As mentioned above, medieval castles and each of their components were built according to certain rules. The following main structural elements of the castle can be distinguished:
Courtyard
fortress wall
Let's consider them in more detail.
Most of the towers were built on natural hills. If there were no such hills in the area, then the builders resorted to arranging the hill. As a rule, the height of the hill was 5 meters, but there were more than 10 meters high, although there were exceptions - for example, the height of the hill on which one of the Norfolk castles near Thetford was placed reached hundreds of feet (about 30 meters).
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 moat, resulting in a rampart, an embankment called a 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.
The composition of the hill included earth mixed with limestone, peat, gravel, brushwood, and the surface was covered with clay or wooden flooring.
The first fence of the castle was protected by all sorts of defensive structures designed to stop an enemy attack that was too swift: hedges, slingshots (placed between pillars driven into the ground), earthen embankments, hedges, various protruding structures, for example, a traditional barbican that protected access to lift bridge. At the foot of the wall there was a ditch, they tried to make it as deep as possible (sometimes more than 10 m deep, as in Trematon and Lass) and wider (10 m - in Loches, 12 - in Dourdan, 15 - in Tremworth, 22 m - - in Kusi). As a rule, ditches were dug around the castles as part of the defensive system. They made it difficult to access the fortress walls, including siege weapons such as a battering ram or a siege tower. Sometimes the moat was even filled with water. In shape, it more often resembled the letter V than U. If a ditch was dug right under the wall, a fence was erected over it, the lower shaft, to protect the sentinel path outside the fortress. This piece of land was called a palisade.
An important property of a moat filled with water is the prevention of undermining. Often, rivers and other natural bodies of water were connected to ditches to fill them with water. The ditches needed to be periodically cleared of debris to prevent shallowing. Sometimes stakes were placed at the bottom of the ditches, making it difficult to overcome it by swimming. Access to the fortress, as a rule, was organized through drawbridges.
Depending on the width of the moat, it is supported by one or more pillars. While the outer part of the bridge is fixed, the last segment is movable. This is the so-called drawbridge. It is designed so that its plate can rotate around an axis fixed at the base of the gate, breaking the bridge and closing the gate. To set the drawbridge in motion, devices are used, both on the gate itself and on its inside. The bridge is raised by hand, on ropes or chains passing through the blocks in the slots of the wall. To facilitate the work, counterweights can be used. The chain can go through the blocks to the gate, located in the room above the gate. This gate can be horizontal and rotated by a handle, or vertical and driven by beams horizontally threaded through it. Another way to raise the bridge is with a lever. Swinging beams are threaded through the slots in the wall, the outer end of which is connected by chains to the front end of the bridge plate, and counterweights are attached to the rear inside the gate. This design facilitates the rapid lifting of the bridge. And, finally, the bridge plate can be arranged according to the rocker principle.
The outer part of the plate, turning around the axis at the base of the gate, closes the passage, and the inner part, on which the attackers may already be, goes down into the so-called. a wolf pit, invisible while the bridge is down. Such a bridge is called overturning or swinging.
In Fig.1. The diagram of the entrance to the castle is presented.
The fence itself was made up of thick solid walls - curtains - part of the fortress wall between two bastions and various side structures, collectively called
Fig.1.
towers. The fortress wall rose directly above the moat, its foundations went deep into the ground, and the bottom was made as gentle as possible to prevent possible undermining by the attackers, and also so that shells dropped from a height would ricochet off it. The shape of the fence depended on its location, but its perimeter is always significant.
The fortified castle did not at all resemble an individual dwelling. The height of the curtains ranged from 6 to 10 m, the thickness - from 1.5 to 3 m. However, in some fortresses, for example, in Chateau Gaillard, the thickness of the walls in places exceeds 4.5 m. Towers, usually round, less often square or polygonal , were built, as a rule, on the floor above the curtains. Their diameter (from 6 to 20 m) depended on the location: the most powerful - in the corners and near the entrance gate. The towers were built hollow, inside they were divided into floors by ceilings made of wooden boards with a hole in the center or on the side, through which a rope passed, used to raise shells to the upper platform in case of protecting the fortress. The stairs were hidden by partitions in the wall. Thus, each floor was a room where the warriors were located; in the fireplace, arranged in the thickness of the wall, it was possible to make a fire. The only openings in the tower are the archery slits, long and narrow openings widening inwards (Fig. 2).
Fig.2.
In France, for example, the height of such loopholes is usually 1 m, and the width is 30 cm outside and 1.3 m inside. Such a structure made it difficult for enemy arrows to penetrate, but the defenders were able to shoot in different directions.
The most important defensive element of the castle was the outer wall - high, thick, sometimes on an inclined plinth. Worked stones or bricks made up its outer surface. Inside, it consisted of rubble stone and slaked lime. The walls were placed on a deep foundation, under which it was very difficult to dig.
At the top of the fortress wall was the so-called sentinel path, protected from the outside by a battlemented parapet. It served for observation, communication between the towers and protection of the fortress. A large wooden board, held on a horizontal axis, was sometimes attached to the battlements between two embrasures, crossbowmen took cover behind it to load their weapons. During the wars, the sentinel path was supplemented with something like a folding wooden gallery of the desired shape, mounted in front of the parapet. Holes were made in the floor so that the defenders could shoot from above if the attackers were hiding at the foot of the wall. Starting from the end of the 12th century, especially in the southern regions of France, these wooden galleries, which were not very strong and flammable, began to be replaced by real stone ledges built along with the parapet. These are the so-called mashikuli, galleries with hinged loopholes (Fig. 3). They performed the same function as before, but their advantage was greater strength and the fact that they made it possible to throw down the cannonballs, which then ricocheted off the gentle slope of the wall.
Fig.3.
Sometimes several secret doors were made in the fortress wall for the passage of infantrymen, but always only one large gate was built, which was invariably fortified with special care, since it was on them that the main blow of the attackers fell.
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 by 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, so the lower edge of the portico was a series of sharpened 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. Later, the entrance was protected by mertieres, deadly holes drilled into the vaulted ceiling of the passage. Through these holes, anyone who tried to break through to the gates by force, poured and poured objects and substances common in such a situation - arrows, stones, boiling water and hot oil. 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 Fig.4. various types of shooting slots are presented.
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.
Fig.4.
Each more or less serious castle had at least two more rows of defensive structures (ditches, hedges, curtain walls, towers, parapets, gates and bridges), smaller in size, but built on the same principle. Quite a considerable distance was left between them, so each castle looked like a small fortified city. Freteval can again be cited as an example. Its fences are round in shape, the diameter of the first is 140 m, the second is 70 m, the third is 30 m. The last fence, called the “shirt”, was erected very close to the donjon in order to block access to it.
The space between the first two fences was the lower courtyard. A real village was located there: the houses of peasants who worked on the master's fields, workshops and dwellings of artisans (blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, carvers, carriage workers), a threshing floor and a barn, a bakery, a communal mill and a press, a well, a fountain, sometimes a pond with live fish, washroom, counters of merchants. Such a village was a typical settlement of that time with randomly arranged streets and houses. Later, such settlements began to go beyond the castle and settle in its vicinity on the other side of the moat. Their inhabitants, as, indeed, the rest of the inhabitants of the seigneury, took refuge behind the fortress walls only in case of serious danger.
Between the second and third fences there was an upper courtyard with many buildings: a chapel, housing for soldiers, stables, kennels, dovecotes and a falcon yard, a pantry with food supplies, kitchens, a pond.
Behind the "shirt", that is, the last fence, the donjon towered. It was usually built not in the center of the castle, but in its most inaccessible part; it simultaneously served as the dwelling of the feudal lord and the military center of the fortress. Donjon (fr. donjon) - the main tower of a medieval castle, one of the symbols of the European Middle Ages.
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.
In height, it surpassed all other buildings, often exceeding 25 m: 27 m - in Etampes, 28 m - in Gisors, 30 m - in Uden, Dourdan and Freteval, 31 m - in Châteauden, 35 m - in Tonquedek, 40 - in Locher, 45 m - in Provins. It could be square (Tower of London), rectangular (Loches), hexagonal (Tournoel Castle), octagonal (Gizors), four-lobed (Etampes), but more often there are round ones with a diameter of 15 to 20 m and a wall thickness of 3 to 4 m.
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 forms of donjons are very diverse: in the UK, quadrangular towers were popular, but there were also round, octagonal, regular and irregular polygonal donjons, as well as combinations of several of these shapes. The change in the shape of donjons is associated with the development of architecture and siege technology. A round or polygonal turret is better able to withstand projectiles. Sometimes, when building a donjon, builders followed the terrain, for example, placing a tower on an irregularly shaped rock. This type of tower arose in the 11th century. in Europe, more precisely in Normandy (France). Initially, it was a rectangular tower, adapted for defense, but at the same time being the residence of the feudal lord.
In the XII-XIII centuries. the feudal lord moved to the castle, and the donjon turned into a separate structure, significantly reduced in size, but stretched vertically. From now on, the tower was located separately outside the perimeter of the fortress walls, in the most inaccessible place to the enemy, sometimes even separated by a moat from the rest of the fortifications. It performed defensive and sentinel functions (at the very top there was always a combat and sentinel platform, covered with battlements). It was considered as the last refuge in the defense against the enemy (for this purpose there were weapons and food warehouses inside), and only after the capture of the donjon the castle was considered conquered.
By the 16th century the active use of cannons turned the donjons towering above the rest of the buildings into too convenient targets.
The donjon was divided inside into floors by means of wooden ceilings (Fig. 5).
Fig.5.
For defensive purposes, its only door was at the level of the second floor, that is, at a height of at least 5 m above the ground. They got inside by stairs, scaffolding or a bridge connected to a parapet. However, all these structures were very simple: after all, they had to be removed very quickly in the event of an attack. It was on the second floor that there was a large hall, sometimes with a vaulted ceiling - the center of the seigneur's life. Here he dined, had fun, received guests and vassals, and even administered justice in winter. One floor above were the rooms of the owner of the castle and his wife; climbed up a narrow stone staircase in the wall. On the fourth and fifth floors there are common rooms for children, servants and subjects. The guests slept there. The top of the donjon resembled the upper part of the fortress wall with its battlemented parapet and sentinel path, as well as additional wooden or stone galleries. To this was added a watchtower to monitor the surroundings.
The first floor, that is, the floor under the great hall, did not have a single opening that went out. However, it was neither a prison nor a stone bag, as archaeologists of the last century assumed. Usually there was a pantry where firewood, wine, grain and weapons were stored.
In some donjons in the lower room, in addition, there was a well or an entrance to a dungeon dug under the castle and leading to an open field, which, however, was quite rare. By the way, the dungeon, as a rule, served to store food during the year, and not at all to facilitate a secret flight, romantic or forced Lapin R.I. Donjon article. Encyclopedic Fund of Russia. Access address: http://www.russika.ru/.
Of particular interest in the framework of the work is also the interior of the donjon.
DONJON INTERIOR
The interior of the lord's dwelling can be characterized by three features: simplicity, modesty of decoration, and a small amount of furniture.
No matter how high (from 7 to 12 meters) and spacious (from 50 to 150 meters) the main hall was, the hall always remained one room. Sometimes it was divided into several rooms by some kind of drapery, but always only for a while and due to certain circumstances. Trapezoidal window openings separated in this manner and deep niches in the wall served as small living rooms. Large windows, rather high than wide, with a semicircular top, were arranged in the thickness of the walls in the same way as tower loopholes for archery.
No matter how high (from 7 to 12 meters) and spacious (from 50 to 150 meters) it was, the hall always remained one room. Sometimes it was divided into several rooms by some kind of drapery, but always only for a while and due to certain circumstances. Trapezoidal window openings separated in this manner and deep niches in the wall served as small living rooms. Large windows, rather high than wide, with a semicircular top, were arranged in the thickness of the walls in the same way as tower loopholes for archery. In front of the windows there was a stone bench, which served to talk or look out the window. Windows were rarely glazed (glass is an expensive material used mainly for church stained-glass windows), more often they were covered with a small lattice of wicker or metal, or they were covered with glued cloth or an oiled sheet of parchment nailed to the frame.
A hinged wooden sash was attached to the window, often internal rather than external; usually it was not closed, unless they slept in a large hall.
Despite the fact that the windows were few and rather narrow, they still let in enough light to illuminate the hall on summer days. In the evening or winter, sunlight replaced not only the fire of the fireplace, but also resin torches, tallow candles or oil lamps, which were attached to the walls and ceiling. Thus, internal lighting always turned out to be a source of heat and smoke, but this was still not enough to defeat dampness - a real scourge of a medieval dwelling. Wax candles, like glass, were reserved only for the richest houses and churches.
The floor in the hall was covered with wooden boards, clay or, more rarely, stone slabs, however, whatever it was, it was never left uncovered. In winter, it was covered with straw - either finely chopped, or woven into coarse mats. In spring and summer - reeds, branches and flowers (lilies, gladioli, irises). Fragrant herbs and incense plants such as mint and verbena were placed along the walls. Wool carpets and embroidered bedspreads were generally used for seating only in bedrooms. In the great hall, everyone was usually located on the floor, spreading skins and furs.
The ceiling, which is also the floor of the upper floor, often remained unfinished, but in the 13th century they began to try to decorate it with beams and caissons, creating geometric patterns, heraldic friezes or ornate ornaments depicting animals. Sometimes the walls were painted in the same way, but more often they were simply painted in some particular color (red and yellow ocher were preferred) or covered with a pattern that imitated the appearance of hewn stone or a chessboard. Frescoes are already appearing in princely houses depicting allegorical and historical scenes borrowed from legends, the Bible or literary works. It is known, for example, that King Henry III of England liked to sleep in a room whose walls were decorated with episodes from the life of Alexander the Great, a hero who aroused special admiration in the Middle Ages. However, such a luxury remained available only to the sovereign. An ordinary vassal, inhabitant of a wooden dungeon, had to be content with a rough bare wall, ennobled only by his own spear and shield.
Instead of wall paintings, tapestries with geometric, floral or historical motifs were used. However, more often these are not real tapestries (which were usually brought from the East), but mostly embroidery on thick fabric, like the so-called “Queen Matilda carpet”, stored in Bayeux.
Tapestries made it possible to hide a door or a window, or to divide a large room into several rooms - "bedrooms".
This word quite often meant not the room where they slept, but the totality of all the tapestries, embroidered canvases and various fabrics intended for interior decoration. Going on a trip, they always took tapestries with them, because they were the main element of decorating an aristocratic home, capable of giving it personality traits.
Furniture in the XIII century existed only wooden. She was constantly moved (The word "furniture" comes from the word mobile (fr.) - movable. (Note. Lane)), because, with the exception of the bed, the rest of the furniture did not have a single purpose. So, the chest, the main type of furniture, served simultaneously as a cabinet, table and seat. To perform the latter function, he could have a back and even handles. However, the chest is only an extra seat. They mostly sat on common benches, sometimes divided into separate seats, on small wooden benches, on small stools without a back. The chair was intended for the owner of the house or an honored guest. The squires and women sat on bundles of straw, sometimes covered with embroidered cloth, or simply on the floor, like servants and lackeys. Several boards laid on the goats made up a table; for the duration of the meal, it was arranged in the center of the hall. It turned out to be long, narrow and somewhat taller than modern tables. Companions sat on one side, leaving the other free to serve dishes.
There was little furniture: in addition to chests, in which dishes, household utensils, clothes, money and letters were shoved at random, sometimes there was a wardrobe or sideboard, less often a sideboard where the richest placed precious dishes or jewelry. Often, such furniture was replaced by niches in the wall, hung with draperies or closed with doors. Clothes were usually not folded, but rolled up and scented. They also rolled letters written on parchment before putting them in a linen bag, which served as a kind of safe, where, in addition, one or more leather wallets were kept.
To get a more complete picture of the furniture and decor of the main hall of the donjon, you need to add a few more caskets, some knick-knacks and some cult accessories (relics, sprinklers). As we can see, in this respect it is very far from abundance. There was even less furniture in the bedrooms: the men had a bed and chest, the women had a bed and something like a dressing table. No benches or chairs, sitting on straw covered with cloth, on the floor or on the bed. The huge square bed looked more wide than long. One usually did not sleep.
Even if the owner of the castle and his wife had separate bedrooms, they still had one common bed. In the rooms of children, servants or guests, the beds were also shared. Two, four or six of them slept on them.
The bed of the lord usually stood on a raised platform, with his head to the wall, his feet to the fireplace. A kind of vault was created from a wooden frame, where a canopy was hung to isolate the sleeping people from the outside world. The bedding was almost indistinguishable from modern ones. A feather bed was laid on a straw mattress or mattress, and a bottom sheet was laid on top of it. She was covered with a top sheet that was not tucked in. On top lay a duvet or wadded blanket, quilted like modern ones. The bolster and pillowcases are also similar to those we use today. White embroidered sheets were made of linen or silk, woolen bedspreads were lined with ermine or squirrel fur. For less prosperous people, burlap was used instead of silk, and twill was used instead of wool.
In this soft and spacious bed (so wide that it was possible to make it only with the help of a stick) they usually slept completely naked, but with a cap on their heads. Before going to bed, they hung clothes on a rod driven into the wall like a hanger, protruding almost to the middle of the room parallel to the bed, they left only a shirt on themselves, but they took it off already in bed and, having folded it, put it under the pillow to put it on again in the early morning before getting up.
The fireplace in the bedroom was not heated all day. It was bred only in the evening during the family vigil, which took place here in a more intimate atmosphere than in the great hall. In the hall there was a truly gigantic fireplace, designed for large logs; in front of him stood several shops, which could accommodate ten, fifteen or even twenty people. A conical hood with protruding posts formed something like a house inside the hall. The fireplace was not decorated with anything; the custom of placing a family coat of arms on it appeared only at the beginning of the 14th century. In some, more spacious rooms, two or three fireplaces were sometimes built, but not at opposite walls, but all together in the center of the room; for their hearth they used a single flat stone of enormous size, and the exhaust hood was erected in the form of a pyramid of brick and wood.
The donjon could well be used only for military and economic purposes (observation posts on the tower, a dungeon, a storehouse of provisions). In such cases, the feudal lord's family lived in the "palace" - the living quarters of the castle, standing apart from the tower. The palaces were built of stone and had several floors in height.
medieval castle residential interior
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.
For some reason, at the mention of the word "fairy tale", medieval castles and fortresses first of all come to mind. Maybe because they were built in those ancient times, when wizards freely roamed the fields and meadows, and fire-breathing dragons flew over the mountain peaks.
Be that as it may, even now, looking at the castles and fortresses that have been preserved in some places, one involuntarily imagines princesses sleeping in them and evil fairies conjuring over magic potions. Let's look at the once luxurious housing of the powers that be.
(German: Schloß Neuschwanstein, literally “New Swan Stone”) is located in Germany, near the town of Füssen (German: Fussen). The castle was founded in 1869 by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. The construction was completed in 1891, 5 years after the unexpected death of the king. The castle is magnificent and attracts curious tourists from all over the world with its beauty of architectural forms.
This is the "dream palace" of the young king, who was never able to see her incarnation in her full glory. Ludwig II of Bavaria, founder of the castle, ascended the throne too young. And being a dreamy nature, imagining himself as the fairy-tale character Lohengrin, he decided to build his own castle in order to hide in it from the harsh reality of the defeat of Bavaria in alliance with Austria in 1866 in the war with Prussia.
Away from state concerns, the young king demanded too much from the army of architects, artists and artisans. Sometimes he set completely unrealistic deadlines, the observance of which required round-the-clock work of masons and carpenters. During the construction, Ludwig II went deeper and deeper into his fictional world, for which he was later recognized as crazy. The architectural design of the castle was constantly changing. So the rooms for guests were excluded and a small grotto was added. The small audience hall was transformed into the majestic Throne Room.
A century and a half ago, Ludwig II of Bavaria tried to hide from people behind the walls of a medieval castle - today they come by the millions to admire his fabulous refuge.
(German: Burg Hohenzollern) - an old castle-fortress in Baden-Württemberg, 50 km south of Stuttgart. The castle was built at an altitude of 855 m above sea level on the top of Mount Hohenzollern. Only the third castle has survived to this day. The medieval castle fortress was first built in the 11th century and completely destroyed after the capture, at the end of a grueling siege by the troops of the cities of Swabia in 1423.
A new fortress was built on its ruins in 1454-1461, which served as a refuge for the House of Hohenzollern throughout the Thirty Years' War. Due to the complete loss of the fortress of strategic importance, by the end of the 18th century, the castle was noticeably dilapidated, and some parts of the building were finally dismantled.
The modern version of the castle was erected in 1850-1867 on the personal instructions of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who decided to completely restore the family castle of the Prussian royal house. The construction of the castle was led by the famous Berlin architect Friedrich August Stüler. He managed to combine new, large-scale castle buildings in the neo-Gothic style and the few surviving buildings of the former ruined castles.
(Karlštejn), built by decree of the Czech king and emperor Charles IV (named after him) on a high limestone cliff above the Berounka River, as a summer residence and a place of storage of sacred relics of the royal family. The first stone in the foundation of Karlštejn Castle was laid by Archbishop Arnošt, close to the Emperor, in 1348, and in 1357 the construction of the castle was completed. Two years before the end of construction, Charles IV settled in the castle.
The stepped architecture of Karlštejn Castle, which ends with a tower with the Grand Cross Chapel, is quite common in the Czech Republic. The ensemble includes the castle itself, the Church of the Virgin Mary, the Catherine Chapel, the Big Tower, the Mariana and Well Towers.
The majestic Student Tower and the imperial palace, which housed the king's quarters, take tourists back to the Middle Ages, when a powerful monarch ruled the Czech Republic.
Royal palace and fortress in the Spanish city of Segovia, in the province of Castile and Leon. The fortress is built on a high rock, above the confluence of the Eresma and Clamores rivers. Such a good location made it almost impregnable. Now it is one of the most recognizable and beautiful palaces in Spain. Originally built as a fortress, the Alcazar was once a royal palace, a prison, and an artillery academy.
The Alcazar, which was a small wooden fortress in the 12th century, was later rebuilt into a stone castle and became the most impregnable defensive structure. This palace became famous for great historically significant events: the coronation of Isabella the Catholic, her first marriage to King Ferdinand of Aragon, the wedding of Anna of Austria with Philip II.
(Castelul Peleş) was built by King Carol I of Romania near the city of Sinai in the Romanian Carpathians. The king was so fascinated by the local beauty that he bought up the surrounding land and built a castle for hunting and summer recreation. The name of the castle was given by a small mountain river flowing nearby.
In 1873, the construction of a grandiose building began, under the leadership of the architect Johann Schulz. Along with the castle, other buildings necessary for a comfortable life were built: royal stables, guard houses, a hunting house and a power station.
Thanks to the power plant, Peles became the first electrified castle in the world. The castle officially opened in 1883. At the same time, central heating and an elevator were installed in it. The construction was completed in 1914.
It is a symbol of the small city-state of San Marino on the territory of modern Italy. The beginning of the construction of the fortress is considered to be the 10th century AD. Guaita is the first of three San Marino fortresses built on the peaks of Mount Titano.
The construction consists of two rings of fortifications, the inner one has retained all the signs of the forts of the feudal era. The main entrance gate was located at a height of several meters, and it was possible to pass through it only by a drawbridge, now destroyed. The fortress was restored many times in the 15th-17th centuries.
Well, so we looked at some medieval castles and fortresses in Europe, of course, not all of them. Next time we will admire the fortresses on the tops of impregnable rocks. There are so many exciting discoveries ahead!
The Norman Conquest of England led to a boom in castle building, but the process of building a fortress from scratch is far from easy. If you want to start building a fortress on your own, then you should read the tips below.
It is extremely important to build your castle on a hill and in a strategically important point.
Castles were usually built on natural elevations, and were usually equipped with a link to the external environment, such as a ford, bridge or passage.
Historians have rarely been able to find evidence of contemporaries regarding the choice of a site for the construction of the castle, but they still exist. On September 30, 1223, 15-year-old King Henry III arrived in Montgomery with his army. The king, who had successfully led a military campaign against the Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Iorwerth, was going to build a new castle in this area to ensure security on the border of his possessions. The English carpenters had been given the task of preparing the timber a month earlier, but the king's advisers had only just now determined the site for the construction of the castle.
After a careful survey of the area, they chose a point on the very edge of the ledge above the valley of the River Severn. According to the chronicler Roger of Wendover, this position "looked unassailable to anyone". He also noted that the castle was created "for the security of the region from the frequent attacks of the Welsh."
Tip: identify places where the topography rises above transport routes: these are natural places for castles. Keep in mind that the design of the castle is determined by the place of construction. For example, a castle on a ledge of exposed rocks will have a dry moat.
You will need a master mason who can draw plans. An engineer knowledgeable in weapons will also come in handy.
Experienced soldiers may have their own ideas about the design of the castle, in terms of the shape of its buildings and their location. But it is unlikely that they will have the knowledge of the level of specialists in design and construction.
To implement the idea, a master bricklayer was required - an experienced builder, whose hallmark was the ability to draw a plan. With a grasp of practical geometry, he used simple tools such as a straightedge, square, and compass to create architectural plans. Master masons submitted a drawing with a building plan for approval, and during construction supervised its construction.
When Edward II in 1307 began building a huge residential tower at Naresborough Castle in Yorkshire for his favorite Pierce Gaveston, he not only personally approved the plans drawn up by the London master mason Hugh of Tichmarsh - probably made in the form of a drawing - but also demanded regular reports on the construction . From the middle of the 16th century, a new group of professionals called engineers increasingly began to take on a role in planning and building fortifications. They had technical knowledge of the use and power of cannons, both for defense and for attacking castles.
Tip: Plan for slits to provide a wide angle of attack. Shape them according to the weapon you are using: longbow archers need large slopes, crossbowmen need smaller ones.
You will need thousands of people. And not all of them will come of their own free will.
It took a lot of effort to build the castle. We do not have documentary evidence of the construction of the first castles in England since 1066, but from the scale of many castles of that period it becomes clear why some chronicles claim that the English population was under the yoke of building castles for their Norman conquerors. But from the later time of the Middle Ages, some estimates with detailed information have come down to us.
During the invasion of Wales in 1277, King Edward I began building a castle in Flint, northeast Wales. It was erected quickly, thanks to the rich resources of the crown. A month after the start of work, in August, 2300 people were involved in the construction, including 1270 diggers, 320 lumberjacks, 330 carpenters, 200 masons, 12 blacksmiths and 10 charcoal burners. All of them were driven from the surrounding lands under an armed escort who watched so that they did not desert from the construction.
From time to time, foreign specialists could be involved in the construction. For example, millions of bricks for the rebuilding of Tattershall Castle in Lincolnshire in the 1440s were supplied by a certain Baldwin "Docheman", or Dutchman, that is, "Dutchman" - obviously a foreigner.
Tip: Depending on the size of the workforce and the distance they had to travel, it may be necessary to arrange accommodation for them on site.
An unfinished castle in enemy territory is very vulnerable to attacks.
To build a castle in enemy territory, you need to protect the construction site from attacks. For example, you can enclose the construction site with wooden fortifications or a low stone wall. Such medieval defense systems sometimes remained after the construction of the building as an additional wall - as, for example, in the castle of Beaumaris, the construction of which was started in 1295.
Also important is secure communication with the outside world for the delivery of building materials and provisions. In 1277, Edward I dug a canal to the river Kluid directly from the sea and to the location of his new castle in Rydlane. The outer wall, built to protect the construction site, extended to the piers on the banks of the river.
Security problems can also arise with a radical restructuring of an existing castle. When Henry II rebuilt Dover Castle in the 1180s, all work was carefully planned so that the fortifications provided protection for the duration of the renovation. According to surviving decrees, work on the inner wall of the castle began only when the tower was already sufficiently repaired so that guards could be on duty in it.
Tip: building materials for the construction of the castle are large and voluminous. If possible, it's best to transport them by water, even if that means building a dock or canal.
When building a castle, you may have to move an impressive amount of land, which is not cheap.
It is often forgotten that the fortifications of the castle were built not only through architectural techniques, but also through landscape design. Enormous resources were allocated for the movement of land. The scale of land works of the Normans can be recognized as outstanding. For example, according to some estimates, the embankment erected in 1100 around Pleshy Castle in Essex required 24,000 man-days.
Some aspects of landscaping required serious skills, especially the creation of water ditches. When Edward I rebuilt the Tower of London in the 1270s, he hired a foreign specialist, Walter of Flanders, to create a huge tidal moat. Digging the ditch under his direction cost £4,000, a staggering amount, almost a quarter of the cost of the entire project.
With the rise of cannons in the art of siege, the earth began to play an even more important role as an absorber of cannon shots. Interestingly, experience in moving large amounts of land has led some of the fortification engineers to find work as garden designers.
Tip: Save time and money by digging out the masonry for your castle walls from the moats around it.
Carry out the mason's plan carefully.
Using ropes of the required length and pegs, it was possible to mark the foundation of the building on the ground in full size. After the foundation ditches were dug, work began on the masonry. To save money, the responsibility for construction was assigned to the senior mason instead of the master mason. Masonry in the Middle Ages was usually measured in rods, one English rod = 5.03 m. At Warkworth in Northumberland, one of the complex towers stands on a lattice of rods, possibly for the purpose of calculating construction costs.
Often the construction of medieval castles was accompanied by detailed documentation. In 1441-42 the tower of Tutbury Castle in Staffordshire was demolished and a plan for its successor was drawn up on the ground. But the Prince of Stafford, for some reason, was not pleased. The king's master stonemason, Robert of Westerley, was sent to Tutbury, where he held a conference with two senior masons to design a new tower at the new site. Westerley then left, and over the next eight years a small group of workers, including four junior masons, built the new tower.
Senior masons could be called in to confirm the quality of work, as was the case at Cooling Castle in Kent, when the royal stonemason Heinrich Javel assessed work carried out from 1381 to 1384. He criticized the deviations from the original plan and rounded the estimate down.
Tip: Don't let the master mason fool you. Make him make a plan so that it is easy to make an estimate for it.
Finish building with elaborate fortifications and specialized timber structures.
Until the 12th century, the fortifications of most castles consisted of earth and logs. And although stone buildings were subsequently given preference, wood remained a very important material in medieval wars and fortifications.
Stone castles prepared for attacks by adding special battle galleries along the walls, as well as shutters that could close the gaps between battlements to protect the defenders of the castle. All this was made of wood. Heavy weapons used to defend the castle, catapults and heavy crossbows, springalds, were also built of wood. Artillery was usually designed by a highly paid professional carpenter, sometimes with the title of engineer, from the Latin "ingeniator".
Such experts were not cheap, but could eventually be worth their weight in gold. This, for example, happened in 1266, when Kenilworth Castle in Warwickshire resisted Henry III for almost six months with catapults and water defenses.
There are records of camp castles made entirely of wood - they could be transported with you and erected as needed. One such was built for the French invasion of England in 1386, but the Calais garrison captured it along with the ship. It was described as consisting of a wall of logs 20 feet high and 3,000 paces long. There was a 30-foot tower every 12 paces, capable of housing up to 10 soldiers, and the castle also had an unspecified defense for archers.
Tip: Oak wood gets stronger with age, and is easiest to work with when it's green. The top branches of trees are easy to transport and shape.
The most important aspect for the castle was efficient access to water. These could be wells that supply water to certain buildings, such as a kitchen or a stable. Without a detailed acquaintance with the medieval well shafts, it is difficult to do justice to them. For example, in Beeston Castle in Cheshire there is a well 100 m deep, the upper 60 m of which are lined with hewn stone.
There is some evidence of elaborate plumbing that brought water to the apartments. The tower of Dover Castle has a system of lead pipes that delivers water throughout the rooms. She was fed from a well with a winch, and possibly from a rainwater harvesting system.
Efficient disposal of human waste was another challenge for lock designers. The latrines were assembled in one place in the buildings so that their shafts were emptied in one place. They were located in short corridors that trap unpleasant odors, and were often equipped with wooden seats and removable covers.
Today it is widely believed that latrines used to be called "cloakrooms". In fact, the lexicon for toilets was extensive and colorful. They were called gongs or gangs (from the Anglo-Saxon word for "a place to go"), nooks and jakes (the French version of "john").
Tip: Ask a master mason to plan comfortable and private latrines outside the bedroom, following the example of Henry II and Dover Castle.
The castle not only had to be well-guarded - its inhabitants, having a high status, demanded a certain chic.
During the war, the castle must be defended - but it also serves as a luxurious home. The noble gentlemen of the Middle Ages expected their dwelling to be both comfortable and richly furnished. In the Middle Ages, these citizens traveled with servants, things and furniture from one residence to another. But home interiors often had fixed decorative features, such as stained-glass windows.
The tastes of Henry III in the setting are recorded very carefully, with interesting and attractive details. In 1235-36, for example, he ordered that his hall at Winchester Castle be decorated with images of a map of the world and a wheel of fortune. Since then, these decorations have not survived, but the well-known round table of King Arthur, possibly created between 1250 and 1280, remains in the interior.
The large area of the castles played an important role in the luxurious life. Parks were created for hunting, a jealously guarded privilege of aristocrats; gardens were also in demand. The extant description of the construction of the castle of Kirby Maxloe in Leicestershire says that its owner, Lord Hastings, began laying out gardens at the very beginning of the construction of the castle in 1480.
In the Middle Ages, rooms with beautiful views were also loved. One of the 13th-century groups of rooms at the castles of Leeds in Kent, Corfe in Dorset and Chepstow in Monmouthshire were called gloriettes (from the French gloriette, a diminutive of glory) for their splendor.
Tip: The interior of the castle should be luxurious enough to attract visitors and friends. Entertainment can win battles without having to expose itself to the dangers of combat.
You write about the baron in the castle - if you please, at least roughly imagine how the castle was heated, how it was ventilated, how it was lit ...
From an interview with G. L. Oldie
At the word "castle" in our imagination there is an image of a majestic fortress - the calling card of the fantasy genre. There is hardly any other architectural structure that would attract so much attention from historians, experts in military affairs, tourists, writers and fans of “fabulous” fantasy.
We play computer, board and role-playing games where we have to explore, build or capture impregnable castles. But do we know what these fortifications really are? What interesting stories are associated with them? What are the stone walls hiding behind them - witnesses of entire eras, grandiose battles, knightly nobility and vile betrayal?
Surprisingly, it is a fact - the fortified dwellings of feudal lords in different parts of the world (Japan, Asia, Europe) were built according to very similar principles and had many common design features. But in this article, we will primarily focus on medieval European feudal fortresses, since it was they that served as the basis for creating a mass artistic image of the “medieval castle” as a whole.
The Middle Ages in Europe was a turbulent time. The feudal lords, for any reason, arranged small wars among themselves - or rather, not even wars, but, in modern terms, armed “showdowns”. If a neighbor had money, they had to be taken away. Lots of land and peasants? It's just indecent, because God ordered to share. And if knightly honor is hurt, then here it was simply impossible to do without a small victorious war.
Under such circumstances, the large aristocratic landowners had no choice but to fortify their homes with the expectation that one day neighbors might come to visit them, whom you don’t feed with bread - let someone slaughter.
Initially, these fortifications were made of wood and did not resemble the castles known to us in any way - except that a moat was dug in front of the entrance and a wooden palisade was erected around the house.
The lordly courts of Hasterknaup and Elmendorv are the ancestors of castles.
However, progress did not stand still - with the development of military affairs, the feudal lords had to modernize their fortifications so that they could withstand a massive assault using stone cannonballs and rams.
The European castle has its roots in the era of antiquity. The earliest structures of this kind copied the Roman military camps (tents surrounded by a palisade). It is generally accepted that the tradition of building gigantic (by the standards of that time) stone structures began with the Normans, and classical castles appeared in the 12th century.
The besieged castle of Mortan (withstood the siege for 6 months).
Very simple requirements were imposed on the castle - it must be inaccessible to the enemy, provide observation of the area (including the nearest villages belonging to the owner of the castle), have its own water source (in case of a siege) and perform representative functions - that is, show the power, wealth of the feudal lord.
Beaumarie Castle, owned by Edward I.
We are on our way to the castle, which stands on a ledge of a mountain slope, on the edge of a fertile valley. The road goes through a small settlement - one of those that usually grew up near the fortress wall. Common people live here - mostly artisans, and warriors guarding the outer perimeter of protection (in particular, guarding our road). This is the so-called "castle people".
Scheme of castle structures. Note - two gate towers, the largest stands separately.
The road is laid in such a way that the aliens always face the castle with their right side, not covered by a shield. Directly in front of the fortress wall there is a bare plateau, lying under a significant slope (the castle itself stands on a hill - natural or bulk). The vegetation here is low, so that there is no shelter for the attackers.
The first barrier is a deep ditch, and in front of it is a rampart of excavated earth. The moat can be transverse (separates the castle wall from the plateau), or sickle-shaped, curved forward. If the landscape allows, the moat encircles the entire castle in a circle.
Sometimes dividing ditches were dug inside the castle, making it difficult for the enemy to move through its territory.
The shape of the bottom of the ditches could be V-shaped and U-shaped (the latter is the most common). If the soil under the castle is rocky, then ditches were either not made at all, or they were cut down to a shallow depth, which only hindered the advancement of infantry (it is almost impossible to dig under the castle wall in the rock - therefore, the depth of the moat was not decisive).
The crest of an earthen rampart lying directly in front of the moat (which makes it seem even deeper) often carried a palisade - a fence of wooden stakes dug into the ground, pointed and tightly fitted to each other.
A bridge over the moat leads to the outer wall of the castle. Depending on the size of the moat and bridge, the latter supports one or more supports (huge logs). The outer part of the bridge is fixed, but its last segment (right next to the wall) is movable.
Scheme of the entrance to the castle: 2 - gallery on the wall, 3 - drawbridge, 4 - lattice.
Counterweights on the gate lift.
Castle gate.
This drawbridge is designed so that in a vertical position it closes the gate. The bridge is powered by mechanisms hidden in the building above them. From the bridge to the lifting machines, ropes or chains go into the wall holes. To facilitate the work of people servicing the bridge mechanism, the ropes were sometimes equipped with heavy counterweights that took part of the weight of this structure onto themselves.
Of particular interest is the bridge, which worked on the principle of a swing (it is called “overturning” or “swinging”). One half of it was inside - lying on the ground under the gate, and the other stretched across the moat. When the inner part rose, closing the entrance to the castle, the outer part (to which the attackers sometimes managed to run) fell down into the moat, where the so-called “wolf pit” was arranged (sharp stakes dug into the ground), invisible from the side, until the bridge is down.
To enter the castle with the gates closed, there was a side gate next to them, to which a separate lifting ladder was usually laid.
Gates - the most vulnerable part of the castle, were usually made not directly in its wall, but were arranged in the so-called "gate towers". Most often, the gates were double-leaf, and the wings were knocked together from two layers of boards. To protect against arson, they were upholstered with iron on the outside. At the same time, in one of the wings there was a small narrow door, which could be entered only by bending over. In addition to locks and iron bolts, the gate was closed by a transverse beam lying in the wall channel and sliding into the opposite wall. The transverse beam could also be wound into hook-shaped slots on the walls. Its main purpose was to protect the gate from their landing attackers.
Behind the gate was usually a drop-down portcullis. Most often it was wooden, with iron-bound lower ends. But there were also iron gratings made of steel tetrahedral rods. The lattice could descend from a gap in the vault of the gate portal, or be behind them (on the inside of the gate tower), descending along the grooves in the walls.
The grate hung on ropes or chains, which, in case of danger, could be cut off so that it quickly fell down, blocking the way for the invaders.
Inside the gate tower there were rooms for guards. They kept watch on the upper platform of the tower, asked the guests for the purpose of their visit, opened the gates, and, if necessary, could hit all those who passed under them with a bow. For this purpose, there were vertical loopholes in the vault of the gate portal, as well as “tar noses” - holes for pouring hot resin on the attackers.
Resin noses.
The most important defensive element of the castle was the outer wall - high, thick, sometimes on an inclined plinth. Worked stones or bricks made up its outer surface. Inside, it consisted of rubble stone and slaked lime. The walls were placed on a deep foundation, under which it was very difficult to dig.
Often double walls were built in castles - a high outer and a small inner one. An empty space appeared between them, which received the German name “zwinger”. The attackers, overcoming the outer wall, could not take with them additional assault devices (bulky ladders, poles and other things that cannot be moved inside the fortress). Once in the zwinger in front of another wall, they became an easy target (there were small loopholes for archers in the walls of the zwinger).
Zwinger at Laneck Castle.
On top of the wall was a gallery for defense soldiers. From the outside of the castle, they were protected by a solid parapet, half the height of a man, on which stone battlements were regularly arranged. Behind them it was possible to stand at full height and, for example, load a crossbow. The shape of the teeth was extremely diverse - rectangular, rounded, in the form of a dovetail, decoratively decorated. In some castles, the galleries were covered (wooden canopy) to protect the warriors from bad weather.
In addition to the battlements, behind which it was convenient to hide, the walls of the castle were equipped with loopholes. The attackers were firing through them. Due to the peculiarities of the use of throwing weapons (freedom of movement and a certain shooting position), the loopholes for archers were long and narrow, and for crossbowmen - short, with expansion on the sides.
A special type of loophole - ball. It was a freely rotating wooden ball fixed in the wall with a slot for firing.
Pedestrian gallery on the wall.
Balconies (the so-called “mashikuli”) were arranged in the walls very rarely - for example, in the case when the wall was too narrow for the free passage of several soldiers, and, as a rule, performed only decorative functions.
At the corners of the castle, small towers were built on the walls, most often flanking (that is, protruding outward), which allowed the defenders to fire along the walls in two directions. In the late Middle Ages, they began to adapt to storage. The inner sides of such towers (facing the courtyard of the castle) were usually left open so that the enemy who broke into the wall could not gain a foothold inside them.
Flanking corner tower.
The internal structure of the castles was diverse. In addition to the mentioned zwingers, behind the main gate there could be a small rectangular courtyard with loopholes in the walls - a kind of “trap” for the attackers. Sometimes castles consisted of several "sections" separated by internal walls. But an indispensable attribute of the castle was a large courtyard (outbuildings, a well, premises for servants) and a central tower, also known as a donjon.
Donjon at the Château de Vincennes.
The life of all the inhabitants of the castle directly depended on the presence and location of the well. Problems often arose with him - after all, as mentioned above, castles were built on hills. Solid rocky soil also did not make it easier to supply the fortress with water. There are known cases of laying castle wells to a depth of more than 100 meters (for example, the Kuffhäuser castle in Thuringia or the Königstein fortress in Saxony had wells more than 140 meters deep). Digging a well took from one to five years. In some cases, this consumed as much money as all the interior buildings of the castle were worth.
Due to the fact that water had to be obtained with difficulty from deep wells, personal hygiene and sanitation issues faded into the background. Instead of washing themselves, people preferred to take care of animals - first of all, expensive horses. There is nothing surprising in the fact that the townspeople and villagers wrinkled their noses in the presence of the inhabitants of the castles.
The location of the water source depended primarily on natural causes. But if there was a choice, then the well was dug not in the square, but in a fortified room in order to provide it with water in case of shelter during the siege. If, due to the peculiarities of the occurrence of groundwater, a well was dug behind the castle wall, then a stone tower was built above it (if possible, with wooden passages to the castle).
When there was no way to dig a well, a cistern was built in the castle to collect rainwater from the roofs. Such water needed to be purified - it was filtered through gravel.
The combat garrison of castles in peacetime was minimal. So in 1425, two co-owners of the Reichelsberg castle in the Lower Franconian Aub entered into an agreement that each of them exposes one armed servant, and two gatekeepers and two guards are paid jointly.
The castle also had a number of buildings that ensured the autonomous life of its inhabitants in conditions of complete isolation (blockade): a bakery, a steam bath, a kitchen, etc.
Kitchen at Marksburg Castle.
The tower was the tallest structure in the entire castle. It provided the opportunity to observe the surroundings and served as a last refuge. When the enemies broke through all the lines of defense, the population of the castle took refuge in the donjon and withstood a long siege.
The exceptional thickness of the walls of this tower made its destruction almost impossible (in any case, it would take a huge amount of time). The entrance to the tower was very narrow. It was located in the courtyard at a significant (6-12 meters) height. The wooden staircase leading inside could easily be destroyed and thus block the way for the attackers.
Donjon entrance.
Inside the tower there was sometimes a very high shaft going from top to bottom. It served as either a prison or a warehouse. The entrance to it was possible only through a hole in the vault of the upper floor - “Angstloch” (in German - a frightening hole). Depending on the purpose of the mine, the winch lowered prisoners or provisions there.
If there were no prison facilities in the castle, then the prisoners were placed in large wooden boxes made of thick boards, too small to stand up to their full height. These boxes could be installed in any room of the castle.
Of course, they were taken prisoner, first of all, for a ransom or for using a prisoner in a political game. Therefore, VIP-persons were provided according to the highest class - guarded chambers in the tower were allocated for their maintenance. This is how Friedrich the Handsome spent his time in the Trausnitz castle on Pfaimd and Richard the Lionheart in Trifels.
Chamber at Marksburg Castle.
Abenberg castle tower (12th century) in section.
At the base of the tower there was a cellar, which could also be used as a dungeon, and a kitchen with a pantry. The main hall (dining room, common room) occupied an entire floor and was heated by a huge fireplace (it spread heat only a few meters, so that iron baskets with coals were placed further along the hall). Above were the chambers of the feudal lord's family, heated by small stoves.
At the very top of the tower there was an open (rarely covered, but if necessary, the roof could be dropped) platform where a catapult or other throwing weapon could be installed to fire at the enemy. The standard (banner) of the owner of the castle was also hoisted there.
Sometimes the donjon did not serve as living quarters. It could well be used only for military and economic purposes (observation posts on the tower, dungeon, provisions storage). In such cases, the feudal lord's family lived in the "palace" - the living quarters of the castle, standing apart from the tower. The palaces were built of stone and had several floors in height.
It should be noted that the living conditions in the castles were far from the most pleasant. Only the largest carpets had a large knight's hall for celebrations. It was very cold in the donjons and carpets. Fireplace heating helped out, but the walls were still covered with thick tapestries and carpets - not for decoration, but to keep warm.
The windows let in very little sunlight (the fortification character of the castle architecture affected), not all of them were glazed. Toilets were arranged in the form of a bay window in the wall. They were unheated, so visiting the outhouse in winter left people with simply unique sensations.
Castle toilet.
Concluding our “tour” around the castle, one cannot fail to mention that it always had a room for worship (temple, chapel). Among the indispensable inhabitants of the castle was a chaplain or priest, who, in addition to his main duties, played the role of a clerk and teacher. In the most modest fortresses, the role of the temple was performed by a wall niche, where a small altar stood.
Large temples had two floors. The common people prayed below, and the gentlemen gathered in the warm (sometimes glazed) choir on the second tier. The decoration of such premises was rather modest - an altar, benches and wall paintings. Sometimes the temple played the role of a tomb for the family living in the castle. Less commonly, it was used as a shelter (along with a donjon).
Many tales are told about underground passages in castles. There were moves, of course. But only very few of them led from the castle somewhere into the neighboring forest and could be used as an escape route. As a rule, there were no long moves at all. Most often there were short tunnels between individual buildings, or from the donjon to the complex of caves under the castle (additional shelter, warehouse or treasury).
Contrary to popular misconceptions, the average strength of the military garrison of an ordinary castle during active hostilities rarely exceeded 30 people. This was quite enough for defense, since the inhabitants of the fortress were in relative safety behind its walls and did not suffer such losses as the attackers.
To take the castle, it was necessary to isolate it - that is, to block all the ways of supplying food. That is why the attacking armies were much larger than the defending ones - about 150 people (this is true for the war of mediocre feudal lords).
The issue of provisions was the most painful. A person can live without water for several days, without food - for about a month (in this case, one should take into account his low combat capability during a hunger strike). Therefore, the owners of the castle, preparing for the siege, often went to extreme measures - they drove out of it all commoners who could not benefit the defense. As mentioned above, the garrison of the castles was small - it was impossible to feed the whole army under the siege.
The inhabitants of the castle infrequently launched counterattacks. This simply did not make sense - there were fewer of them than the attackers, and behind the walls they felt much calmer. Food outings are a special case. The latter were carried out, as a rule, at night, in small groups that walked along poorly guarded paths to the nearest villages.
The attackers had no less problems. The siege of castles sometimes dragged on for years (for example, the German Turant defended itself from 1245 to 1248), so the question of supplying the rear of an army of several hundred people was particularly acute.
In the case of the siege of Turant, the chroniclers claim that during all this time the soldiers of the attacking army drank 300 fouders of wine (a fuder is a huge barrel). This is about 2.8 million liters. Either the scribe made a mistake, or the constant number of besiegers was over 1,000.
The most preferred season for taking the castle by starvation was summer - it rains less than in spring or autumn (in winter, the inhabitants of the castle could get water by melting the snow), the harvest has not yet ripened, and the old stocks have already run out.
The attackers tried to deprive the castle of a source of water (for example, they built dams on the river). In the most extreme cases, "biological weapons" were used - corpses were thrown into the water, which could provoke outbreaks of epidemics throughout the district. Those inhabitants of the castle who were taken prisoner were mutilated by the attackers and released. Those returned back, and became unwitting freeloaders. They might not have been accepted in the castle, but if they were the wives or children of the besieged, then the voice of the heart outweighed considerations of tactical expediency.
No less brutally treated the inhabitants of the surrounding villages, who tried to deliver supplies to the castle. In 1161, during the siege of Milan, Frederick Barbarossa ordered the hands of 25 citizens of Piacenza, who were trying to supply the enemy with provisions, to be cut off.
The besiegers set up a permanent camp near the castle. It also had some simple fortifications (palisades, earth ramparts) in case of a sudden sortie by the defenders of the fortress. For protracted sieges, a so-called “counter-castle” was erected next to the castle. Usually it was located higher than the besieged one, which made it possible to conduct effective observation of the besieged from its walls and, if the distance allowed, to fire at them from throwing guns.
View of the castle Eltz from the counter-castle Trutz-Eltz.
The war against castles had its own specifics. After all, any more or less high stone fortification was a serious obstacle for conventional armies. Direct infantry attacks on the fortress could well have been successful, which, however, came at the cost of heavy casualties.
That is why a whole range of military measures was necessary for the successful capture of the castle (it was already mentioned above about the siege and starvation). Undermining was one of the most time-consuming, but at the same time extremely successful ways to overcome the protection of the castle.
Undermining was done with two goals - to provide troops with direct access to the courtyard of the castle, or to destroy a section of its wall.
So, during the siege of Altwindstein Castle in Northern Alsace in 1332, a sapper brigade of 80 (!) People took advantage of the distracting maneuvers of their troops (periodic short attacks on the castle) and for 10 weeks made a long passage in solid rock to the southeastern part of the fortress .
If the castle wall was not too large and had an unreliable foundation, then a tunnel broke through under its foundation, the walls of which were reinforced with wooden struts. Next, the spacers were set on fire - just under the wall. The tunnel collapsed, the base of the foundation sagged, and the wall above this place crumbled into pieces.
Storming of the castle (miniature of the 14th century).
Later, with the advent of gunpowder weapons, bombs were planted in tunnels under the walls of castles. To neutralize the tunnel, the besieged sometimes dug counterdigs. Enemy sappers were poured with boiling water, bees were launched into the tunnel, feces were poured there (and in ancient times, the Carthaginians launched live crocodiles into Roman tunnels).
Curious devices were used to detect tunnels. For example, large copper bowls with balls inside were placed throughout the castle. If the ball in any bowl began to tremble, this was a sure sign that a mine was being dug nearby.
But the main argument in the attack on the castle were siege machines - catapults and battering rams. The first ones were not much different from those catapults that were used by the Romans. These devices were equipped with a counterweight, giving the throwing arm the greatest force. With proper dexterity of the “gun crew”, catapults were quite accurate weapons. They threw large, smoothly hewn stones, and the combat range (on average, several hundred meters) was regulated by the weight of the shells.
A type of catapult is a trebuchet.
Sometimes barrels filled with combustible materials were loaded into catapults. To deliver a couple of pleasant minutes to the defenders of the castle, catapults threw the severed heads of captives to them (especially powerful machines could throw even whole corpses over the wall).
Assault the castle with a mobile tower.
In addition to the usual ram, pendulum ones were also used. They were mounted on high mobile frames with a canopy and were a log suspended on a chain. The besiegers hid inside the tower and swung the chain, forcing the log to hit the wall.
In response, the besieged lowered a rope from the wall, at the end of which steel hooks were fixed. With this rope, they caught a ram and tried to lift it up, depriving it of mobility. Sometimes a gaping soldier could get caught on such hooks.
Having overcome the shaft, breaking the palisades and filling up the moat, the attackers either stormed the castle with the help of ladders, or used high wooden towers, the upper platform of which was on the same level with the wall (or even higher than it). These gigantic structures were doused with water to prevent arson by the defenders and rolled up to the castle along the flooring of the boards. A heavy platform was thrown over the wall. The assault group climbed up the internal stairs, went out onto the platform and with a fight invaded the gallery of the fortress wall. Usually this meant that in a couple of minutes the castle would be taken.
Sapa (from the French sape, literally - a hoe, saper - to dig) - a method of extracting a moat, trench or tunnel to approach its fortifications, used in the 16-19 centuries. Flip-flop (quiet, secretive) and flying glanders are known. The work of the crossover glanders was carried out from the bottom of the original ditch without the workers coming to the surface, and the flying glanders were carried out from the surface of the earth under the cover of a pre-prepared protective mound of barrels and bags of earth. In the second half of the 17th century, specialists - sappers - appeared in the armies of a number of countries to perform such work.
The expression to act "on the sly" means: sneak, slowly, imperceptibly go, penetrate somewhere.
It was possible to get from one floor of the tower to another only through a narrow and steep spiral staircase. The ascent along it was carried out only one after another - it was so narrow. At the same time, the warrior who went first could only rely on his own ability to fight, because the steepness of the turn of the turn was chosen in such a way that it was impossible to use a spear or a long sword from behind the leader. Therefore, the fights on the stairs were reduced to single combat between the defenders of the castle and one of the attackers. It was the defenders, because they could easily replace each other, since a special extended area was located behind their backs.
In all castles, the stairs are twisted clockwise. There is only one castle with a reverse twist - the fortress of the Wallenstein counts. When studying the history of this family, it turned out that most of the men in it were left-handed. Thanks to this, historians realized that such a design of stairs greatly facilitates the work of the defenders. The strongest blow with the sword can be delivered towards your left shoulder, and the shield in your left hand covers the body best from this direction. All these advantages are available only to the defender. The attacker, on the other hand, can only strike to the right side, but his striking arm will be pressed against the wall. If he puts forward a shield, he will almost lose the ability to use weapons.
Himeji Castle.
We know the least about exotic castles - for example, Japanese ones.
Initially, the samurai and their overlords lived on their estates, where, apart from the watchtower “yagura” and a small moat around the dwelling, there were no other defensive structures. In case of a protracted war, fortifications were erected on hard-to-reach areas of the mountains, where it was possible to defend against superior enemy forces.
Stone castles began to be built at the end of the 16th century, taking into account European achievements in fortification. An indispensable attribute of a Japanese castle is wide and deep artificial ditches with steep slopes that surrounded it from all sides. Usually they were filled with water, but sometimes this function was performed by a natural water barrier - a river, a lake, a swamp.
Inside, the castle was a complex system of defensive structures, consisting of several rows of walls with courtyards and gates, underground corridors and labyrinths. All these structures were located around the central square of the honmaru, on which the feudal lord's palace and the high central tenshukaku tower were erected. The latter consisted of several rectangular tiers gradually decreasing upwards with protruding tiled roofs and gables.
Japanese castles, as a rule, were small - about 200 meters long and 500 wide. But among them there were also real giants. Thus, Odawara Castle occupied an area of 170 hectares, and the total length of its fortress walls reached 5 kilometers, which is twice the length of the walls of the Moscow Kremlin.
Castles are being built to this day. Those of them that were in state ownership are often returned to the descendants of ancient families. Castles are a symbol of the influence of their owners. They are an example of an ideal compositional solution that combines unity (defense considerations did not allow picturesque distribution of buildings across the territory), multi-level buildings (main and secondary) and the ultimate functionality of all components. Elements of the castle's architecture have already become archetypes - for example, a castle tower with battlements: its image sits in the subconscious of any more or less educated person.
Saumur French castle (14th century miniature).
And finally, we love castles because they are simply romantic. Knightly tournaments, ceremonial receptions, vile conspiracies, secret passages, ghosts, treasures - in relation to castles, all this ceases to be a legend and turns into history. Here, the expression “walls remember” fits perfectly: it seems that every stone of the castle breathes and hides a secret. I would like to believe that medieval castles will continue to retain an aura of mystery - because without it they will sooner or later turn into an old pile of stones.
