Gothic and Medieval // Castle (Architecture Style)

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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.
 
 
 
Book Reference:
Architectural Styles  A Visual Guide by Owen Hopkins
https://amzn.to/3GpINsx


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