Caernarvon were not built according to the correct plan, their architecture was adapted to the features of the terrain on which they were built, but the castles of Harlech and Beaumarie were built according to the same plan - they were quadrangular fortresses with very high strong walls and large cylindrical (drum) corner towers. In the courtyard of the castle there was another concentric wall with bastions. There is no space here to describe in detail the castle architecture of this type, but at least the basic idea is now clear to you.
The same principle formed the basis for the construction of the last real castle in England - powerful high walls connecting the corner towers. At the end of the 14th century, castles of a new type were built - such as Bodiam in Sussex, Nunni in Somerset, Bolton and Sheriff Hatton in Yorkshire, Lumley in Durgham and Queenborough on the Isle of Sheppey. The last castle in the plan was not quadrangular, but round, with an inner concentric wall. This castle was razed to the ground by order of Parliament during the English Civil War, and not even a trace remains of it. We know about its appearance only from ancient drawings. The internal structure of these castles is not characterized by buildings scattered around the courtyard or stuck to the walls, all the premises were built into the walls, they were turned into more orderly and convenient places to work and live.
Rice. 19. It is shown how hinged loopholes were arranged.
Later, at the end of the 14th century, the architecture of a classic English castle falls into decay - the place of the castle is occupied by a fortified manor house, for which home comfort and convenience are much more important than defense. Many castles built in the 15th century were quadrangular in plan, and most were surrounded by a moat; the only defensive structure was a double tower that covered the entrance. At the end of this century, the construction of such structures finally stopped, and the Englishman's castle turned into his usual home. From the 16th century began the great era of the construction of English estates.
This remark, of course, does not apply to continental castles; on the continent, the socio-political conditions were completely different. This is especially true of Germany, where internecine wars continued until the end of the 16th century, and castles were still in great demand. In England, however, the need for such fortified buildings remained only in the Welsh Alps and on the Scottish border. In the Welsh Alps, old castles were used for their intended purpose as early as the 15th century; indeed, a completely new castle was built at this time near Raglan in Monmouthshire. It was very similar to the castles of the time of Edward I, and was built around 1400 by Sir William of Thomas, known as the Blue Knight of Gwent, and his son Sir William Herbert, later Earl of Pembroke. One feature strikingly distinguished this castle from the castles of Edward's time - a tower standing separately on a hill, hexagonal in plan, surrounded by its own moat and rampart with bastions. This is a separate castle, standing in front of the main castle. This building went down in history under the name "yellow tower of Gwent". This is a late example of new construction in a region where military clashes could be expected; on the northern borders, wars were fought almost constantly and without interruption. The raids of the Scots, stealing cattle, and the reciprocal punitive raids of the British did not stop. Under such conditions, every estate, every village farm had to be turned into a fortified castle. As a result, so-called saws, small quadrangular fortresses. Usually such a fortress was a solid, dull, simple, but strong tower with a small courtyard, which was more like an ordinary village courtyard, and by no means a castle courtyard, surrounded by a high, flat, crenellated wall. Most of these saws were in fact ordinary farms, and when robbers appeared in the distance, the owner, his family and workers locked themselves in the tower, and the cattle were herded into the yard. If the Scots took it upon themselves to besiege the fortress and break into the courtyard, then people took refuge in the tower - they drove the cattle into the basement, and they themselves went up to the top floor. But the Scots rarely engaged in sieges. They were always in a hurry to swoop in, grab everything that lay badly, and go home.
This text is an introductory piece.
Castle Guard In addition to serving in the field, the knights were also required to carry out garrison service in a particular king or baron's castle. At first, these responsibilities were fairly independent of each other. The castle was in particular need of protection precisely at the time when
From The Tudors. "Golden age" author Tenenbaum BorisChapter 35 Who was Shakespeare? An additional and investigative chapter I Francis Bacon was a man of astonishing intellect, and the scope of his interests was extremely wide. By education he was a lawyer, over time he became Lord Chancellor, then
From the book Anatomy of a Murder. The death of John Kennedy. Secrets of the investigation author Shanon PhilipChapter 19 1 See: Russell's letter to Paul R. Ive. January 17, 1967 in Russell's correspondence section. Russell Library.2 Russell's note. January 7, 1964 Russell Library.3 Draft of Russell's resignation letter addressed to President Johnson. February 24, 1964 Russell's working papers. Russell Library.4 Oral
From the book Notes of a treasure hunter author Ivanov Valery GrigorievichChapter 20 1 Earl Warren's Oral Narrative for LBJ Library, September 21, 1971, p. 14.2 Memo from Willens to Rankin. "Answer: Mark Lane". Feb. 26, 1964 Staff Working Papers, Warren Commission, NARA.3 Memo from Willens to Rankin. "Answer: Mark Lane's Inquiry".
From the book Legends of Lviv. Volume 1 author Vinnichuk Yury PavlovichChapter 25 1 Letter from Ford to Rankin, March 28, 1964. Warren Commission Working Papers, NARA.2 Specter. Passion, p. 56.3 For a biography of Styles, see obituary in: Grand Rapids (Michigan) Press, April 15, 1970.4 "Mark Lane Question List," March 6, 1964 Congressional Correspondence, Ford Library.5
From the book Mortal Combat of the Nazi Leaders. Behind the scenes of the Third Reich author Emelyanov Yury VasilievichChapter 26 1 Belin's letter to colleagues at Herrick, Langdon, Sandblom & Belin, January 27, 1964. Belin's submissions to the Warren Commission. Ford Library.2 The Des Moines Register, June 15, 2000. 3 Belin's letter to colleagues at Herrick, Langdon, Sandblom & Belin, January 11, 1964. Belin's contributions to the Warren Commission, Ford Library.4 Belin. You Are the Jury,
From the author's bookChapter 27 1 Specter's Interview. Specter. Passion, p. 107.2 Specter's Memo to Rankin, "Suggestion of Questions to Ask Mrs. Jacqueline Kennedy," March 31, 1964. Warren Commission Working Papers, NARA.3 Specter's interview. See also Specter. Passion, passim.4 Ibid.5 Gallagher. My life with
From the author's bookChapter 28 1 Specter's Interview. Specter. Passion, pp. 90-99.2 Testimony of Ronald Jones, March 24, 1964 Warren Appendix, vol. 6, pp. 51-57.3 Testimony of Darrell Tomlinson, March 20, 1964 Warren Appendix, vol. 6, pp. 128–134.4 Specter interview. Specter. Passion, pp. 69–75.5 Connally N. From Love Field, p. 119.6 Ibid., pp. 120–121.7 Specter interview.
From the author's bookChapter 29 1 Pollack Interview.2 Goldberg Interview.3 Pollack Interview.4 Mosk Interview.5 Memo to Mosk to Slason, April 23, 1964 Warren Commission Working Papers, NARA.6 See Obituary Or in The New York Times, October 27, 2003 d.7 Memo to Or Jenner and Liebler: "Lee's Service
From the author's bookChapter 30 1 Testimony of Patrick Dean, March 24, 1964 ... Warren Appendix, vol. 12, pp. 415–449. See also: The Dallas Morning News, March 25, 1979. 2 Aynesworth. JFK: Breaking, pp. 176–179. See also Huffaker. When the News Went Live, passim.3 Testimony of Patrick Dean, March 24, 1964 Warren Appendix, vol. 12, pp. 415–449.4 Dallas Morning News, March 25, 1979. 5 Patrick's testimony
From the author's bookChapter 31 1 Slauson Interview.2 Slason's memo for the report "Journey to Mexico City", April 22, 1964. Warren Commission Working Papers, NARA.3 Slauson Interview; see also David Slason's HSCA 15 Nov 1977 testimony.
From the author's bookChapter 32 1 Manchester. Controversy, pp. 11–15.2 Manchester. Death, pp. x – xiii.3 Testimony of President Lyndon Johnson July 10, 1964 Warren Appendix, vol. 5, pp. 561–564.4 Oral History of Chief Justice Earl Warren, September 21, 1971 LBJ Library, p. 12.5 Testimony of Mrs. Lyndon Johnson, July 16, 1964 Warren Appendix,
From the author's bookThe death and treasures of the Novogrudok castle And darkness descended on Novagarodok. And the groans were no longer heard. And crying was heard ... And laughter .... Cry of the vanquished. Laughter of winners. (from a manuscript not found) Five roads lead to Novogrudok. From the north of Lida and Ivye. From the west of Zdyatel. FROM
From the author's bookTreasures of the High Castle It was then when the Castle was still standing, but no one lived in it anymore, only desolation and twilight reigned here. One poor woman once went with her son to collect healing herbs at the High Castle. The mountain was once completely covered with forest, and various potions
From the author's bookChapter 5. Head of the Foreign Department
The first fortifications medieval castles appeared in IX - X centuries. at a time when the countries of Central Europe ( France, Germany and Northern Italy) began to threaten the aggression and invasion of barbarian tribes, and the Vikings. This greatly hindered the development of the empire created Charlemagne. To protect the land, they began to build fortifications from wooden buildings. Such an architecture durable wood"for more reliable protection, it was added by the surroundings of an earthen ditch and a rampart. A hinged bridge overturned over a ditch on chains or strong ropes, along which they got into a residential village. A palisade was installed on the crest of the shaft. The top of its trunk was sharply sharpened with tools and dug into the ground for a sufficiently In the 11th century, castles began to be built on artificial hills, which were built next to a courtyard surrounded by a high palisade.
Sometimes there was also a log gate tower. Inside the wooden fortification there were craft workshops, a barn, a well, a chapel and the dwelling of the leader with his retinue. For even more reliable and additional defense, a high hill was raised (about 5 m), on which an additional defensive fortification was built. The hill could be built artificially, by pouring earth on a given surface. The material for construction was always chosen from wood, because. the stone was too heavy, which means it could collapse down due to the greater weight.
Locks- these are stone buildings that protected from enemies and served as a home for one or another owner of the estate. In the most common sense of the word - a fortified dwelling of a feudal lord in medieval Europe.
donjon was the main building during the defense and was a high stone tower, where the most important people of the castle took refuge in case of storming by enemies. The construction of such a building was taken very seriously. For this, experienced artisans were needed, who were very good at erecting and building reliable stone structures. A special serious attitude to such construction among the owners of estates began to appear to 11th century where it was undertaken to build such defensive towers.
The thickest and most inaccessible donjons first appeared in Normans. In the later period, almost all high towers were built of stone, which replaced the buildings of wood. To completely and completely capture the donjon, its enemies needed to destroy the stones with special assault installations, or dig a tunnel under the building in order to get inside. Over time, high, defensive towers acquired a round and polygonal shape during construction. This external design provided more convenient shooting for the defenders of the donjons.
The internal architecture of the high, defensive towers consisted of a garrison, a main hall and the chambers of the owner of the castle with his family. The walls were covered with brick and stone masonry. Sometimes the walls were lined with hewn stone. In the upper part of the donjon, a spiral staircase rose to the watchtower, where there was a sentinel guard, and next to him was the banner of the owner of the castle with coat of arms.
For more reliable protection, the owners of some castles preferred to build additional fortifications for their walls. Ultimately, after the completion of such buildings, a double barrier was obtained, one of which was higher than the other and was located at the rear of the defense. This strategic architecture allowed for double fire for the shooters defending the castle. In the event that one of the walls was taken by storm, they stumbled upon the next one or were completely trapped, since the construction of the walls was connected together with a high tower - a donjon.
medieval castles were the backbone and most reliable defense of the feudal lord from enemies. Their appearance is individual for different states.
Castles of France. Numerous construction of architectural structures in France began in the valley of the Loire River. The oldest of them is donjon fortress
Due la Fontaine. In the historical era King Philip II Augustus (1180-1223
) medieval castles were built with donjons and fences that were quite reliable in their strength.
A distinctive feature of French castles is a rounded cone-shaped tent material roof, which evenly falls on the tower with a neat surface of the front design. The upper part of the towers has an angular surface of concave loopholes with windows, merging with the tops of "triangles" and "trapezoids". The location of the middle windows for daylight, have a sufficiently large shape for the full penetration of sunlight into the interior of the room. Sometimes large windows are located in the attic of the roof, most likely to illuminate a particularly important room. In some compartments of buildings, one can see solid, pronounced holes in the loopholes, because. the constant pre-time wars of France forced these defensive structures to cost. In a later period of time, the design of castles began to evolve into architecture similar to palaces.
The entrance to the castle was carried out on stone steps, on the sides of which there were two merging towers. Above the head of the rising guest, in the wall, rose from three loopholes in the event of a siege or storming of the building. On the right side of the stairs there were solid and flat slopes for convenient ascent and descent of various loads.
The most mysterious and covered with secrets of legends was the castle Saumur. In medieval times, it was constantly restored and eventually acquired an unimaginably fabulous appearance. This architecture was so highly valued that many parts of the buildings were lined with gold materials.
In the courtyard of the Syumor castle there was a well with a huge underground reservoir. A house was built above the well (above), and a well gate was placed in it, with which it was possible to raise a large tub of water. The lifting mechanism consisted of wooden wheels connected by a separate tooth and groove.
AT XVII century the western part of the castle began to collapse, which caused its abandonment. The building began to be used as a prison and barracks, but soon the architecture was restored and again "elevated" to the podium.
The main distinguishing feature of the castles of France- These are high, pointed roofs of a cone-shaped appearance.
Castles in Belgium began to be erected in the Middle Ages with 9th century first millennium. The most outstanding castles are Arenberg, Castle of the Counts of Flanders, Beleuil, Vev, Gaasbeck, Sten and Anweng. In their appearance, they are small in size, but according to subjective data, they are very pretty and attractive. Their main distinguishing feature is the presence of an arcuate bend in the area of the lower parts of the roofs and the presence of upper domes on some types of castles. On the cone-shaped tops are pronounced vertical edges, which also give a peculiar style to Belgian architecture. On the high tips of the sharp needles, you can see flaunting coats of arms and various figures, giving additional uniqueness. To some extent, the castles of Belgium are very similar to the external design of the English, but the British kingdom emphasizes more rectangular architecture. The windows are tall and large, rather elongated. They are located most often in palace-type castles.
The most peculiar in their beauty are castles Arenberg and Gravensteen (Count's castle of Flanders). The first in external design is very similar to a Catholic church, which is complemented by 2 black domes on the sides. The center is finished with a stair-shaped roof and an acute-angled, small tower, which fits very nicely into the interior. The count's castle also stands out with a peculiarly unusual shape. Its defensive wall has convex cylindrical towers, the top of which is much thicker than the bottom. And perforated recesses were made in the walls and additional shutters for round architectures placed on them.
Castles in Germany inherently varied in design, but most of them have shapes like pointed tops and tall, oblong towers with a flat surface. The most prominent of them are Maxburg, Meshpelbrunn, Cochem, Pfalzgrafenstein and Liechtenstein. Many buildings are very similar to French ones, but German architecture has many more numerous extensions on the side walls. Some of the upper roofs of the castles consist of ladder-like forms of descent of the side coverings. The sharp and elongated ends of the skyscrapers have various symbols, statues or bell towers, which makes German architecture even more interesting. Loop holes ( machicol) locks have a fairly wide diameter. Apparently, the medieval Germans loved to defend their castles not only with the help of a bow and crossbow, but also with other methods of heavily armed attributes.
The extensions sometimes included residential, utility and church premises, which were lined mainly with brick and formed rectangular courtyards. The main entrance of the castles was blocked by an iron-wood lattice with a descending mechanism. The design of moving the grate down and up was provided with the help of an outer wall along stone brackets. In some structures of other states, such a rise at the entrance was realized by a narrow sliding of a slot inside the portal.
In Germany, all castles tried to build on mountainous and hilly terrain. This ruled out a full-fledged, enemy assault; convenient shooting from siege weapons and digging, which was prevented by the rocky rock of stone below the architecture. In some types of buildings, the Germans used the principle of the Tower of Babel, when the height of the standing rushed high up, and the celestial plane was trimmed with many loopholes around.
Castles of Spain. The architectural buildings of Spain were originally built by the Arabs, since this land was under their rule in the early, medieval period. They had a luxurious, fortified palace on one of their hills - the Alhambra with openwork arches of the courtyard. But in 1492, the Europeans recaptured southern Spain from the Muslims and, together with it, the last city of Grenada. Initially, the Muslims erected buildings very similar to garrison fortresses (alcazabs) with square and acute-angled towers. Later, Europeans began to build tall, round donjons with alternating structures.
The exterior of Spanish castles has a recurring combination of multiple, tall, flat-surfaced elongated towers, reminiscent of numerous chess pieces and very similar to a rook. On the upper tips of the skyscrapers are octagonal, small turrets. From a distance, they look more like rectangular, jagged slabs. The side surface of the walls has a wave-like relief, which gives additional originality to the castles. The middle part of the stone covering of high towers was sometimes covered with an additional layer of convex alternations of huge cobblestones. Such a cunning arrangement of buildings served to impede the penetration of enemy installations and ladders. As a decoration, an image of a shield with a coat of arms was driven into the stone wall. Slightly above the middle were guard corridors, which were decorated with curved patterns and various curves, including wide, arched windows.
An example of the described external image of the Moorish style is the castle-palace of El Real de Manzanares, built north of Madrid in 1475 by the first Duke of Infantado. This peculiar architecture had a square shape of the building, which was surrounded by 2 rows of walls with round towers at the corners. Later, the Duke's heir in 1480, added to the outstanding gallery and decorated the palace with turrets and stone hemispheres.
Castles of the Czech Republic. The construction of Czech castles was widespread in XIII-XIV centuries. The most famous of them are Deep, Bezdez, Bouzov, Bukhlov, Zvikov, Coast, Karlstejn and krivoklat. Their architectural appearance is more reminiscent of palaces than heavily fortified defenses against enemy onslaught. Jagged-rectangular slabs and blocking, high walls are practically absent in the defensive functions of the former castle buildings. The main distinguishing feature of Czech architecture is the large triangular and polygonal roofs, with pointed towers and stone chimneys buried in them. The attics have arcuate windows for daylight and entry to the top of the roof. In the central towers of castles, sometimes large, dial clock-chimes were designed. Many palaces were built in the Renaissance, Classical and Gothic styles. Some views were rebuilt and restored, after which they became picturesque, elegant and even more beautiful.
But there are some types of castles that are not at all similar to the standard design of the local medieval buildings. For example, a castle deep(previously Frauenberg ) has an appearance more reminiscent of the Spanish style of architecture. Since it has a large number of the same high towers, reminiscent of donjons and a chess piece of a rook with numerous jagged-rectangular plates. Yes, on top of that, in such elongated buildings there are windows. This is one of the most beautiful castles in Europe, although not very large. It looks more like a huge mansion than a big palace. From the inside, the architecture contains 140 rooms, 11 towers and 2 rectangular courtyards. Outside, the white castle is decorated with elaborate carvings of various figures, deer heads and hung, antique lanterns.
Castles of Slovakia. The construction of Slovak castles began in XI century, but most of them were built in 13th century. The most prominent of them are Bitchiansky Grad, Boynitsky, Bratislava Castle, Budatinsky, Zvolensky, Orava Castle, Smolenitsky, Spissky Castle and Trencian Castle locks. Architectures are inherently diverse in design. The size also differs in large and small forms. The roofs of large castles stretch out to enormous proportions with polygonal shapes. The towers have elongated, acute-angled ends with thin, long, spherical spokes. Windows are located quite rarely than in other state castles, but most often they are numerous in small buildings. In some architectures, you can find convex, perforated strip cuts, which are an additional decoration, emphasizing a pronounced design. They can mostly be seen on the rounded ends of elongated cylinders. In some castles in Slovakia you can see small balconies. They contain arched windows and vertical railings. Protective, defensive walls near the buildings are practically absent. They can be found only near the mountain buildings of the hills.
The most impressive and unique in their structure castles in Slovakia- this is Bratislava Castle (square shape and towers located at each corner), Orava Castle (built with gradually rising foundation) , Trechyansky Grad (having a huge, powerful tower in the center), Zvolensky (with jagged-square plates located on their roof) and Smolenitsky (owning three prominent roofs in the middle, green and red) locks.
Castles of England. Many castles in England were built in XI century, but most of them today are in a dilapidated state. The main distinguishing feature is solid rectangular towers, consisting of narrow, elongated buildings. Their roofs are covered with scalloped square slabs that may extend all the way around the architecture. Only a few buildings have triangular and cone-shaped tops. If there are any, then such tips form a continuous row of acute-angled limbs in some raised row. For beauty, many architectures were processed with long, elongated pits around the entire circumference of the towers. this appearance emphasizes the unusual originality of English castles. Another unusual feature is the presence of large and large windows in the walls, more like semi-palace buildings. Sometimes elongated windows are located in wide arcuate arches, which further emphasize the extraordinary style. In many, even in small, square castles, the British designed and strengthened dial clocks with melodic chimes. To this day, they attach great importance to the exact time in their upbringing and culture.
England is a huge island, which means that she first of all needed the defense of coastal territories and a powerful fleet. Maybe that's why her castles did not have a particularly reliable and protected building architecture from enemies.
Castles of Austria laid the foundation for their construction in VIII-IX centuries the last millennium. The most famous of them are Artstetten, Gohostervits, Graz, Landskron, Rosenburg, Shattenburg, Hohenwerfen and Ehrenberg. Their main characteristic feature is the high and very thick, rectangular towers with huge triangular and polygonal domed roofs. Too wide side surfaces are due to the fact that the buildings of high castles have many floors, which means that for this it is necessary to fully climb up the spacious spiral staircase. At the highest height, at the base of sharp pins, the builders placed artificial sculptures of various figures in the form of angels with wings. Near high bases in architectural structures, additional convex structures are sometimes added in the form of patterns and dimples that run along the perimeter or circle. Some types of castles have railings with various vertical structures at the top. The architecture of the huge roofs is supplemented by small pointed turrets constructed not so far apart. On them you can also notice attic windows and access to the upper part of the ceiling. The windows are oval and square in shape. In some places, the side walls of the towers are decorated with healthy, arched glass with patterns.
Some castles served not only as a dwelling and defense of a noble society, but soon turned into a prison, barracks, a museum and even a restaurant. Schattenburg Castle is one such example.
Castles of Italy. Most castles in Italy began to be built in X-XI century second millennium. The most famous of them are Aragonese (Ischia), balsiliano, Bari, Carbonara, Castello Maniace, Corigliano, Holy Angel, San Leo, Forza, Otranto,Ursino and Estense.
The huge, thick width of the walls and the healthy circumference of the towers are the main distinguishing features of Italian castles. They are primitive and absolutely simple to the analyzing eye of a traveler or tourist. Judging by their appearance, many of their species are very well adapted for defensive defense against enemies. Watchtowers are quite high located in the central parts of the architecture of the castles. They have many windows and a significantly convex ledge in relation to the lower part of the stone tower.
The square tops of the walls have cuts in the form of tendrils, thereby significantly emphasizing the originality from other state castles. Under the jagged-rectangular slabs of Italian castles, there are numerous, pronounced oval depressions that stretch across the entire width of the rectangular and round stone towers. On some architectures, you can also notice the presence of balconies with vertical, white railings on them. The doorways in the lower parts of the castle have huge, arched shapes. This is most likely due to the fact that in case of an alarm, the defenders of the castle do not crowd, but fully run out of their barracks in large detachments. Similar factors include the presence of signal bell towers in the upper parts of the towers. The construction of castles and fortresses in Italy was conceived by the militarized plan of noble rulers and their architects.
Castles of Poland. The most intensive growth in the construction of Polish castles refers to 1200-1700 years. second millennium. The most prominent of them are Grodno, Kshchenzh, Kurnitsky, Krasicki, Lenchitsky, Lublin, Marienburg, Stettin and Chenzinsky. According to their structure, they have a variety of designs of large and small sizes. Most castles have a palatial appearance and only a small part of them have serious defensive architecture. Polish castles are characterized by long, figured domes, shaped like a chess piece of an elephant or an umbrella-shaped projection. They also include huge trapezium-like roofs that extend across the entire width of the architectural top. Small, acute-angled towers contain bell towers, large ones have rectangular windows for sentinel observation. The windows on the sides of the walls are of various shapes, but most of them are rectangular and arched, as are their arcuate frames, emphasizing the peculiar appearance.
The architectural style of Poland is quite unique. The buildings were erected from the donjon style to neo-gothic. Such a rather elegant type of building structure can be attributed Kurnice castle, very nice exterior design.
Some types of castles are so tiny that they look more like a small mansion than a heavily defensive fortress. Such an example could be Shimbark castle. And if you compare him with such a giant as Marienburg, then the first one will seem like an absolute highlight compared to the thug.
The appearance of the architecture was in the style of Gothic and Renaissance. But all Belarusian castles have a different design, peculiarly different from each other. The largest of them is Mir Castle. Its main distinguishing feature is its large size and the presence of defensive walls. There are a number of small windows (loopholes) in them, designed for camouflaged observation and protection of the castle. The entire architecture consists mainly of red brick, covering the entire perimeter of the building. Rectangular windows and loopholes are surrounded by white arcuate frames. The roofs have a triangular shape on the tips of the spokes of which there are patterns of balls and flags. The entrance inside is carried out with the help of oval arches located in several parts of the castle.
Gomel castle was also quite large in area, but consisted of separate buildings and a very low defensive wall. It had small towers with oval domes. Rather, this architecture resembled more a monastery of free-standing structures than a castle for protection. The high towers had pointed, black roofs with various outlines of figures. Even a single chimney on the roof had a peculiar, colorful pattern.
At first, buildings were built of wood, but with the advent of firearms, a much stronger material, such as stone, was needed. Solid fortifications held back the onslaught of bullets and setting fire much better.
Castles were built on hills, artificial hills were poured and lined with hewn stone. For the reliability of the fortifications, strategically tricky areas with seas and lakes were chosen. Sometimes the defense was supplemented with deep ditches with water, for even greater isolation of land penetration into the buildings. Many courtyards in the castle made it difficult for the enemy to reach the main tower. To get close to her, the attackers had to wander through them for a long time, as if through a labyrinth, in search of a way out. It was easy to get lost. Some castles served as barracks for samurai warriors built by daimyo - the owners of the provinces on the site of small fortresses. Such buildings could be constructed in cities and serve as fortified, administrative centers.
The appearance of Japanese castles resembled solid, upward-curved puff blocks of roofs, superimposed one on top of the other. From the outside, they looked quite primitive and were very similar to each other. But the interior of the premises was attractive and varied. At the very top of the towers there was a high, carved pediment of the castle - a sign of the power of its owner. The roofs were multi-tiered like a pagoda, with wide slopes. Their surfaces were faced with wooden shingles. The outer walls were plastered and covered with white. Their side coverings had slit-like windows and loopholes. The lower floors were faced with stone slabs.
Sometimes there were several towers in the castle, and the defenders fired at the enemy from different sides. Often a one-story tower was placed above the gate. And in the very center of the castle there was a multi-tiered main tower, erected on an artificial hill. Later, the base of the tower began to be covered with stone, while the other parts remained wooden. To reduce the risk of fire, the walls were covered with a thick layer of plaster, and the gates were bound with iron plates. The towers served simultaneously as a headquarters, an observation tower and huge warehouses. The owner's quarters were located on the upper floors. Wooden buildings could be a combination of hallways, chambers, huts, corridors and towers with numerous rooms taken together. Most often, only noble princes, nobles and boyars could afford such luxurious dwellings. Their rooms were located on the highest floors. Downstairs, there were rooms for servants and subjects.
The mansions were divided into resting
, restless
and outbuildings
. Premises resting architectures had a separate dwelling, in one of which the owner lived, and in the other his wife with children. Their rooms were connected by common corridors, with the help of which it was possible to go to the desired room. restless mansions served for meetings, solemn events and holidays. They built huge halls for a large number of people. Household mansions used for everyday needs in the craft and household. They looked like stables, barns, laundries and workshops.
Time is relentless, and ancient structures reach us mainly in the form of ruins, which are more interesting for archaeologists than tourists. But fate favored some especially durable ones, and they were well preserved. So some of the oldest castles in the world turned out to be available for tourists, visits to which are always interesting and informative. In Europe, castles began to be actively built at the end of the 10th century, and by the 14th century this type of architecture had reached its perfection.
The long history of Bernstein Castle is rich in events, it changed owners so many times that neither the exact number of them nor the name of the one who built this castle remained. It was first mentioned in documents in 860, and in the 13th century it served as a border fortress. It was built in a place where the borders of Austria, Bohemia and Hungary closed, so the leaders of these countries competed for possession of the castle.
Bernstein is a remarkable example of bastion architecture. It has an oval perimeter, it has very thick, almost fortress walls with rare turrets and narrow windows. The courtyard now has a beautiful garden. The nature around Bernstein is untouched, and there is a golf course and a famous golf club nearby - this game is an important reason why guests come to the castle. In 1953, the castle was converted into a hotel, which it remains today. The owners of the castle were able to preserve its authenticity - this applies not only to the walls, but also to the interiors and furniture, which are also very old. Entering the Bernstein Castle, a person immediately feels like he has fallen into the era of knights.
Most castles began to be built in the Middle Ages, when housing was supposed to be not only a place to relax and solve everyday problems, but also as a...
This castle, located in the south of France, in the Pyrenees, belonged to the once famous family of the Counts of Foix. Its history begins in 987. In the will of Count Roger I of Carcassonne in 1002, the castle was transferred to his younger son Bernard. In 1034, it becomes the center of government of the county of Foix, leaving a noticeable mark on medieval military history. Since the 15th century, the castle has been the residence of the governor of this region, while at the same time it continued to perform protective functions throughout the religious wars. Before the French Revolution, the castle housed a garrison.
Count de Treville, known from the Three Musketeers, and the future minister of Louis XVI, Marshal Segur, ruled here. In 1930, the museum of the department of Ariège was placed here, which has expositions dedicated to the prehistoric, Gallo-Roman and medieval eras on this land.
This wonderful castle is located in the French department of Indre-et-Loire, in the town of Montbazon and is the oldest surviving stone defensive structure in France. The fortress was built in the period 991-996 by order of Count Fulk Nerra of Anjou, then several more defensive buildings joined it. Despite its long and not the most peaceful history, this castle has been perfectly preserved, and since 2003 it has been opened to the public. The modern outlines of the castle were given during the Middle Ages - in the XII century, the feudal lords of Montbazon, who owned it.
The dominant feature of the complex is a 28-meter-high quadrangular donjon, in addition, there is a small tower fortified by a number of ledges, a massive fence and a closed courtyard. In 1791, the period of decline of this castle began, along with the fall of the small tower and the dungeons adjacent to it, and after 7 years, lightning struck the donjon. By the way, the cracks that ran along its eastern wall are evidence of this episode.
In 992, the construction of Langeai Castle began, which was originally a wooden donjon built on an artificial hill. This place is located 24 kilometers from Tours, the owner of these lands was the first Count of Blois. Unlike other capital donjons, this one was built in a hurry, but its walls were 1.5 meters thick. Then followed one war after another. For example, during the Hundred Years War, the castle was repeatedly captured by the British. Finally, they agreed to leave it in 1428, but on the condition that the castle be destroyed, leaving only the donjon.
King Louis XI ordered the restoration of the castle in 1465, after which many monarchs owned it. Anne of Brittany came to Langeais. When in 1797 the castle was acquired by Charles-Francois Moisan, he was noted only for the fact that he led it into disrepair, sold the surrounding land, and set up a stable on the first floor of the castle. After the purchase of the castle in 1839 by Christophe Baron, a revival begins for it. In 1886, the Minister of Trade and Mayor of Le Havre, Jacques Siegfried, became the new owner of Langeais, who devoted the next two decades to the restoration of the complex, especially its interiors. And in 1904 he donated the castle to the Institute of France.
Castles in Europe were built over many centuries, and the owners of the citadels, as a rule, were wealthy people who invited the builders...
Among all the medieval donjons that have survived to this day, the one located in the castle of Loches is perhaps the oldest. It began to be built in 1005 and finished around 1070. It turned out a 38-meter-high structure with three-meter-thick walls, almost impregnable. The history of the Loches fortress began during the reign of Count Fulk Nerra of Anjou, a restless warrior who had been at enmity with de Blois's neighbors all his life. It was he who decided to build a square stone fortress.
Part of the premises of the castle is open to the public today, the 15th century torture chamber built by Charles VII is especially popular - you can see the shackles in it that held the legs of the executed during the quartering. A copy of the cell of Louis XI, in which Bishop Balu sat for 11 years, is also kept here. The Ministry of Culture of France in 1861 recognized the castle of Loches as a significant historical monument.
Near the Slovenian city of Bled, on a 130-meter cliff towering over Lake Bled, the Bled Castle rises. It was first mentioned in a document of 1004, announcing the transfer of Feldes Castle (then German name) by Emperor Henry II to Bishop Albuin of Brixen. Its oldest building is the Romanesque donjon, used for defense, living and viewing the surroundings.
In the medieval period, other buildings clung to the cliff, and stone defensive walls with towers were built on its very top. In 1947, the castle was on fire, but a few years later it was restored and a historical museum was set up there, which displays weapons, clothing and household items of that time.
Another castle from the banks of the Loire from the department of Maine and Loire. This area was part of the Roman Empire in the 3rd century. There was a small border outpost on the banks of the river Men, with wooden walls to protect against Vikings and barbarians. In 851, the fortress came under the control of Geoffroy II, Count of Anjou, who managed to turn a modest wooden fort into a large stone castle. In 1939, the Polish government-in-exile settled here, but already in 1940 the Germans smoked it out of there too.
After the war, Angers Castle was restored. Its main attraction was the cycle of tapestries "Apocalypse" - 7 paintings on biblical subjects, woven by 1378 according to the sketches of the Flemish painter Jean by the weaver Nicolas Batailly. The canvases have a total length of 144 meters with a height of 5.5 meters.
A huge number of ancient castles are scattered on the territory of Ireland; only a few European countries can compare with it. But time has not spared...
This castle stands on the banks of the River Wye in the town of Chepstow in south Wales. It was built by William Fitz-Osburn between 1067 and 1071. The Earl of Pembroke added a couple of towers to it in 1200, and his sons added a barbican protecting the drawbridge and a gatehouse. This is the first castle on the entire island of Great Britain, built entirely of stone. In the middle of the 19th century, holidays and horticultural exhibitions began to be held in the castle, which were soon supplemented by festivals and historical competitions that continue to this day. In 1914, it was bought by a businessman who mothballed the castle, and in 1953 his family handed over the castle to the state, after which it became open to the public.
This is the current residence of the British monarchs located in the city of Windsor. For over 900 years, towering on a hill in the Thames Valley, it is a symbol of the monarchy. Having captured England in 1066, William I the Conqueror over the next decade surrounded London with a ring of castles standing on artificial hills 30 kilometers from the capital and from each other. At first, the castle was wooden, but with a stone wall around the perimeter, it stood on a limestone hill about 30 meters above the level of the Thames.
The first to use Windsor Castle as his residence was King Henry I in 1110, and then he married Adele in 1121. By this point, the wooden structures had partially collapsed due to the gradual subsidence of the hill. Then wooden piles were driven into the hill, on which a stone fortress was erected. Henry II, who ascended the throne in 1154, continued the construction of the castle.
Today, Windsor Castle is the largest inhabited castle in the world, with about 500 people working and living there. The Queen visits there in March-April and a week in June each year, where she conducts ceremonies related to the Order of the Garter. Here she officially receives foreign representatives. About a million tourists visit Windsor every year.
The practice of building majestic palaces and castles in Europe is much older than in Rus', where for a long time there were only kremlins instead of them, to defend ...
This is one of the largest English castles in terms of size, located in Dover (Kent), on the English Channel, which separates the British Isles from the continent. Part of the buildings of the castle dates back to ancient times. The fortress was surrounded by a huge moat, which was dug out, possibly in the Iron Age. At the beginning of a new era, the troops of the Roman Empire reached the British Isles, they built two lighthouses on this site, while one of them has survived to this day. It can still be seen today when visiting Dover.
In the region of the 10th century, the church of St. Mary of Castro was attached to the lighthouse, and the lighthouse was also its bell tower. This church also managed to survive. In 1066, the Normans, led by William I, captured the castle and all of England. Henry II - his grandson began to build a defensive system and the main tower of the castle. The construction then took a colossal amount - 7,000 pounds, of which 4,000 were spent on the construction of the donjon. In the 18th century, during the wars with Napoleon, at a depth of 15 meters under the fortress, tunnels were cut in the rocks for the living of soldiers in the amount of 2000 bayonets. The castle was also expanded and fortified to withstand the onslaught of the French. But after 1826, when Bonaparte was finished, the castle was abandoned, and all its inhabitants left it without using it in any way.
Only about a century later, in 1939, when the war with Germany began, they remembered the tunnels, which were converted first into bomb shelters, and then into a military hospital. Now the castle is a large museum complex, open to all comers.
For the first time, Schaaken is mentioned in the chronicle of the Teutonic Order for 1258, when, according to an agreement on the division of territories between the Order and the Bishop of Samland Heinrich von Strittberg, the area around Schaaken remained with the Order. The wooden fortress began to be built in 1261, about 4 km from the Curonian Lagoon. For the construction, the Shaaken River (now Bolshaya Moryana) was dammed, and a defensive fortification was built on marshy marshy ground. The castle was used during the Order's campaigns deep into the Prussian territories to Nadravia, Sudavia and further to Shalavia. It was also intended to defend the coast of the Curonian Lagoon, on the ice of which the Prussian tribes of the Skalovs, and later the Litvins, often made their raids.
Construction of the stone castle began in 1328. By that time, the Order had developed its own tradition of building castles. As a rule, these were quadrangular castles with one to four outbuildings with a bergfried and high defensive walls. These castles necessarily had pre-castle fortifications (forburgs). Castle Schaaken, unlike most of the castles of the Order, had an almost round perimeter, because due to the urgency, the construction of a stone fortress wall was carried out along the old perimeter of the ramparts surrounding it.
After the secularization of the Teutonic Order in 1525, Schaaken Castle fell into the hands of rebellious peasants for a short time. Since 1526, the castle housed the ducal chamber of justice, from the middle of the 16th century - the Land Office of Samland.
The ancient fortress in 1606 was destroyed by a strong fire. In 1684, the castle began to be restored; during these works, serious architectural changes were made to the appearance of the inside of the castle.
In 1697, part of the Great Russian Embassy arrived in Schaaken, en route to Western Europe. And on November 11, 1711, in Schaaken, on the way to Russia, Peter I stopped for the night with Catherine.
In 1815-1819. Schaaken was the seat of the village administration. Probably, during this period, the main building was rebuilt, through which the gate passed in the time of the order. After the reconstruction, the gates were laid and new gates were built in the ancient wall on the western side.
During the hostilities in 1945, the castle was not damaged. A collective farm stable was located on its territory, which existed until the early 1960s. Then the castle was given over to housing, and the outbuildings were used for household needs. In the 1980s, only one family lived in the castle, which used the still habitable rooms. The lack of timely repairs led to the destruction of the ceiling and walls. Now the castle building and the surviving buildings have turned into ruins. A private museum has been organized on the territory of Schaaken Castle.
Tapiau Castle was first mentioned in 1258 as the property of the Prussian noble Zapelle, who converted to the Christian faith and swore allegiance to the Teutonic Order. In 1262, a small wooden and earthen order fortress was built on the banks of the Deima. In 1265 it was captured and destroyed by the Lithuanian army. In the same year 1265, Master of the Teutonic Order Arno von Sangershausen ordered the construction of a fortress on the northern bank of the Pregel River.
In 1275, the fortress of Tapiau was stormed by the Litvin troops. The fortress survived, but its position on the ground seemed to the defenders not entirely successful. It was decided to move it to another place. In 1280-1290, under the leadership of commander Ulrich von Bauer, a new wooden fortress was built on the eastern bank of the Deima. In 1340-1351, under the leadership of Marshal of the Order Siegfried von Danenfelde, a stone two-story castle with four outbuildings and a forburg was built in the Pregel bend, protected by a horseshoe-shaped moat and an earthen rampart. This fortification in a rebuilt form has survived to this day.
In the middle of the 16th century, by order of the Duke of Prussia, Albrecht of Brandenburg-Ansbach, a large-scale reconstruction was carried out in Tapiau Castle.
In the reign of King Frederick William III, starting from 1786, a shelter for the poor operated in Tapiau Castle, and in 1793 the house of contempt accepted the first decrepit, wretched, sick and orphans. During these years, three outbuildings of the castle were demolished. In 1879, during the restoration of Tapiau Castle, two floors were added, the house church was located on the top floor, after which the castle began to be used as an administrative building.
In 1902, a complex of red brick buildings was built on the territory of the castle. During the Weimar Republic and under the Nazis, Tapiau Castle housed a prison. Since April 1945, the castle housed a pre-trial detention center for the detention of war criminals, later - again a prison.
The first order wooden and earthen fortification in Waldau was built in 1258-1264. The expansion of the territory controlled by the Teutonic Order led to the fact that Waldau Castle lost its defensive value.
In 1457, the old fortifications were rebuilt, after which the castle began to be used as the summer residence of the Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order. After the secularization of the Order in 1525, Waldau Castle became a ducal domain.
On May 17-18, 1697, the main part of the Great Russian Embassy, headed by Admiral Franz Yakovlevich Lefort, stopped at the Waldau Castle, on May 17, Tsar Peter I visited the castle. Since 1720, the Waldau Castle was rented out by the royal government of Prussia.
In 1858, the castle housed an agricultural school. In the 1860s, the building was thoroughly rebuilt, the towers and fortress walls were finally dismantled. Since 1945, the castle building was under the jurisdiction of an agricultural school (SPTU No. 20). Since 1947, the left wing has been used as a hostel for an agricultural school. At the moment, there is a museum in the western wing.
Around 1260, in the town of Lovka, on the site of the future castle, order ramparts were built. Since 1270, the fortress of Lauken has been a springboard on the right bank of the Laba for the onslaught of the Teutonic Order on Nadrovia.
In 1327 a stone castle was built. Lauken is mentioned in 1466 in the documents of the II Peace of Thorn and the Treaty of Krakow in 1525. During the time of Duke Albrecht, the castle was used as a hunting lodge. At the behest of Duke Georg Friedrich, Lauken was rebuilt between 1581 and 1584 by the architect Blasius Berwarth. After that, the castle was named Friedrichsburg. Shortly after perestroika, Georg Friedrich gave an audience to the Swedish ambassador at the castle.
In subsequent years, the castle, becoming a knight's estate, was repeatedly rebuilt. At the end of the 19th century, Lauken became the property of the von Bieberstein family, the last owner being Ludwig von Bieberstein.
After the end of World War II, the castle building remained in good condition. In the first post-war years, it was converted into a school, and later another building was added on the north side. In this form, the building was preserved until the beginning of the XXI century. Cellars of order times have been preserved.
In 1264, on the high northern bank of the Inster, on the site of the old Prussian settlement of Kapzovin, the knight of the German Order Hartmann von Grumbach built a fortification named Georgenburg in honor of St. George. In 1337 a castle was founded here, in 1351, by order of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Winrich von Kniprode, its reconstruction in stone began.
In 1364 and 1376 the castle was destroyed by the Lithuanians, in 1385-1390 it was restored, later a forburg was added on the western side. In 1403, Georgenburg was taken by the Lithuanian army under the leadership of Prince Vitovt. In 1657, the castle was badly damaged during a Tatar raid, and in 1679 it was occupied by the Swedes.
Since 1709, the castle with the estate was rented out. In 1752-1799 the von Koidell family began to breed horses here. The last owner of Georgenburg Castle, since 1937, was Dr. Martin Geling.
In 1994-1995, Georgenburg was leased by the Russian Insurance Bank for 99 years to create a cultural and entertainment center. Archaeological excavations were carried out on its territory until the 1997 crisis, when the bank abandoned this project. The castle is currently on the verge of destruction.
Vyborg Castle was founded in 1293 during the third Swedish crusade. The Swedes landed on the coast of the Gulf of Finland in the area of present-day Vyborg and destroyed the Karelian settlement and the Karelian outpost on a small island. The Swedes founded a castle on the island and named it Vyborg (translated from Old Swedish as “Holy Fortress”). A stone wall was built around the central elevated part of the island. And in the center of the island - a quadrangular stone donjon tower was erected. The Swedes named it St Olaf's Tower in honor of King Olaf II Haraldsson, who established Christianity in Norway.
The castle became the residence of the governor of the Swedish king. For many years the Vyborg Castle was the main border fortress of Sweden in the east and the administrative center of the Vyborg fief. Vyborg Castle reached its peak in the middle of the 15th century, during the years of the governorship of Karl Knutsson Bunde, who later became King Charles VIII of Sweden. At that time, the main building was rebuilt, where the governor's quarters and apartments were located, in which kings and high-ranking officials stayed during their visits to Vyborg. In front of the main building and the tower of St. Olaf, a southern defensive wall was built with four towers: New, Guard, Fire and Prison. On the northeast side of the island, the Shoemaker's Tower was erected, and on the southeast, the Paradise Tower. The main gate was arranged in the passage arch of the Fire Tower.
In 1555 King Gustav I Vasa visited the Vyborg Castle, personally inspecting the royal castles of Sweden. Dissatisfied with the state of the fortifications and towers, the king ordered a large-scale reconstruction of the fortress, which was little adapted to artillery defense. Work began in 1559. New supporting walls were built on the Castle Island, the towers of the castle and its main building were rebuilt. The reconstruction of the castle donjon began in 1561 and lasted four years. The tower of St. Olaf was dismantled to the level of the second tier, and then built on with brick: the third and fourth tiers were tetrahedral, the top three received an octahedral shape. The height of the tower (without a roof) was 38 meters. Large-caliber guns were installed at the loopholes of the upper floors. In the 1580s, the southern defensive wall underwent reconstruction. In 1582, the construction of a stone outer wall began, encircling the island in an arc from the west and from the north. In 1606-1608, the Fire Tower and the gatehouse at the entrance to the island were rebuilt and merged into one building - the Governor's House, which later became the residence of the Vyborg governor.
In 1710, during the siege of Vyborg by the troops of Peter I, the walls and buildings of the fortress were significantly damaged by Russian artillery. Throughout the 18th century, the castle buildings were repeatedly repaired and rebuilt. During this period, the buildings of the Barracks Corps and arsenals appeared. In 1834 and 1856, two devastating fires broke out in Vyborg Castle. In 1891-1894 the castle was restored by the forces of the Vyborg Fortress Military Engineering Department.
From 1944 to 1964 the Vyborg Castle was used by the Soviet military. The 71st Separate Guards Communications Battalion and the 49th Separate Guards Engineer Battalion of the 45th Guards Division were stationed in the castle. Military families lived in the premises of the castle. In 1964, the USSR Ministry of Defense transferred the Vyborg Castle to the State Inspectorate for the Protection of Monuments. In 1970, the first expositions of the Vyborg Museum of Local Lore opened here.
In 1325, on the orders of the grand master of the Teutonic Order Werner von Orseln, master Arnold von Eilenstein, on a hill surrounded by swamps and a river, on the site of the Prussian fortress Sutvirt, began the construction of a fortified house, called Ile Castle. On the river, the orderers built a dam with a mill, the water level rose and the castle ended up on an island. By 1330, a square-shaped stone fortification was built, surrounded by a moat, with a drawbridge and a portcullis gate. A forburg was attached to the fortification on the eastern side.
In historical documents, the first mention of the castle dates back to 1326, where it is called "Ile", in the records of 1342 - "Iladia", in 1400 - "Prusche Ilov" (Preussisch-Eylau). Until 1347, Preussisch-Eylau was the residence of the order pfleger, then it housed the administration of the kammerat, which was part of the Balga commandery.
In February 1454, during the Thirteen Years' War, Preussisch-Eylau Castle was captured by the rebellious population and partially damaged. The order organized active resistance, and most of the cities of Natangia again came under his authority. Preussisch-Eylau was occupied by the order garrison, consisting of several knights and 60 militia men, all damage was eliminated. In 1455 and 1456, the Prussian troops tried to take possession of the castle, but they did not succeed.
After the reformation in 1525, the order castle became the residence of the departmental estate of Hauptmann Preussisch-Eylau. In 1814 the estate was bought by Heinrich Sigismund Valentini. In 1817 it was named Henriettenhof after the owner's wife. The estate was located on the territory of an old forburg, still well preserved. The castle, due to the lack of a roof, was actively destroyed. Living near the ruins was unpleasant, and soon a new house was built a kilometer northwest of the castle. Almost the entire economy was transferred there.
In 1932, in an old mansion located near the walls of the former order castle, the regional museum of local lore was opened. During the Second World War, the territory of the castle was not badly damaged. After the war, the living quarters of the former mansion gradually fell into disrepair and were no longer in use by the beginning of the 1960s. On November 27, 1961, the territory of the castle and the fort was transferred under the act to the Bagration office of the district consumer union, after which the basements of the castle and the fort were used as warehouses.
In the surviving building of the forburg, the roof began to collapse due to rotten rafters; by 1989, holes appeared in the roof. In August 1990, the middle section of the building burned down. In the early 1990s, a decision was made to carry out minor excavations and convert the forburg into a hotel with a bar. But in the last stages, the forburg was abandoned.
With the phrase “medieval castle”, our imagination immediately draws us a majestic building, with high towers, battlements, on which stern knights in armor carry their guards. And someone might even imagine some kind of dragon flying in the sky above the castle itself and a wise wizard with a long gray beard living in one of the castle towers (usually the highest). After all, it is not for nothing that the image of the castle is very popular in such a genre as fantasy, various fairy tales, and so on and so forth. But often the real story is no less interesting than various fairy tales, and our article today will be devoted to the most real castles, their structure and place in our history.
In fact, the history of the appearance of castles originates not even in the Middle Ages, but in much earlier times, perhaps even prehistoric. And the emergence of castles and fortresses as such is connected with the satisfaction of one of the basic human needs - the need for protection. After all, times have always been turbulent, no, of course, there were times relatively more peaceful, but even then there were wars somewhere. And by and large, wars have always been waged as long as humanity has existed. And even if at some time in some place they were not conducted, there was always a certain marginal part of society that wanted to feast on the good of its neighbor (and also the distant one).
That is, castles were originally created as a means of providing protection for themselves and their loved ones, so that in the event of an attack, either by enemy troops, or simply dashing robbers and bandits, it would be possible to hide somewhere and successfully repel the attack of intruders.
The first castles in history were not at all like what we mean by them now - they were built of wood and were a space enclosed by a wooden palisade, and a moat dug around this palisade.
Similar wooden castles looked something like this. Of course, they have not survived to our times.
Progress did not stand still, and now the construction of wood was replaced by the construction of stone. The first stone castles began to be built yet, they often arose in places of fortified garrisons of the Roman legions. With the fall of the Roman Empire and the advent of the Middle Ages, the business of castle building was taken over by numerous counts, barons, feudal lords and, of course, the kings of the newly formed medieval European states.
The Middle Ages were a very turbulent time, and the need for protection was especially strong, so castles arose like mushrooms after rain - in case of danger, all the inhabitants of the surrounding villages fled under the protection of the castle walls. Subsequently, large medieval cities were formed at the location of many castles. For example, the hometown of the author of the article, Lviv, was formed from a castle built by the prince (and later the king) Danila of Galicia in the 1240s. And already in 1256 there is the first written mention of the city, which arose from the settlement around this very castle and was named after the son of the founder Lev Danilovich - Lvov. Unfortunately, the Lviv Castle (aka the High Castle) has not survived to our times.
Besieged Castle Moreton in Scotland, medieval miniature.
Over time, in the era of the late Middle Ages, castles from ordinary places of refuge and protection turned into an attribute of luxury, power and prestige - it happened that some influential feudal lord with a fortified castle could not even be subject to the king himself. In general, European feudal lords often measured their castles (hello to grandfather Freud), on the subject of whose castle is larger and more impregnable.
In general, every decent medieval castle had to meet the following basic requirements:
One of the important details of a medieval castle is a deep moat dug along its perimeter, and in front of it is a rampart of elongated earth. Ideally, when the moat encircles the walls of the castle completely, but often the landscape and the shape of the soil do not allow this. If the soil around the castle is rocky, then the ditch is either not dug at all, or it is not made large, capable of delaying, only the advance of enemy infantry. Some historians classify the types of medieval castles, depending on whether they have a moat or vice versa.
If there is a deep moat, then the entrance to the medieval castle is through a special drawbridge, which was usually set in motion by mechanisms hidden in the building above it. Also in European castles there were often drawbridges operating on the principle of a swing - one half of them was inside the castle, the other outside. During the attack on the castle, the inner part of the bridge rose, lowering the outer one, thereby throwing the attackers who managed to climb on it into the "wolf pit" hidden in the moat. Also, with the gates closed, one could get into the castle through the side gate, which also had its own small drawbridge.
Czech castle Talmberg, screenshot taken from the recently released excellent historical computer game Kingdom come Deliverance, made by the Prague studio Warhorse (we will remember about it later).
The gates of a medieval castle are its most vulnerable part, so those who attacked the castle focused their main efforts on first knocking out the gates with a special siege ram and breaking into the castle itself. The defenders of the castle did their best to prevent this, and it was at the gates that the most fierce battles took place during the siege. The gates themselves were additionally strengthened with metal bars, lowered behind them and steel, iron bolts. From above, the gate tower was equipped with the so-called “resin noses”, through which hot resin poured onto the storming gates. (By the way, a very effective means of protection against enemies in the Middle Ages).
This is what resin noses look like.
The walls of the castle, perhaps, deserve a whole separate section, because, in fact, they form the castle itself. So, first of all, the walls of a medieval castle had to have a deep foundation, so that it would be difficult for opponents to dig under them. The walls themselves were built of worked stone or brick.
Castles often had double walls: a tall outer wall and a smaller inner wall. Between them was an empty space, which received the German name - "zwinger". This zwinger was essential for the defenders of the castle, the fact is that if the attackers managed to overcome the outer wall, they found themselves in this very close "zwinger", sandwiched between two walls, where they became an excellent target for archers.
Also, almost all the walls of medieval castles have battlements on top, behind which the defenders could hide, for example, while loading their crossbows. In addition to the battlements, there were loopholes on the walls through which archers, crossbowmen, and in later times musketeers could fire at the enemy.
Lubart's castle in Lutsk.
At the corners of the castle walls there were small, flanking (protruding outward) towers, located in such a way that it was convenient for the defenders of the castle to fire along the walls in two directions.
An important part of the internal structure of the castle was the presence of a block in it, and since castles were often built on rocky elevated areas, sometimes the well had to be laid to a depth of more than 100 meters. (For example, the well of Königstein Castle in Saxony was laid to a depth of 140 meters). Due to the fact that water was obtained with such difficulty, personal hygiene and sanitation for the inhabitants of the castle left much to be desired.
Also in the castle there were a number of buildings designed to fully ensure the life of its inhabitants during a long siege: a bakery, a steam bath and a kitchen.
The owner of the castle usually lived in its central tower, which, depending on his wealth and time period, could be both luxuriously furnished and very ascetic.
So, for example, looks like a chamber in the German castle of Marksburg.
Also, the castle often had a prison, it is also a dungeon, where various commoner criminals were kept, while noble captives taken prisoner for ransom (a common practice in the Middle Ages) were kept in special guarded "VIP chambers" of the main tower of the castle.
Also, a mandatory attribute of the castle was the presence of a small chapel, and even a church (if the castle is larger). And among the inhabitants of the castle there was always a chaplain or priest, who, in addition to his priestly duties, performed the role of a clerk and teacher (in those days, not even every nobleman was literate).
And this is how the toilet in the castle looks interesting - in the form of such an extension to the wall. It is interesting to know that the toilets in medieval castles were not heated, and visiting them in winter was a particularly unpleasant experience.
And in general, life in a medieval castle, especially from the point of view of us, spoiled by the benefits of modern civilization, was not easy - first of all, it was very dark and cold in stone castles, drafts were frequent guests there. The windows of the medieval castle, due to their fortification nature, let in little sunlight, and often they were not even glazed. Fireplace heating helped a little, but still keep in mind that the walls of medieval castles were covered with various thick carpets and tapestries, not only for aesthetic reasons, but also corny, in order to keep more heat.
With the advent of firearms and the improvement of cannons, medieval castles lost their importance as defensive structures, because it was easy to shoot the walls of the castle with cannons from afar. Therefore, many castles become simply residences of rich feudal lords, some castles are completely empty. Subsequently, many castles were dismantled for stone, for the construction of already ordinary houses and therefore have not survived to this day.
And finally, an interesting documentary about the history of medieval castles in Europe.
P. S. And almost as an advertisement, but the key “almost”, a special inspiration when writing this article was the recently released computer game Kingdom come Deliverance, which is based on real historical events that once took place in medieval Czech Republic, and is, among other things, an excellent virtual excursion into the history of the European Middle Ages. In a word, our historical site recommends it to all readers.
