Gothic and Medieval // Castle (Architecture Style)
Region: Europe
Period: Twelfth to fifteenth century
Characteristics:
- Battlements
- Gatehouse
- Towers
- Bastions
- Keep or donjon
- Concentric curtain walls
A castle is the fortified residence of a lord or noble. The earliest examples were usually built of wood on top of large earthworks.
This construction method had its origins long in the past; the earliest forts appeared once civilizations had accumulated enough wealth to make it worth protecting.
However, the medieval castle, a residence as well as a fort, was quite different to the much earlier building type, and became inextricably linked to the feudal system.
As monarchs devolved power at a local level to lords and knights, secure and impressive buildings were required from which such authority could be administered.
The first feudal castles were of the motte-and-bailey variety. A square keep, or donjon, atop a large mound of earth – the motte – was the administrative heart of the castle, containing the great hall, the chapel and the lord’s residence.
For that reason it was the most heavily fortified part. Below the motte was the bailey, a larger enclosed area fortified by a surrounding stake fence or palisade (later a stone wall) above a ditch. The bailey contained stables, barracks, workshops kitchens and other service buildings required for the castle to sustain itself.
From the end of the twelfth century the Crusades fundamentally altered the course of castle design. Inspired by Saracen examples, European castles – Château Gaillard, France, begun in 1196 by Richard I, King of England (r. 1189–99) and Duke of Aquitaine, was arguably the first – began to adopt series of concentric curtain walls, reducing the reliance on the keep for defence, which eventually disappeared from castle design.
Symmetry also became an important consideration; castles were laid out on a regular plan, with their concentric walls punctuated by evenly spaced towers and bastions. The Castel del Monte, one of a number of castles built in southern Italy in the mid thirteenth century by the Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (r. 1220–50), remains the most complete example of this period.
Its octagonal plan perhaps derives from ancient Roman precedent, but was also inspired by contemporary Gothic architecture. The concentric castle type evolved features such as round towers, which were less vulnerable to attack.
However, the advent of gunpowder, and especially of heavy cannon in the mid fifteenth century, marked the end of the castle as fort-residence. A new generation of permanent forts better able to withstand cannon fi re became the primary means of defence, yet castles have retained their symbolic signifi cance up to the present day.
Battlements
 | |
| Sirmione Castle, Brescia, Italy, thirteenth century |
Battlements Castles were equipped with various forms of battlement. Crenellations, regularly spaced teeth-like projections on a wall, were the most characteristic. They were often combined with machicolations: holes in the fl oor between corbels that allowed defenders to drop objects and liquids on attackers below.
Gatehouse
 |
| Kidwelly Castle, Carmarthenshire, Wales, begun 1200 |
Gatehouse
Entry into and out of the castle was
regulated through the gatehouse. As an
obvious point of weakness in the castle’s
defences, a gatehouse was usually heavily
fortifi ed with battlements as well as one or
more portcullises and often a drawbridge.
Some castles also included a barbican, a
secondary gatehouse in which attackers
could be trapped.
Towers
 |
| Castel del Monte, Apulia, Italy, 1240s |
Towers While the keep was essentially a squat tower, towers became signifi cant in concentric castles, as they strengthened potential defensive weak spots. They afforded castle occupants wide views of the surrounding area and oncoming attackers – who would soon be faced by hails of arrows and other missiles.
Bastions
 |
| Ramparts of Aigues-Mortes, Camargue, France, begun 1289 |
Bastions
Long curtain walls could be potentially
vulnerable to attack or undermining
from close range because an attacker
knew that he could only be repelled from
front on. Curtain walls were therefore
often punctuated by bastions, tower-like
structures projecting from the wall plane
that allowed defenders to repel attackers
from the side too.
Keep /donjon
 |
| Keep, Norwich Castle, Norfolk, begun 1095 |
Keep /donjon
In motte-and-bailey castles and early
concentric castles, the keep or donjon was
most heavily fortifi ed part of the castle.
The keep contained the lord’s residence
and was the administrative centre of the
building and its surrounding area.
Concentric curtain walls
 |
| Krak des Chevaliers, Syria, begun 1140s |
Concentric curtain walls
Originating in Crusader castles such as
the famous Krak des Chevaliers, Syria,
concentric castles removed the focus on
the keep and allowed a more tactical form
of defence. Defensive troops could move
around the castle far more easily, while
attackers who breached the outer ring
would have to counter a second, higher
ring before being able to overrun the castle.
