Medieval gates in castles. Fortresses and castles

KNIGHT'S CASTLE

The first castles, which appeared in the Carolingian era, were built exclusively from wood and earth. A wide and deep ditch was dug around the place where they wanted to build; the earth thrown out of it inside formed an artificial hill; around the latter, quadrangular beams were driven in and tightly tied to each other, so that a continuous palisade was formed, which was often reinforced with wooden towers, at a certain distance from one another. In this enclosure, wooden buildings were erected that served as servants' quarters, stables, barns and storerooms. Above them rose a huge square wooden tower, which in case of a siege was covered on the outside with freshly flayed animal skins to protect it from fire: it was the donjon, that is, the lord's house.

However, since the end of the 10th century, the fortification system has been constantly improved: the walls become higher, the ditches become deeper, additional defensive structures appear in the ledges of the fence, and, most importantly, wood gradually gives way to stone, which was first used only for the construction of the dungeon and only then for the construction the entire castle ensemble as a whole.

The first fence of the castle was protected by all sorts of defensive structures designed to stop too rapid an attack by the enemy: hedges, slingshots (placed between pillars driven into the ground), earthen embankments, hedges, various protruding structures, for example, a traditional barbican that protected access to drawbridge. 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) and wider (up to 22 m). Sometimes the moat was even filled with water. In shape, it more often resembled the letter V than U. If a ditch was dug directly under the wall, a fence, a lower rampart, was erected above it to protect the patrol path outside the fortress. This piece of land was called a palisade.

The fence itself consisted of thick solid walls - curtains. And various side structures, collectively called towers. The fortress wall rose directly above the moat, its bases went deep into the ground, and the bottom was made as flat as possible to prevent possible undermining by the attackers, as well as so that shells dropped from a height would ricochet off it. The material and method of building the wall differed depending on the place and time: from stones, bricks, hewn parallelepipeds, smooth or convex. The processed stones formed the outer and inner shell of the wall; the inside consisted of rubble stone and slaked lime. This created an exceptionally strong structure, which, due to its height, was difficult to climb over, due to its strength and thickness, difficult to penetrate with siege weapons, and due to the depth of the foundation, difficult to undermine.
The shape of the fence depended on its location, but its perimeter was always significant. The height of the curtains ranged from 6 to 10 m, the thickness - from 1.5 to 3 m. The 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 were in the corners and near the entrance gates. The towers were built hollow, inside they were divided into floors by floors made of wooden planks with a hole in the center or on the side through which a rope passed, used to lift shells to the upper platform in case of defending the fortress. The stairs were hidden by partitions in the walls. Thus, each floor was a room where the soldiers were located; it was possible to light a fire in a fireplace built into the thickness of the wall. The only openings in the tower were the archery loopholes, long and narrow openings that widened into the interior of the room. In France, for example, the height of such loopholes is usually 1 m, and the width is 30 cm on the outside and 1.3 m on the inside. Such a structure made it difficult for enemy arrows to penetrate, but the defenders had the opportunity to shoot in different directions.
At the top of the fortress wall there was a so-called sentinel path, protected from the outside by a jagged parapet. It served for observation, communication between towers and defense of the fortress. A large wooden board was sometimes attached to the battlements between two embrasures, held on a horizontal axis, behind which crossbowmen took cover to load their weapons. During the wars, the patrol route was supplemented with something like a folding wooden gallery of the required shape, mounted in front of the parapet. Holes were made in the floor so that the defenders could shoot from above if the attackers took cover at the foot of the wall. Starting from the end of the 12th century, especially in the southern regions of France, these wooden galleries, not very durable and easily flammable, began to be replaced by real stone projections, built along with the parapet. These are the so-called machicolations, galleries with hinged loopholes. They performed the same function as before, but their advantage was their greater strength and the fact that they made it possible to throw cannonballs down, which then ricocheted off the gentle slope of the wall. Sometimes several secret doors were made in the fortress wall for the passage of infantrymen, but only one large gate was always built, which was invariably fortified with special care, since it was on them that the main blow of the attackers fell.

A bridge over a moat leads to the outer gate of the castle. Depending on the width of the ditch, it is supported by one or more supports. While the outer part of the bridge is fixed, the last section 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 on and in the gate building. The bridge is raised by muscle power on ropes or chains running through blocks in the slots of the wall. To make work easier, counterweights can be used. The chain can go through 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 horizontal beams threaded through it. Another way to lift 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 end inside the gate. This design facilitates rapid lifting of the bridge. Finally, the bridge plate can be designed according to the rocker principle. The outer part of the plate, rotating around an axis at the base of the goal, 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 lowered. Such a bridge is called a tilting or swinging bridge.
For entry when the main gate is closed, there is a gate located on the side of the gate, to which sometimes a separate lift ladder leads. As the most vulnerable point of the lock, the gate also locks and protects other devices. First of all, these are gate leaves, firmly knocked together from two layers of boards and lined with iron on the outside to protect against arson. Most often, the gates are double-leaf, with one of the leaves having a small door through which one person can bend over. In addition to locks and iron bolts, the gate is also locked by a cross beam. It is located in a channel cut into the wall of the gate and slides into a recess located in the opposite wall. The cross beam can also be inserted into hook-shaped slots in the walls. It increases the stability of the gate and prevents it from landing.
Next, the gate is protected by a lowering grate: a device already known to the Romans. In the Middle Ages, it was first found in the castles of the Crusaders and from that time spread throughout Europe. The lattice is most often wooden, with bound lower ends. It can also be made of iron, made of steel tetrahedral rods connected by iron strips. The lowering grille can either hang outside, moving in grooves on the sides of the gate, or behind the gate leaves through a slot in the ceiling, or located in the middle, cutting off the front part of the portal. It hangs on ropes or chains, which can be cut off if necessary, and is quickly lowered by the force of its own weight.
The lower floor of the gate building or gate tower, the portal, may have slots and loopholes on the sides for archers and crossbowmen. Usually it is vaulted, and at the top of the vault there is a vertical hole, which serves to defeat the enemy from above and communicate between the sentries below and on the upper floor. There is a guard on duty here, whose task is to guard the drawbridge, ask arrivals for the name and purpose of the visit, raise the bridge when attacked and, if it is too late for this, pour water on the attackers through the tar nose.

In addition to the gaps between the battlements, where the arrow was protected by overhead shields, it was also possible to shoot from a bow or crossbow through loopholes. The archer needed more freedom of movement than the crossbowman; his position was in the shooting niche. For archers, loopholes were long, narrow slits in the wall. Short loopholes with extensions on the sides, called keyholes because of their shape, were intended for the crossbowman. A special form of loophole that provided maximum protection to the shooter were ball loopholes - a freely rotating wooden ball fixed in the wall with a loophole slot.

On defensive structures there are often cantilever projections with different purposes. Resin noses served, as their name suggests, to pour liquids on the enemy at the base of the wall, such as boiling water, oil, resin, or to fire at the enemy. These can be regularly spaced houses without a floor under a common pitched roof, or protection in front of a passage in a wall of various shapes.
Towers are often located in the circumferential wall, most often having the shape of a square, rectangle or circle in plan. During the Crusades, knights were able to appreciate the benefits of flanking, which allowed them to shoot along the walls, hitting the enemy who reached its base. The shapes of the flanking towers protruding from the wall depended on the landscape, tradition and simply chance. In addition to the rectangle, triangle or semicircle, there are other geometric shapes. Small, most often round or in the shape of regular polygons, turrets designed for observation and located in the corners of the wall or buttresses were called pepper shakers. Sometimes the inner side of towers built into the walls was left open. This prevented the enemy from gaining a foothold in them, and also contributed to saving material and working time. Such towers are called shell towers.

Of the castle towers, one, smaller in volume, rose significantly above the others; it had dormer windows on all four sides. This tower, called a watchtower, served as a place of observation. Here, alarm bells hung on two beams, which sounded the alarm when they saw the enemy in the vicinity, in order to warn residents of his approach. At this signal, the peasants left work and went to the castle to defend themselves under the command of their owner. There was always a guard on the watchtower. He blew his horn at dawn to get ready for work; He gave a special cry when there was a theft or murder in the castle. This cry was repeated by each of the vassals, which promptly prevented the escape of the culprit.

This is the first milestone. However, each more or less serious castle had at least two more rows of defensive structures (ditches, hedges, curtains, towers, parapets, gates and bridges), smaller in size, but built on the same principle. A fairly significant distance was left between them, so each castle looked like a small fortified city. 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 constituted the lower courtyard. There was a real village there: the houses of peasants who worked on the master's fields, workshops and dwellings of artisans (blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, carvers, carriage makers), a threshing floor and stable, a bakery, a community mill and press, a well, a fountain, sometimes a pond with live fish, washroom, traders' counters. Later, such settlements began to go beyond the castle and settle in its surroundings on the other side of the moat. Their inhabitants, as well as the rest of the inhabitants of the seigneury, took refuge behind the fortress walls only in case of serious danger.
Each subsequent wall was, of course, higher than the previous one. 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, and a pond.

Behind the “shirt,” that is, the last fence, stood the donjon. It was usually built not in the center of the castle, but in its most inaccessible part; it simultaneously served as both the dwelling of the feudal lord and the military center of the fortress. It surpassed all other buildings in height, often exceeding 25 m: It could be square, rectangular, hexagonal, octagonal, but round ones with a diameter of 15 to 20 m and a wall thickness of 3 to 4 m are more common.
Like the watchtowers, the donjon was divided inside into floors by means of wooden floors. 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. One got inside via 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 lord's life. Here he dined, entertained, received guests and vassals, and even administered justice in winter. On the floor above were the rooms of the castle owner and his wife; They climbed there along a narrow stone staircase in the wall. On the fourth and fifth floors there are common rooms for children, servants and subjects. The guests also slept there. The top of the donjon resembled the top of a fortress wall with its crenellated parapet and sentinel path, as well as additional wooden or stone galleries. To this was added a watchtower to monitor the surrounding area.
The first floor, that is, the floor under the large hall, did not have a single opening leading out. However, it was neither a prison nor a stone bag, as archaeologists of the last century assumed. Usually there was a storeroom where firewood, wine, grain and weapons were stored. In some dungeons, 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 supplies for a year, and not at all to facilitate secret escape, romantic or forced.

The interior of the lord's home can be characterized by three features: simplicity, modest decoration, and a small amount of furniture. The main hall, no matter how high (from 7 to 12 meters) and spacious (from 50 to 150 meters), always remained one room. Sometimes it was divided into several rooms by some kind of draperies, 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 wall, similar to tower loopholes for archery. There was a stone bench in front of the windows, which was used for talking or looking 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 made of wicker rod or metal, or covered with glued fabric or an oiled sheet of parchment nailed to the frame. A folding wooden sash was attached to the window, usually internal rather than external; usually it was not closed unless one slept in the large hall. Even though 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 was replaced not only by the fireplace fire, but also by tar 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 overcome dampness - the real scourge of a medieval home. Wax candles, like glass, were intended only for the richest homes and churches.
The floor in the hall was made of wooden planks, clay or, less commonly, stone slabs, however, no matter what it was, it was never left uncovered. In winter, it was covered with straw, either finely chopped or woven into rough mats. In spring and summer - reeds, branches and flowers (lilies, gladioli, irises). Fragrant herbs and fragrant plants, such as mint and verbena, were placed along the walls. Woolen carpets and bedspreads made from embroidered fabrics were generally used for seating only in bedrooms. In the large hall, everyone usually sat on the floor, laying down skins and furs.
The ceiling, which is also the floor of the upper floor, often remained untreated, but in the 13th century they began to try to decorate it with beams and caissons, creating geometric patterns, heraldic friezes or ornate patterns with images of animals. Sometimes the walls were painted in the same way, but more often they were simply painted in a specific color (preference was given to red and yellow ocher) or covered with a pattern that imitated the appearance of cut stone or a chessboard. Frescoes depicting allegorical and historical scenes, borrowed from legends, the Bible or literary works, are already appearing in princely houses. It is known, for example, that King Henry III of England loved 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 luxury remained available only to the sovereign. An ordinary vassal, an 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” kept in Bayeux. Tapestries made it possible to hide a door or window or to divide a large room into several rooms - “bedrooms”. This word quite often did not mean the room where they slept, but the totality of all the tapestries, embroidered cloths and various fabrics intended for interior decoration. When going on a trip, tapestries were always taken with them, because they constituted the main element of decorating an aristocratic home, capable of giving it individuality. In the 13th century, only wooden furniture existed. It was constantly moved because, with the exception of the bed, the rest of the furniture did not have a single purpose. Thus, the chest, the main type of furniture, served simultaneously as a wardrobe, table and seat. To perform the latter function, it could have a back and even handles. However, the chest is only an additional seat. Mostly they 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. Squires and women sat on armfuls of straw, sometimes covered with embroidered cloth, or simply on the floor, like servants and lackeys. Several boards placed on trestles made up a table; during meals it was placed in the center of the hall. It turned out to be long, narrow and somewhat taller than modern tables. The diners sat on one side, leaving the other free for serving dishes.

There was little furniture: besides chests, into which dishes, household utensils, clothes, money and letters were stuffed 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 drapery or closed with doors. Clothes were usually not folded, but rolled and scented. Letters written on parchment were also rolled up before placing 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 idea of ​​the furniture and decor of the main hall of the donjon, you still need to add a few boxes, some trinkets and some religious accessories. As we see, in this regard it is very far from abundance. The bedrooms had even less furniture: men had a bed and a chest, women had a bed and something like a dressing table. There were no benches or chairs; people sat on straw covered with a cloth, on the floor or on the bed. The huge square bed looked more wide than long. They usually didn’t sleep alone. Even if the lord of the castle and his wife had separate bedrooms, they still shared one bed. In the rooms of children, servants or guests, beds were also shared. Two, four or six people slept on them.
The lord's bed usually stood on a raised platform, with his head towards the wall and his feet towards 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 no different from modern ones. A feather bed was placed on a straw mattress or mattress, and a lower sheet was laid on top of it. She was covered with a top sheet that was not tucked in. On top lay a down or cotton blanket, quilted like modern ones. The bolster and cushions in pillowcases are also similar to the ones we use today. White embroidered sheets were made from linen or silk, woolen bedspreads were lined with ermine or squirrel fur. Less wealthy people used burlap instead of silk, and twill instead of wool. In this soft and spacious bed (so wide that it was possible to make it only by helping oneself with a stick), people usually slept completely naked, but with a cap on their head. Before going to bed, clothes were hung on a rod like a hanger driven into the wall, protruding almost to the middle of the room parallel to the bed; only the shirt was left on, but this was also taken off in bed and, folded, placed under the pillow to be put on again early in the morning. , before standing up.
The fireplace in the bedroom was not lit all day. He was divorced only in the evening during a family vigil, which took place here in a more intimate setting than in the large hall. In the hall there was a truly gigantic fireplace, designed for large logs; in front of him stood several benches that could seat ten, fifteen or even twenty people. A conical exhaust 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 against 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 built in the form of a pyramid of brick and wood.

Sometimes a palace was used as a living space for gentlemen instead of a donjon. Depending on the size of the castle and its purpose or location, the palace can be arranged in different ways. Only in large princely castles is there a palace that fits the usual description - an elongated, imposing building, whose upper floor is a large (knight's) hall with decorated arched windows and to which an arch leads from the courtyard. It should be noted that the term knight's hall was not used in the Middle Ages, and is an invention of the romantic 19th century. In romances of chivalry, the room designated in this way plays an important role. Sometimes the lower floor of the palace served as a living and dining area for castle people and guests. Most often this is a vaulted hall with columns in the middle. Since the castle was primarily intended for defense, the palace was built with these goals in mind. Although defense here was not particularly promising, with locked entrances and windows covered with wooden shields with loopholes, or with loopholes and tar holes in the gallery under the roof and battlements and machicolations at its base, it was still possible.
The location of the palace in the overall scheme of the castle was also important. Taking into account its functions, it was given the safest possible place inside the castle and the passage to it was protected by additional barriers. The decisive factor was, first of all, the available space inside the ring of walls determined by the features of the relief.

The most important thing for life in the castle was to have an adequate supply of water. Therefore, it is not surprising that despite the gigantic amount of work, their cost and technical difficulties, very deep wells were made in the rocks from the top of the mountain to the aquifers at its base. Well shafts deeper than 100 m were not at all uncommon. The location of the well depended primarily on natural causes, although a safe location in the courtyard or, if possible, in one of the rear ones was preferred, to ensure a supply of water in case of a siege. If the well was located in the open air, then a special structure was built above it, where more or less expensive lifting equipment was located. If, due to natural reasons, a well could not be made inside the castle, but only outside its walls, then it needed special protection, most often built in the form of an external tower.
If there was no way to provide a castle from groundwater, then a cistern was built to collect rainwater from the roofs. In this case, the water needed purification, for which it was filtered through gravel. Depending on the productivity of the source, the castles had both wells and cisterns, as well as storage pools, in order to have a sufficient supply of water for all cases of war and peace. Water pipelines were rare, as the enemy could easily destroy them. Water was used to quench the thirst of people and animals, as well as for body care. For the latter, they either took a bath in a special vat or built a steam bath. To care for the horses, a small artificial pond was sometimes made. In addition, water was also needed for military purposes, to pour boiling water on the enemy.

The castle household had to be autonomous due to its location and possible siege. Therefore, in addition to the castle kitchen, there was a bakery as an extension or a separate building. In the castle kitchen, food was cooked over an open fire on a raised platform under a powerful chimney.
The walls only partially protected from the cold; without heating, they cooled down and absorbed moisture. Those who could afford it lined the walls with boards or hung them with carpets. Small windows let in less cold. .

Sanitation, water supply and personal hygiene were closely linked in castles. Where water had to be obtained with difficulty from wells, taken from tanks or delivered several kilometers away, its economical use was the first commandment. At that time, caring for animals, especially expensive horses, was more important than personal hygiene.
The bathhouse contained not only tubs for washing, but also a steam bath. To produce steam, water was poured onto hot stones. Baths and baths, of course, were a typical property of the castles of the high nobility and were usually located on the first floor of the palace or residential tower, as they required a large amount of water. On the contrary, they are rarely found in the castles of ordinary knights. Various brushes, including toothbrushes, nail and ear cleaners were also required equipment and their existence can be traced through sources in individual castles. Small mirrors were known, but they were considered luxury items, since they could only be made in Venice. Some, mostly noble ladies, wore wigs, dyed their hair or curled it.
On the plains, already in the early Middle Ages, hygienically progressive toilets were installed in monasteries - running water from rivers and streams was used for flushing. But in high castles this method was impossible. In some residential towers, tower-like extensions are found, possibly used as outhouses. Below, at the base of the tower or even below its level, feces collected. From the inside, the outhouses were initially open to view, but later they began to be closed with a door, turning them into a “secret room.”

You write about a baron in a castle - at least have a rough idea of ​​how the castle was heated, how it was ventilated, how it was lit...
From an interview with G. L. Oldie

When we hear the word “castle,” our imagination conjures up an image of a majestic fortress - the hallmark of the fantasy genre. There is hardly any other architectural structure that would attract so much attention from historians, military experts, tourists, writers and lovers of “fairy-tale” fiction.

We play computer, board and role-playing games where we have to explore, build or capture impenetrable castles. But do we know what these fortifications actually are? What interesting stories are associated with them? What do the stone walls hide behind - witnesses of entire eras, grandiose battles, knightly nobility and vile betrayal?

Surprisingly, it is a fact - 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 focus primarily on medieval European feudal fortresses, since they served as the basis for the creation of a mass artistic image of a “medieval castle” as a whole.

Birth of a fortress

The Middle Ages in Europe were a turbulent time. The feudal lords, for any reason, organized small wars among themselves - or rather, not even wars, but, in modern language, armed “showdowns”. If a neighbor had money, it had to be taken away. Lots of land and peasants? This is simply indecent, because God ordered sharing. And if knightly honor was affected, then it was simply impossible to do without a small victorious war.

Under such circumstances, the large aristocratic landowners had no choice but to strengthen their homes with the expectation that one fine day their neighbors might come to visit them, and if they don’t feed them bread, let them kill someone.

Initially, these fortifications were made of wood and did not resemble the castles we know in any way - except that a ditch was dug in front of the entrance and a wooden palisade was placed around the house.

The manorial courts of Hasterknaup and Elmendorv are the ancestors of the 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 antiquity. The earliest structures of this kind copied 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 classic castles appeared in the 12th century.

The besieged castle of Mortan (withstood the siege for 6 months).

The castle had very simple requirements - it must be inaccessible to the enemy, provide surveillance of the area (including the nearest villages belonging to the owner of the castle), have its own source of water (in case of a siege) and perform representative functions - that is, show the power and wealth of the feudal lord.

Beaumarie Castle, owned by Edward I.

Welcome

We are heading to the castle, which stands on a ledge of a mountain slope, at the edge of a fertile valley. The road goes through a small settlement - one of those that usually grew up near the fortress wall. Simple people live here - mostly artisans, and warriors guarding the outer perimeter of defense (in particular, guarding our road). These are the so-called “castle people”.

Scheme of castle structures. Note that there are two gate towers, the largest one standing separately.

The road is laid in such a way that the newcomers 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 at a significant slope (the castle itself stands on an elevation - natural or embankment). The vegetation here is low so that there is no cover for attackers.

The first obstacle is a deep ditch, and in front of it is a shaft of excavated earth. The moat can be transverse (separates the castle wall from the plateau) or crescent-shaped, curved forward. If the landscape allows, a 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 bottom shape of ditches could be V-shaped or 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, preventing only the advance of infantry (it is almost impossible to dig under the castle wall in the rock - therefore the depth of the ditch was not of decisive importance).

The crest of the earthen rampart lying directly in front of the ditch (which makes it seem even deeper) often carried a palisade - a fence made of wooden stakes dug into the ground, pointed and tightly fitted to each other.

A bridge spanning a moat leads to the outer wall of the castle. Depending on the size of the ditch and bridge, the latter is supported by one or more supports (huge logs). The outer part of the bridge is fixed, but the last section (right next to the wall) is movable.

Scheme of the entrance to the castle: 2 - gallery on the wall, 3 - drawbridge, 4 - grate.

Counterweights on the gate lift.

Castle gate.

This drawbridge is designed so that in a vertical position it covers 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 openings. To facilitate the work of people servicing the bridge mechanism, the ropes were sometimes equipped with heavy counterweights, taking part of the weight of this structure on themselves.

Of particular interest is the bridge, which worked on the principle of a swing (it is called “tipping” or “swinging”). One half of it was inside - lying on the ground under the gate, and the other stretched across the ditch. When the inner part rose, covering the entrance to the castle, the outer part (which the attackers sometimes already managed to run into) sank down into the ditch, where the so-called “wolf pit” was built (sharp stakes dug into the ground), invisible from the outside until the bridge is down.

To enter the castle when the gates were closed, there was a side gate next to them, to which a separate lift ladder was usually laid.

The gate is the most vulnerable part of the castle; it was usually not made directly into its wall, but was located in the so-called “gate towers”. Most often, the gates were double-leaf, and the doors were knocked together from two layers of boards. To protect against arson, they were lined with iron on the outside. At the same time, in one of the doors there was a small narrow door that could only be passed through 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 cross beam could also be inserted into hook-shaped slots on the walls. Its main purpose was to protect the goal from being attacked by attackers.

Behind the gate there was usually a lowering grate. Most often it was made of wood, with lower ends bound in iron. But there were also iron gratings made from steel tetrahedral rods. The lattice could descend from a gap in the arch of the gate portal, or be located behind them (on the inside of the gate tower), descending along grooves in the walls.

The grate hung on ropes or chains, which in case of danger could be cut off so that it would quickly fall down, blocking the path of the invaders.

Inside the gate tower there were rooms for guards. They kept watch on the upper platform of the tower, learned from the guests the purpose of their visit, opened the gates, and, if necessary, could shoot with a bow all those who passed under them. For this purpose, in the arch of the gate portal there were vertical loopholes, as well as “resin noses” - holes for pouring hot resin onto the attackers.

Tar noses.

All on the wall!

The most important defensive element of the castle was the outer wall - high, thick, sometimes on an inclined base. Processed 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 external one and a small internal one. An empty space appeared between them, which received the German name “zwinger”. The attackers, when 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 in the walls of the zwinger for archers).

Zwinger at Lanek Castle.

At the top of the wall there was a gallery for defense soldiers. On the outside of the castle they were protected by a strong parapet of half human height, on which stone battlements were regularly located. You could stand behind them at full height and, for example, load a crossbow. The shape of the teeth was extremely varied - rectangular, round, swallowtail-shaped, decoratively decorated. In some castles, the galleries were covered (wooden canopy) to protect the soldiers from the weather.

In addition to the battlements, behind which it was convenient to hide, the castle walls were equipped with loopholes. The attackers fired through them. Due to the peculiarities of using throwing weapons (freedom of movement and a certain shooting position), the loopholes for archers were long and narrow, and for crossbowmen they were short, with expansion on the sides.

A special type of loophole is a ball loophole. It was a freely rotating wooden ball fixed to the wall with a slot for firing.

Pedestrian gallery on the wall.

Balconies (the so-called “machiculi”) were installed 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 be adapted for storage. The inner sides of such towers (facing the castle courtyard) were usually left open so that an enemy who broke into the wall could not gain a foothold inside them.

Flanking corner tower.

Castle from the inside

The internal structure of the locks was varied. 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 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, rooms for servants) and a central tower, also known as the “donjon”.

Donjon at Vincennes Castle.

The life of all the inhabitants of the castle directly depended on the presence and location of the well. Problems often arose with it - after all, as mentioned above, castles were built on hills. The solid rocky soil also did not make the task of supplying water to the fortress any easier. There are known cases of castle wells being laid to a depth of more than 100 meters (for example, 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 the entire interior of the castle cost.

Due to the fact that water had to be obtained with difficulty from deep wells, issues of personal hygiene and sanitation faded into the background. Instead of washing themselves, people preferred to care for animals - especially expensive horses. It is not surprising that townspeople and villagers wrinkled their noses in the presence of castle inhabitants.

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 a siege. If, due to the nature 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 into 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 purification - it was filtered through gravel.

The military garrison of castles in peacetime was minimal. So in 1425, two co-owners of the castle of Reichelsberg in the Lower Franconian Aube entered into an agreement that each of them would provide one armed servant, and pay two gatekeepers and two guards together.

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 ability to observe the surrounding area and served as a last refuge. When the enemies broke through all the defense lines, 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 have taken 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 thereby block the attackers' path.

Entrance to the donjon.

Inside the tower there was sometimes a very high shaft going from top to bottom. It served either as a prison or a warehouse. Entry into it was possible only through a hole in the vault of the upper floor - “Angstloch” (German - terrifying hole). Depending on the purpose of the mine, the winch lowered prisoners or provisions into it.

If there were no prison premises 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, to obtain a ransom or to use the prisoner in a political game. Therefore, VIPs were provided with the highest class - guarded chambers in the tower were allocated for their maintenance. This is exactly how Frederick the Handsome “spent his time” at the castle of Trausnitz on Pfeimde 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 basement, 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 distributed heat only a few meters, so 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 (less often 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 erected there.

Sometimes the donjon did not serve as a living space. It could well have been used only for military-economic purposes (observation posts on the tower, dungeon, food 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 palaces had a large knightly hall for celebrations. It was very cold in the dungeons and palaces. Fireplace heating helped, but the walls were still covered with thick tapestries and carpets - not for decoration, but to preserve heat.

The windows let in very little sunlight (this was due to the fortification nature of the castle architecture); 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 a unique feeling.

Castle toilet.

Concluding our “tour” of the castle, we cannot fail to mention that it necessarily had a room for worship (temple, chapel). The indispensable inhabitants of the castle included 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 a temple was played by a wall niche where a small altar stood.

Large temples had two floors. Commoners prayed below, and gentlemen gathered in a warm (sometimes glassed-in) choir on the second tier. The decoration of such rooms was quite modest - an altar, benches and wall paintings. Sometimes the temple served as a tomb for the family living in the castle. Less often it was used as a refuge (along with the donjon).

There are many tales told about underground passages in castles. Of course, there were moves. But 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 dungeon to a complex of caves under the castle (an additional shelter, warehouse or treasury).

War on earth and underground

Contrary to popular misconception, the average number of military garrisons 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 food supply routes. That is why the attacking armies were much larger than the defending ones - about 150 people (this is true for a war of mediocre feudal lords).

The issue of provisions was the most painful. A person can live without water for several days, without food - about a month (one should take into account his low combat effectiveness during a hunger strike). Therefore, the owners of a castle preparing for a siege often took extreme measures - they drove out all the commoners who could not benefit the defense. As mentioned above, the garrison of the castles was small - it was impossible to feed an entire army under siege conditions.

The inhabitants of the castle rarely launched counterattacks. This simply did not make sense - there were fewer of them than the attackers, and they felt much calmer behind the walls. A special case is forays for food. 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 lasted for years (for example, the German Turant defended from 1245 to 1248), so the question of logistics for an army of several hundred people arose especially acutely.

In the case of the siege of Turant, chroniclers claim that during all this time the soldiers of the attacking army drank 300 fuders of wine (a fuder is a huge barrel). This amounts to about 2.8 million liters. Either the census taker made a mistake, or the constant number of besiegers was more than 1000 people.

The most preferred season for starving a castle was summer - there is less rain than in spring or autumn (in winter, the inhabitants of the castle could get water by melting snow), the crops were not yet ripe, and old supplies had 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 area. Those inhabitants of the castle who were captured were mutilated by the attackers and released. They returned back and became unwitting parasites. They might not have been accepted at the castle, but if they were the wives or children of the besieged, then the voice of the heart outweighed considerations of tactical expediency.

The residents of the surrounding villages who tried to deliver supplies to the castle were treated no less cruelly. In 1161, during the siege of Milan, Frederick Barbarossa ordered the hands of 25 townspeople of Piacenza who were trying to supply food to their enemies to be cut off.

The besiegers set up a permanent camp near the castle. It also had some simple fortifications (palisades, earthen ramparts) in case of a sudden attack by the fortress’s defenders. For protracted sieges, a so-called “counter-castle” was built 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 weapons.

View of Eltz Castle from Trutz-Eltz Counter-Castle.

The war against castles had its own specifics. After all, any more or less high stone fortification presented a serious obstacle to conventional armies. Direct infantry attacks on the fortress could well be crowned with success, which, however, came at the cost of great casualties.

That is why, in order to successfully capture the castle, a whole complex of military measures was necessary (the siege and starvation have already been mentioned above). One of the most labor-intensive, but at the same time extremely successful ways to overcome the castle’s defenses was undermining.

Undermining was done for two purposes - to provide troops with direct access to the castle's courtyard or to destroy a section of its wall.

Thus, during the siege of the Altwindstein castle in Northern Alsace in 1332, a brigade of sappers of 80 (!) people took advantage of the diversionary maneuvers of their troops (periodic short attacks on the castle) and over the course of 10 weeks made a long passage through solid rock into the south-eastern part of the fortress .

If the castle wall was not too large and had an unreliable foundation, then a tunnel was dug under its base, the walls of which were strengthened with wooden struts. Next, the spacers were set on fire - just under the wall. The tunnel was collapsing, the base of the foundation was sagging, and the wall above this place was falling apart.

Storming of the castle (14th century miniature).

Later, with the advent of gunpowder weapons, bombs were planted in tunnels under castle walls. To neutralize the undermining, the besieged sometimes dug counter-undermining. Enemy sappers were doused with boiling water, bees were released into the tunnel, feces were poured into it (and in ancient times, the Carthaginians released 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 a ball in any bowl began to tremble, this was a sure sign that a tunnel was being mined nearby.

But the main argument in attacking the castle were siege engines - catapults and rams. The first were not much different from those catapults that were used by the Romans. These devices were equipped with a counterweight, which imparted the greatest force to the throwing arm. 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 projectiles.

A type of catapult is a trebuchet.

Sometimes the catapults were loaded with barrels filled with flammable materials. To give the castle defenders a couple of pleasant minutes, catapults threw the severed heads of prisoners to them (especially powerful machines could even throw whole corpses over the wall).

Storming a castle using 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 looked like a log suspended on a chain. The besiegers hid inside the tower and swung the chain, causing the log to hit the wall.

In response, the besieged lowered a rope from the wall, at the end of which steel hooks were attached. With this rope they caught the ram and tried to lift it up, depriving it of mobility. Sometimes an unwary soldier could get caught on such hooks.

Having overcome the rampart, broken the palisades and filled in the ditch, the attackers either stormed the castle using ladders or used tall wooden towers, the upper platform of which was flush with the wall (or even higher than it). These gigantic structures were doused with water to prevent the defenders from setting them on fire and were rolled up to the castle along a plank flooring. A heavy platform was thrown over the wall. The assault group climbed up the internal stairs, went out onto the platform and fought into the gallery of the fortress wall. Usually this meant that in a couple of minutes the castle would be taken.

Silent Sapa

Sapa (from the French sape, literally - hoe, saper - to dig) is a method of digging a ditch, trench or tunnel to approach its fortifications, used in the 16th-19th centuries. The switchback (quiet, secretive) and flying glanders are known. Work with a shift gland was carried out from the bottom of the original ditch without workers going to the surface, and with a flying gland - from the surface of the earth under the cover of a previously prepared protective embankment of barrels and bags of earth. In the 2nd 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: to sneak, slowly, unnoticed, to penetrate somewhere.

Fights on the castle stairs

From one floor of the tower it was possible to get to another only by a narrow and steep spiral staircase. The ascent along it was carried out only one after another - it was so narrow. In this case, the warrior who went first could only count on his own ability to fight, because the steepness of the turn was chosen in such a way that it was impossible to use a spear or long sword from behind the leader’s back. Therefore, the battles on the stairs were reduced to single combat between the defenders of the castle and one of the attackers. Namely the defenders, because they could easily replace each other, since there was a special extended area behind them.

In all castles, the stairs twist clockwise. There is only one castle with a reverse twist - the fortress of the Counts Wallenstein. When studying the history of this family, it was discovered 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 most powerful blow with a sword can be delivered towards your left shoulder, and a shield in your left hand best covers your body from this direction. Only the defender has all these advantages. The attacker can only strike to the right side, but his striking hand will be pressed against the wall. If he puts his shield forward, he will almost lose the ability to use weapons.

Samurai castles

Himeji Castle.

We know the least about exotic castles - for example, Japanese ones.

Initially, samurai and their overlords lived on their estates, where, apart from the “yagura” watchtower and a small moat around the dwelling, there were no other defensive structures. In case of a protracted war, fortifications were erected in 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 feature of a Japanese castle are wide and deep artificial ditches with steep slopes that surrounded it on all sides. Usually they were filled with water, but sometimes this function was performed by a natural water barrier - a river, lake, 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 Honmaru, on which the feudal lord's palace and the high central tenshukaku tower were erected. The latter consisted of several gradually decreasing rectangular tiers with protruding tiled roofs and pediments.

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.

Ancient charm

Castles are still being built today. Those that were state property 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, which combines unity (defense considerations did not allow the picturesque distribution of buildings throughout the territory), multi-level buildings (main and secondary) and the utmost functionality of all components. Elements of castle 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.

French castle of Saumur (14th century miniature).

And finally, we love castles because they are simply romantic. Knightly tournaments, ceremonial receptions, vile conspiracies, secret passages, ghosts, treasures - when applied to castles, all this ceases to be a legend and turns into history. The expression “the walls remember” fits perfectly here: it seems that every stone of the castle breathes and hides a secret. I would like to believe that medieval castles will continue to maintain an aura of mystery - because without it, sooner or later they will turn into an old pile of stones.

When large landowners appeared in Europe, they began to build fortified estates for themselves. The house, outbuildings, barns and stables were surrounded by high wooden walls. A wide ditch was usually dug in front of them, into which water was diverted from a nearby reservoir. This is how the first castles appeared. But they were fragile, since the wood began to rot over time. Therefore, the walls and buildings had to be constantly updated. In addition, such buildings could easily be set on fire.

The first real knightly castles made of stone, which are well known in our time, began to be built at the end of the 9th and beginning of the 10th centuries. In total, 15 thousand such structures were built in Europe. They were especially fond of similar buildings in England. In these lands, a construction boom began during the time of William the Conqueror in the second half of the 11th century. The stone structures rose at a distance of 30 km from each other. This proximity was very convenient in case of attack. Cavalry detachments from other castles could quickly arrive at the defenders.

In the 10th-11th centuries, defensive stone structures consisted of a high multi-tiered tower. It was called donjon and was home to the knight and his family. It also housed food, servants, and armed guards. A prison was set up in which prisoners were kept. They dug a deep well in the basement. It was filled with groundwater. Therefore, the inhabitants of the donjon were not afraid of being left without water in the event of a long siege.

From the second half of the 11th century, the dungeons began to be surrounded by stone walls. Since that time, the defensive capabilities of the castle have increased significantly. The enemies first had to overcome high, strong walls, and then also take possession of a multi-tiered tower. And from it it was very convenient to pour hot resin on the heads of the invaders, shoot arrows and throw large stones.

The most active construction of reliable stone structures began in 1150-1250. It was during these 100 years that the largest number of castles were built. Kings and rich nobles built magnificent structures. Small nobles erected small but reliable stone fortresses.

At the beginning of the 13th century, towers began to be made not square, but round.. This design was more resistant against throwing machines and rams. In the 90s of the 13th century, one central tower was abandoned. Instead, they began to make many towers, and surrounded them with 2 or even 3 rows of walls. Much more attention was paid to strengthening the gates.

Previously, knightly castles were protected only by heavy doors and a rising bridge over a moat. Now a powerful metal grille has been installed behind the gate. She could go down and up, and was called gers. Its tactical advantage was that it could be used to shoot arrows at attackers through it. This innovation was supplemented barbican. It was a round tower located in front of the gate.

Therefore, the enemies first had to take possession of it, then overcome the drawbridge, break the metal grating of the castle, and only after that, overcoming the fierce resistance of the defenders, penetrate into the interior of the castle. And on top of the walls, the builders made stone galleries with special openings to the outside. Through them, the besieged fired bows and poured hot tar on their enemies.

Medieval knight's castle and its defensive elements

In these practically impregnable stone fortresses, everything was subject to maximum security. But they cared much less about internal comfort. There were few windows, and they were all narrow. Instead of glass, mica or the intestines of cows, bulls, and buffaloes were used. Therefore, even on a bright sunny day there was twilight in the rooms. There were a great many different staircases, corridors and passages. They created drafts. And this had a negative impact on the health of residents.

The rooms had fireplaces, and the smoke escaped through chimneys. But it was very difficult to heat rooms made of stone. Therefore, people have always suffered from lack of heat. The floors were also stone. They were covered with hay and straw on top. Furniture included wooden beds, benches, wardrobes, tables and chests. Hunting trophies in the form of stuffed animals and weapons hung on the walls. And this is how noble families lived with their servants and guards.

Attitudes towards comfort and convenience began to change at the beginning of the 14th century. Knights' castles began to be built from brick. Accordingly, they became much warmer. Builders stopped making narrow window openings. They expanded significantly, and multi-colored glass replaced mica. The walls and floors were covered with carpets. Carved wooden furniture and porcelain dishes imported from the east appeared. That is, the fortresses turned into quite tolerable places to live.

At the same time, the locks retained such important functions as storage for products. They had basements and cellars. Grain, smoked meats, dried fruits and vegetables were stored in them. There were stocks of wine and fish in wooden barrels. Honey was stored in clay jugs filled with wax. Lard was salted in stone containers.

The halls and corridors were illuminated by oil lamps or torches. Candles made of wax or tallow were used in residential areas. A separate tower was intended for hay. It was kept for horses, of which there were a lot at that time. Each fortress had its own bakery. Bread was baked daily for the masters and their servants.

Ordinary people settled around these majestic buildings. In case of enemy attack, people hid behind strong walls. They also sheltered their livestock and property. Therefore, gradually, first villages and then small towns began to appear around the knights’ castles. Markets and fairs were held right under the walls. The owner of the fortress did not object to this at all, since such events promised him a good profit.

By the 16th century, many knightly castles were completely surrounded by residential buildings. As a result of this, they lost their military defensive significance. At this time powerful artillery began to appear. It negated the importance of strong and high walls. And gradually the once impregnable fortresses turned only into places of residence for rich people. They were also used for prisons and warehouses. Nowadays, the former majestic buildings have become history and are of interest only to tourists and historians..

Mein Herz mein Geist meine Seele, lebt nur für dich, mein Tod mein Leben meine Liebe, ist nichts ohne Dich // Shadow Troublemaker

In the Middle Ages, castles were built to protect the inhabitants of the city and to ensure the safety of the feudal lord and his family who lived in it. Most medieval castles were built from the 9th to the 12th centuries in what is now Great Britain, France, Ireland, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Sweden and Italy. In its finished form, the castle was a small town where the feudal lord’s family, his servants and workers, as well as other “townspeople” lived.

Where were castles built?
Castles were often built near bodies of water, as the seas and rivers provided great visibility for tracking down and attacking foreign invaders.
The water supply made it possible to preserve ditches and ditches, which were an indispensable part of the castle’s defense system. Castles also functioned as administrative centers, and bodies of water helped facilitate the collection of taxes, since the rivers and seas were important trade waterways.
Castles were also built on high hills or in rocky cliffs, which were difficult to attack.

Castle construction stages
At the beginning of the construction of the castle, ditches were dug in the ground around the location of the future building. Their contents were folded inside. The result was an embankment or hill called a “mott.” A castle was later built on it.
Then the castle walls were built. Often builders erected two rows of walls. The outer wall was lower than the inner one. It contained towers for the castle defenders, a drawbridge and a lock. Towers were built on the inner wall of the castle, which were used for living. The basement rooms of the towers were intended to store food in the event of a siege. The area, which was surrounded by an internal wall, was called a “bailey”. On the site there was a tower where the feudal lord lived. Castles could be supplemented with extensions.

What were castles made of?
The material from which the castles were made depended on the geology of the area. The first castles were built from wood, but later stone was used as a building material. Sand, limestone, and granite were used in construction.
All construction work was done by hand.
Castle walls rarely consisted entirely of solid stone. The outside of the wall was faced with processed stones, and on its inside, stones of uneven shape and different sizes were laid. These two layers were connected using lime mortar. The solution was prepared right on the site of the future structure, and the stones were also whitened with its help.
Wooden scaffolding was erected at the construction site. In this case, horizontal beams were stuck into holes made in the walls. Boards were placed across them on top. On the walls of medieval castles you can see square recesses. These are the marks from the scaffolding. At the end of construction, the building niches were filled with limestone, but over time it fell off.
The windows in the castles were narrow openings. Small openings were made on the castle tower so that the defenders could shoot arrows.

How much did the locks cost?
If we were talking about a royal residence, then specialists were hired throughout the country for construction. This is how the king of medieval Wales, Edward the First, built his ring castles. Masons cut stones into blocks of the correct shape and size using a hammer, chisel and measuring tools. This work required high skill.
Stone castles were an expensive pleasure. King Edward almost bankrupted the state treasury by spending £100,000 on their construction. About 3,000 workers were involved in the construction of one castle.
The construction of castles took from three to ten years. Some were built in war zones and took longer to complete the work. Most of the castles built by Edward the First still stand.

Knights and castles

If we look at knighthood as a special rite according to which young people destined for military service received the right to bear arms, then knighthood will have to be attributed to the era of Charlemagne and even earlier.

But if we look at knighthood as a title that occupied the first place in the military class and was given through investiture, accompanied by certain established religious and military rites and a solemn oath, then in this sense knighthood did not arise earlier than the 11th century.

Clerics, seeing knights as defenders of the faith and patrons of the unfortunate and orphans, looked at them as warriors worthy of heavenly rewards in the future afterlife. The Catholic Church attached great importance to this beneficent institution and sanctified the knighthood with its magnificent rituals. Thus chivalry achieved a degree of glory that even kings aspired to.

In the 10th century, such warriors appeared whose merits in the fight against the pagans ensured that everything they did in the future would be sacralized. But the pagan danger passed. It was necessary to put an end to the excesses of the knights. They defended the West, but who will now protect it from these defenders? Who, if not someone from the same knightly milieu? This is what happened thanks to the birth of chivalric ethics, which was based on the desire to achieve “God’s peace” on earth. Now, in order to be known as a knight, it was no longer enough to have a weapon, a war horse, physical strength, professional skill, or personal courage. Will and discipline were necessary in following a moral norm, the acceptance of which was indicated by the corresponding rite - the ritual of knighting.

The knightly class had special rules of behavior - the Code of Honor. The knight was supposed to follow certain rules both on the battlefield and during peace. Otherwise, he lost his honor and lost the respect of other knights.

The main virtues were considered loyalty to the lord, courage, protection of the offended and weak, respect for the enemy and generosity. Soon, these qualities were supplemented by devotion to the Beautiful Lady: a noble person, the wife of a lord, a queen, or the beloved of a knight. When a knight chose a “lady of his heart,” who would eventually become his girlfriend, he tried with all his might to earn her favor and respect. He could have earned this by deeds of valor and honor. The desire to please the lady of his heart doubled the knight’s courage and made him despise the greatest dangers. But, remaining faithful to the person he had chosen, he had to show respect and patronage to all other women. All the fairer sex were sacred persons in the eyes of the knights.

The knights were always ready to arm themselves to protect women if anyone thought of oppressing them. Indeed, if it were not for the generous patronage of the knights, many women of that time would have had a very bad time: they were too weak to retain their property without the help of men or to take revenge for the insults inflicted on them. One of the main articles of the law of chivalry was not to insult women and not allow anyone to do this in their presence.

The motto of all knights is: “God, woman and king.” They were real defenders of the fatherland. The mentioned motto shone at the luxurious and warlike festivities of the knights, in their military games, in the solemn gatherings of daredevils and beauties, in their fictional battles, in magnificent tournaments. Lies and treachery were considered the most heinous crimes among knights.

The brilliant feats performed by the knights earned them the most honorable distinctions. They were given different titles; knights had the right to sit at the same table with kings; only they alone had the right to wear spears, armor, gilded spurs, double chain mail, gold, helmets, ermine and squirrel furs, velvet, red cloth and put weather vanes on their towers.

Only a paternal nobleman who had reached the age of 21 could be knighted. However, this was also considered insufficient to admit a young man to knighthood. Anyone who wanted to receive it had to first prove his courage, generosity, honesty and valor at the lower levels of military rank.

The education of the future knight began from childhood. To develop the military spirit in a child, even his games and fun were of a warlike nature: towers and fortifications made of snow that had to be besieged or defended, exercises with a stake representing a spear, etc. When a child reached the age of seven, he passed from female hands to male hands and received initial lessons at home, under the parental roof, but at ten years old he was sent to be raised by the most important knights, with whom the child’s parents were related or friendly. The advice and example of such knights constituted the final education.

Over the centuries of its existence, the rite of initiation into warriors has undergone many changes, and, in the end, turned into a solemn ceremony, after which the right of the young man to be the master of his own destiny and words was officially recognized.

The future knight had to first take a bath (an event in itself unique for those times) and change into festive clothes. Secondly, the presentation of golden spurs was added to the girdling with a sword. To top it all off, the convert was slapped on the back of the head. This is the last blow in his life, for which there was no need to take revenge. Any experienced knight, including the young man’s relatives, could conduct the initiation ceremony. However, with the growing influence of the church, a rule of mandatory lighting of weapons appeared. At the same time, the future warrior was prescribed a strict fast the day before the ceremony. Soon, the church took credit for the right to conduct the entire ceremony, turning it into a religious ceremony.

The ceremony used in ancient times for knighting will seem too complicated to our contemporaries. The squire received initiation during a magnificent ceremony sanctified by the church. He spent the previous night in prayer - it was a “night of dedication.” The next day, the convert put on a brown cloak, confessed, received communion and washed. He would then dress in white robes, lie down, and receive ceremonial visits. After that, he put on armor. Kneeling down, he swore an oath to defend the faith, widows, orphans and the oppressed without sparing his life and property. After this, he was given gilded spurs, a sword and a baldric. The sling was tied around his neck, which signified his dedication to the church. After the church service, the priest, taking the sword, blessed it and gave it to the newly initiated, who then appeared before his lord, sitting surrounded by his comrades. Kneeling again and uttering a second oath of allegiance to knighthood, he received two or three blows with the flat of the sword on the shoulders and became a knight “in the name of God, St. Michael and St. George.” Thus initiated, the new knight put on a helmet, took a shield and spear, and immediately mounted his horse to show those around him his new dignity.

Knight's castles.

A castle is a building (or complex of buildings) that combines residential and defensive-fortification functions. In the most common meaning of the word - a fortified dwelling of a feudal lord in medieval Europe. A large number of castles have survived to this day and are recognized historical and cultural monuments.

The first predecessors of castles were fortifications of the 8th-7th centuries. BC e., erected on the territory of Assyria. Prototypes of castles can then be seen in the architecture of Ancient Rome. During this era, for example, the country palaces of the Roman emperors were strengthened (the palace of Emperor Diocletian in the now Croatian city of Split). Ancient Roman fortifications had a significant influence on the architecture of European castles of the Middle Ages. Fortifications became widespread in Byzantium, from where they penetrated into Western Europe by the 9th century.

Castles themselves appeared in the Middle Ages and were the homes of feudal nobles. Due to feudal fragmentation and, as a consequence, frequent internecine wars, the dwelling of the feudal lord had to perform a defensive function. Typically, castles were built on hills, islands, rocky ledges and other hard-to-reach places.

Castle construction reached its greatest flourishing in England in the 12th century. Numerous castles have also been preserved in the valleys of the Rhine and Loire rivers, in Palestine (Crusader castles) and Spain.

Only the king and noble feudal lords could afford to build a stone stronghold. Simple knights lived in the fortified houses of their estate. They tried to build the castle in a place advantageous for defense - on a hill or in the middle of a lake, and if there were no natural barriers, they dug a deep ditch and filled it with water. A drawbridge was thrown across the moat, which led to a gate lined with powerful iron and a forged metal grille. In case of danger, the bridge was raised on chains. Behind the moat towered powerful fortifications. Opposite the main fortress wall there was another, higher one, and behind it, in the center of the castle, was a donjon. It was divided by ceilings into several floors, which could only be reached by special stairs, which in case of danger were removed through hatches in the ceilings. The feudal lord's dwelling was located on the third floor, and on the first floor there was a well, a warehouse for food and weapons, and a dungeon where the feudal lord kept his captives. In case the donjon was captured, a spiral staircase was built into the wall of the tower, along which the knight and his family descended into the underground passage and left the castle, going for help to their loyal vassals.

The main room of the castle is a large hall, where the owner gathered vassals and guests for a merry feast. During these abundant feasts, most of what the peasants brought as quitrent to the knight was destroyed. It is unlikely that castles were much more comfortable than ordinary peasant houses. You often had to freeze in these stone buildings, because several fireplaces could not warm up all the spacious rooms well. In cold weather, the windows were closed with shutters, which did not completely protect against drafts, but plunged the rooms into darkness. The darkness was dispersed with torches, the soot from which covered the walls and ceilings in a thick layer.

Capturing a well-fortified castle was very difficult. The only approach to it was up a narrow road that snaked along the hill on which the castle stood. It did not lead directly to the gate, but first went around the castle wall. The attacker had to run to the gate, opening his right side, not protected by a shield, to fire from the walls. There was a ditch along the walls, the approach to the gate was protected by a bridgehead, a drawbridge, and a passage tower. The gate leaves were made of oak and lined with iron. During an attack, the gate opening was also closed by a massive grille descending from above. The passage in the tower often turned at right angles to the side - and the attackers again unexpectedly found themselves under a hail of arrows and spears. A small area of ​​the castle could be blocked off by internal walls, and the defenders of each tower were able to independently resist enemies who burst into the courtyard. The most powerful tower of the castle was a special small fortress and could withstand a siege alone. This main tower in France was called a donjon. In Germany - bergfried, in England - kiip. If the last defenders could not hold out in the donjon, then along a secret staircase in the thickness of the walls they descended into an underground passage and, hiding from the enemies, went along it several kilometers from the castle, where they were already safe.

At the end of the 18th - beginning of the 19th centuries, in the wake of romanticism, the construction of castles again intensified somewhat. At the same time, newly built castles were often stylized as medieval ones, but did not have any defensive significance - the walls and towers of these castles, sometimes very impressive, served only decorative purposes. Typical examples of this type of castle are the castles built by King Ludwig II of Bavaria in the mid-19th century (especially Neuschwanstein Castle). There were castles that belonged not to one feudal lord, but to a knightly order. Such castles were larger in size, as an example of which is Königsberg Castle.

Usually the castle had a small courtyard, which was surrounded by massive battlements with towers and well-fortified gates. Next came the outer courtyard, which included outbuildings, as well as the castle garden and vegetable garden. Such castles were often rectangular in plan, or their walls clearly followed the terrain. Numerous examples of such structures have survived to this day in Great Britain, Germany, France, Ukraine and Belarus (for example, Mir Castle in Belarus or Lutsk Castle in Ukraine).