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 of the medieval castles were built from the 9th to the 12th century on the territory of modern Great Britain, France, Ireland, Denmark, Belgium, Austria, Sweden and Italy. In its finished form, the castle was a small town where the family of the feudal lord, his servants and workers, as well as other "townspeople" lived.
Where castles were built
Castles were often built near bodies of water, as the seas and rivers provided a great view for tracking down and attacking foreign invaders.
The water supply made it possible to preserve the ditches and ditches, which were an irreplaceable part of the castle's defense system. Castles also functioned as administrative centers, and bodies of water helped to facilitate tax collection, as rivers and seas were important trade waterways.
Also, castles were built on high hills or cliffs of rocks, which were difficult to attack.
Stages of building a castle
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 stacked inside. The result was a mound or hill, which was called "mott". Later, a castle was erected on it.
Then the walls of the castle were built. Builders often erected two rows of walls. The outer wall was lower than the inner one. It contained towers for the defenders of the castle, 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 used to store food in case of a siege. The area, which was surrounded by an inner wall, was called "bailey". On the site there was a tower where the feudal lord lived. The castles could be supplemented with annexes.
What were the locks made of
The material from which the locks were made depended on the geology of the area. The first castles were built of wood, but later they began to use stone as a building material. Sand, limestone, granite were used in construction.
All construction work was done by hand.
Castle walls were rarely completely solid stone. The outside of the wall was faced with processed stones, and on the inside, stones of uneven shape and different sizes were laid out. These two layers were joined with a lime mortar. The solution was prepared right at the site of the future structure, and with its help the stones were also whitewashed.
Wooden scaffolding was erected at the construction site. At the same time, the horizontal beams were stuck into the holes made in the walls. Planks were laid across them from above. On the walls of castles from the Middle Ages, you can see square recesses. These are the marks from the scaffolding. At the end of the construction, the building niches were filled with limestone, but over time it fell off.
The windows in the locks were narrow openings. On the tower of the castle, small openings were made so that the defenders could shoot arrows.
What did the locks cost
If it was about a royal residence, then specialists from all over the country were hired for the construction. This is how the king of medieval Wales, Edward I, built his ring castles. Bricklayers cut the stones into blocks of the correct shape and size using a hammer, chisel, and measuring tools. This work required high skill.
Stone castles were expensive. King Edward nearly ravaged the state treasury by spending £ 100,000 on their construction. About 3,000 workers were involved in the construction of one castle.
It took three to ten years to build castles. Some of them were built in a war zone and took longer to complete. Most of the castles built by Edward the First are still standing.
