Castle Architecture Where History and Design Intersect

Table Of Content

• Medieval Weapons: From Swords and Spears to Gunpowder and Crossbows
• From Castles to Royal Palaces
• Castle Design Through the Middle Ages
• Motte and Bailey
• Concentric Castles
• Refined Mid-Century Walnut Armchairs: A Touch of Elegance & Modern Design
• NAS Architecture installs wooden "vortex" over medieval city wall in France

In a motte and bailey castle, the interior buildings would have been mostly of wattle and daub. The round keep aimed to strike a perfect balance between the square stone keep and the shell keep. Like the square stone keep, the round version was also constructed from stone, but it was less expensive to build because it had fewer rooms and staircases. Fewer rooms could be seen as a disadvantage, but by the time round keep castles became the norm, the castle’s residential accommodations were commonly situated in other buildings on the grounds. Round stone keeps were used mainly for defense, and they served this purpose well.

Medieval Weapons: From Swords and Spears to Gunpowder and Crossbows

The motte itself was an earth mound, which was flattened on top to make space for the construction of a keep. The Motte-and-bailey castle design appears to have originated in Northern Europe, particularly in Normandy and Britain – although there are also many examples in Germany, Denmark and Italy. In The Golden Days of San Simeon, author Ken Murray describes the castle’s piecemeal construction process, which added to the exorbitant cost.

From Castles to Royal Palaces

Some royal castles were tied to royal forests, and had special roles in managing the law and economic activities there. Most castles drew their water from wells inside the walls; some well shafts could be extremely deep. Later castles also made use of lead piping to bring water into the castle.

Castle Design Through the Middle Ages

Where possible, castle builders tried to turn some of the defensive ditches into a wet moat, filled with water from local rivers or natural springs. In other cases, wider areas around the castle would be flooded to produce shallow, defensive water features; these reflective surfaces could also play an ornamental function. They also wanted them to be beautiful though, so symmetrical and proportional castles became far more prevalent during this period.

Motte and Bailey

Used by both defenders and attackers, it was more accurate and had a greater range than the mangonel. The inner slope of a ditch or moat or the edge of the earth platform on which a castle may be built to increase its height. An oval or circular earthwork with a bank and ditch which encloses domestic or other buildings. The raised section which alternates with crenets (gaps) in the battlements of a wall or tower. A hole in the projecting overhang of a wall or tower through which missiles may be dropped on the enemy and through which the base of the wall can be monitored. Toilet or garderobe, usually with a waste shaft emptying directly outside the walls.

In any case, many existing wooden motte-and-bailey castles were replaced by shell keeps. The shell keep design seems to have been primarily chosen because of the issue of weight. Many mottes could simply not support the enormous weight of a free-standing stone keep, and so a shell keep represented an excellent solution. Not only were stone keep castles powerful defensive fortifications, but they were also spacious enough to act as domestic spaces for the lords who owned them, allowing them to live in great luxury. The imposing appearance of these castles, along with their very high construction cost, also served to increase the prestige of their owners.

From their origins in the 9th and 10th centuries, castles grew to be a key feature of the landscape in medieval Europe. In this feudal society, based around land ownership and service, securing possession of territory was crucial to lords and nobles being able to maintain their social, economic and political position. The steep slopes on which Krak des Chevaliers is built protect the castle from the attack on all sides except one – here the walls are thicker and the defences more formidable. The actual shape of these fortifications varied greatly, as they were often placed on existing natural hills – in this scenario, the walls of the castle would mirror the shape of the hilltop.

Refined Mid-Century Walnut Armchairs: A Touch of Elegance & Modern Design

Development in the use of firearms was so rapid during the 15th and 16th centuries as to require a radical change in military architecture. French troops marched through Italy in 1494 and, with their guns, reduced castle after castle with astonishing rapidity. The age of the medieval castle came to an end, and the era of modern military fortification opened. The principle governing the design of the new forts constructed all over Europe was that the whole building should be concentrated in one compact block. Its low walls could then be defended all around by artillery, the guns being mounted on bastions and redans. Gone were the high and multi-layered defensive walls, keeps, and baileys that were the staple of old castles.

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For the most part, these Victorian castles were made as fancy living spaces. People weren’t concerned about invaders and other crazy problems like that during this time period. It was simply a castle where the wealthy and influential members of society could live. Round stone keeps are actually preferable to square stone keeps for one important reason. You see, people eventually figured out that you could undermine the structural integrity of a square stone keep by damaging the corners of the structure. This wasn’t a simple thing to do, but it was possible to collapse a square stone keep if you managed to damage the corners enough.

The fantastic fairytale castle at Neuschwanstein was built as the pinnacle of his reign of marvelous achievements. This beautiful palace with ornate architecture was built to honor the composer Richard Wagner. Visitors had their pick from Ludwig’s magnificent stables of purebred Arabian horses. Star forts, also called bastion forts, originated in Italy during the late 15th and early 16th centuries, during the French invasion of the Italian peninsula.

Another stone keep castle style that developed in the 11th and 12th century was the shell keep. Shell keeps developed as successors to motte-and-bailey castles when the wooden palisade around the top of a motte was replaced by a stone wall. Initially, this took the form of upgrading existing wooden motte-and-bailey fortifications to stone, but free-standing stone keep castles also began to emerge.

All of the living quarters and other essential rooms are housed within the safety of the walls. There would be a large gate that can only be opened from the inside as another method to keep intruders at bay. There are still examples of shell keeps that are standing to this very day. A square stone keep was probably the most common type of stone keep that you will see. Some of these keeps are more rectangular in nature, but they are generally lumped together when they are classified.

An example of a shell keep that is still standing today is Clifford’s Tower, which is situated on a high mound in North Yorkshire, England. The castle was built for William the Conqueror in 1068 and is part of York Castle. Although the keep is mainly a ruin, its two-story layout and other historical details can be seen. We discussed in detail the motte and bailey visually in our post on the parts of a castle. The castle design was introduced into England by the Normans when they invaded England following the Battle of Hastings in 1066.

The ruler commissioned Bartolomeo Rastrelli in 1754, who devised the plan to embellish the facades of St. Petersburg estate with a two-tier colonnade and vases on the roof. Across the three floors of the Catherine Palace, each hall and room features its own unique style and decorations. The renovated Chapel of Catherine Palace boasts an impressive collection of artwork on its cobalt walls with gold ornamentation. The Normans were the descendants of Norse raiders who settled in northern France in the early 10th century. Stone castles were also far more durable and did not need repairing and maintenance work nearly so regularly as wooden castles, which were quite susceptible to the elements.