Notre Dame, in Paris, has a similar timeline I believe.
1 Like
i collect the kitchy location spoons… and i have one from this place.
dude apparently makes them himself to sell. it shows.
1 Like
In France many churches have been seized by the state during the Revolution and are still public property.
2 Likes
Well, they started building it in 1248 and then took a brake from 1473 to 1842, but that’s Cologne for you.
The “finished 1880” date has to be taken with a spoon of salt; Cologne cathedral has never stopped being a building site. The Dombauhütte has a permanent staff of some 80 workers constantly on the building.
There is a saying that on the day the cathedral is truly finished the world will end.
Virtual tour and a lot of interesting stuff here:
Click the globe icon in the top right corner to switch to the English version; for some reason it won’t link directly:
3 Likes
This castle has a backstory that explains the difference. The Lord and his family has been given a Licence to Crenellate by the King. He is allowed to fortify his own house. This is a mark of trust and status, but they have to do it on a budget and with the materials and workforce to hand. So they tackle the job piece by piece, building a new hall before they dismantle the old one, and re-using the timbers and stones where they can.
This is a completely different strategy to (say) Edward II building a massive castle in a hostile country. Building quickly on a clean site is expensive; but rebellious locals are unlikely to leave a half-built massive fortress alone, so you also have to have substantial army to guard the building site. One less winter with incomplete walls is a big saving in manpower and risk. The king probably had several building projects on the go, and moved masons from one site to another.
We learned quite a bit from the people who build round houses. The first ones fell in because they were not lived in. When people lived in them, they kept a fire going over winter, and the smoke leaving through the thatch kept it dry, and left tar which deterred insects. And they also explained a shallow scooped-out part of the floor on the north side of the east-facing door. The ancient sites always had this, and it had been explained as the base for a plinth for the household gods, so they could greet the dawn. Naah - it was where the chickens liked to sit.
None of this is world-changing stuff. I don’t think this project will give any great insights into how local castles were built. You can usually deduce the history of buildings that were put together slowly. But it is nice to see it done rather than guessing.
5 Likes
I love this part. I’ve always found it amusing of how whenever archeologists can’t explain something they assume it has something to do with religion.
5 Likes
Yeah I noticed the rigging looked pretty modern too.
1 Like
13 Likes
I noticed that shackle bolt. I assume they probably used it for safety reasons.
I’ve been there last year as a visitor. It’s amazing and kind of crazy. They don’t only build the castle but also extract/chop most raw materials themselves (there’s a quarry onsite and woods around it, as well as a water stream for energy). They use only tools from medieval times (with a few exceptions, see below). For instance, they will chop trees and use hatchets and other tools to make the huge beams that they need. They even make their own clothing, including dye.
To answer some questions and clarify some things:
- It’s Burgundy (Bourgogne), not Bungandy.
- They have some permanent workers who get paid (not really permanent as the work stops during winter).
- Others are volunteers (anyone can volunteer). They receive free training and can stay as long as they want.
- They used bulldozers for initial terrain leveling (there’s absolutely no interest in doing this manually).
- They wear medieval workers’ clothing, except for helmets and safety shoes (current French law still applies!).
- Also for safety reasons, they use nylon ropes. But they also make some ropes onsite, which they use when there’s no life at risk.
- They use modern vehicles for moving heavy stuff around. They also have some horses and donkeys.
- They make their own tiles for the roof, from clay found onsite, using wood-powered ovens that they also made.
- They don’t want to prove anything, they’re just passionate about castles and medieval times. They were also no specialists initially (they became over time). They talk about the mistakes they made, which they fixed over time after talking with historians, archeologists…
Anyway, I would highly recommend the visit. Just take good shoes if it’s been raining recently.
10 Likes
Just adding my support to say that it’s definitely worth a visit! I’ve been three or four times over the last 15 years and it’s been a real treat to see how the project has advanced. In my opinion the worst thing about it is that it’s really in the middle of nowhere, so kind of hard to get to if you don’t have a car. But it is a brilliant day out, we even enjoyed the “medieval” offerings at the cafeteria!
3 Likes
Road trip!
1 Like
I know some good archaeologists, but this is a common failing.
The other good story I heard was from a woman on a dig in Egypt. They found a stick thousands of years old that had been carefully shaved with a knife to give a head like a pine cone. This was interpreted as some sacred item used for sprinkling holy water or something. She went into the cook tent to find when supper would be ready, and the Egyptian cook was using an identical object.
It was an egg-whisk.
9 Likes
I wonder what people would come up with if the project was: Use any material and techniques make a building that resists attack from a medieval army.
2 Likes
So. I took the ‘360 Zetreise’ from that link. Two big piles of scrap lumber and bricks in the yard right off the ‘front porch’. I had no idea so many of my neighbors were building cathedrals!
1 Like
I just binge-watched ‘The Pillars of the Earth’ mini-series this weekend. Apparently, they’d use a wall of sticks and mud!
2 Likes
A bit later time period, but Castillo de *San Marcos in Florida is interesting. Spain felt they needed to build a fortress there, but the only stone they could find was some, they thought, pretty useless soft coral rock. They built the fort anyway using what they had and then the English came to lay siege to the castle firing upon it from their fleet. Turned out that where ordinary stone would have shattered this soft rock just swallowed the cannon balls, absorbing the impacts with little structural damage.
6 Likes
2 Likes
I’ll try to swing by in October or November on my way to/from somewhere else, but I don’t know yet whether I can get time off then.
2 Likes
I thought the same thing - then chuckled at the walkie talkie aerial poking out of the guys back pocket…
A very cool project though, I haven’t been over to France in ages and this would be a good excuse!
1 Like
