Dug In: Castles and Keeps
Dover Castle, England, 1154-89, outer curtain walls early 13 th cen.
Traditional histories on castle architecture start with castles as feats of military engineering and ends with castles as high-status country manors. Is this the whole story?
Beaumaris Castle, 1295, Wales (Great Britain) Azay-le-Rideau château, 1515-25, France
First reference to privately owned castle toward the end of the Carolingian period
Invasions of Europe – 9th-10th centuries Division of Charlemagne's empire in 843
Charles the Bald: "Castles and fortifications and enclosures made without our permission shall be demolished by 1st August" (864)
“Here below, some pray, others fight, still others work.” (11th century, Bishop Adalbero of Laon)
“From the beginning, mankind has been divided into three parts,
among men of prayer, farmers, and men of war.”(11th century, Bishop Gerard of Cambrai)
Feudalism emerges in Europe after the disintegration of the Carolingian Empire
Normans – identity emerges in 900-950 in Normandy
William the Conqueror (1024-87)
Normans spread feudalism and its architecture in their many conquests
First castles: motte-and-bailey castles
Detail of Bayeux Tapestry, ca. 1070-77
Normans spread feudalism and its architecture in their many conquests
Remains of motte-and-bailey castle at Pleshey,
England
two-story timber hall
great hall and other buildings
motte
bailey
Motte-and-bailey castles
great hall and other buildings
Saxon royal hall at Cheddar, England, ca. 1100
Vernacular timber halls of northern Europe
Halls and Great Hall of the Saxon royal court at Yeavering, England, 7th - 9th cen.
two-story timber hall → future masonry keep
Keep at Hedingham Castle, 1140 England
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Dover Castle, England, 1154-89, outer curtain walls early 13th cen.
outer curtain wall
inner curtain wallkeep (tower)
II. Exactly what was fortified about the fortified residence?
Double circuit of walls of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople
inner curtain wall
outer curtain wall
Defensive systems: Byzantine innovations on Roman fortified walls in the Byzantine Empire
Defensive systems: Byzantine innovations on Roman fortified walls in the Byzantine Empire
City walls of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople
curtain wall
defensive towers
machicolation- a projection at the top of a wall from which missiles an be dropped down against an invading enemy
Defensive fortifications – devil in the details
box machicolation
rampart machicolations
Crusader Castle, Crac des Chevaliers, Syria, 1142-1213
Defensive fortifications – devil in the details
wood hoardings
Wood hoarding mounted on curtain wall with or w/o machicolations
attack by mobilesiege tower
Ditch filled by attackers
Defense from wood hoarding mounted on the curtain wall
Defensive fortifications – devil in the details
portcullis - a heavy barred gate that moves vertically up and down in a fortress gateway
Cairo (al-Qahira) Bab al-Futuh gate
Defensive fortifications – devil in the details
arrow slits
arrow slits
Cairo (al-Qahira) Bab al-Futuh gate
Defensive fortifications – devil in the details
murder holes
Defensive fortifications – devil in the details
the trebuchet (medieval innovation)ballista (Greek & Roman)
Growing sophistication in siege machines in the Middle Ages
Crac des Chevalier’s open tank on the south side fed by an aqueduct.
glacis – sloping wall
tank/moat
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in response to growing sophistication of siege
engines
III. Keeps – residential quarters of the elite laymen in 11th-century Europe
most castles of lay elite Keep (donjon) of Loches CastleLoches, France, 1030s
keep or donjon or turris
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engaged shafts
Cluny LochesEngaged shafts, passageways in walls, and ashlar masonry: these already appear at Loches before they become widespread in church architecture
Keeps and churches share common decorative vocabulary
Carolinigan “castles” (castellum) and “towers” (turris) = church westworks
St. Gall
FuldaCentula
St.-Denis
Corvey Abbey
Possible origins of the keep or donjon
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Elite domus of a Carolingian abbot Great halls raised on a basement – established in France in the 11th century
Bayeux Tapestry, 1066-82
Loches
Possible origins of the keep or donjon
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4 floor levels inside the donjon at Loches Plan of the donjon at Loches
great hall
chambers
armory
chambers
Inside a keep – stacked halls and chambers
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Inside the donjon at Loches todayThe chapel (3rd floor)
Inside a keep – religious space
Bodiam Castle, in East Sussex, England, 1385, owned by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge
IV. Bodiam: Last military castle or early castellated manor house?
Bodiam Castle: as seen from an artillery platform or from viewing terrace?
Bodiam: Last military castle or early castellated manor house?