Medieval castles in Russia. Knight's castles of the Middle Ages: scheme, arrangement and defense. History of medieval knights' castles

For some reason, at the mention of the word "fairy tale", medieval castles and fortresses first of all come to mind. Maybe because they were built in those ancient times, when wizards freely roamed the fields and meadows, and fire-breathing dragons flew over the mountain peaks.

Be that as it may, even now, looking at the castles and fortresses that have been preserved in some places, one involuntarily imagines princesses sleeping in them and evil fairies conjuring over magic potions. Let's take a look at the once luxurious housing of the powers that be.

(German: Schloß Neuschwanstein, literally “New Swan Stone”) is located in Germany, near the town of Füssen (German: Fussen). The castle was founded in 1869 by King Ludwig II of Bavaria. The construction was completed in 1891, 5 years after the unexpected death of the king. The castle is magnificent and attracts curious tourists from all over the world with its beauty of architectural forms.

This is the "dream palace" of the young king, who was never able to see her incarnation in her full glory. Ludwig II of Bavaria, founder of the castle, ascended the throne too young. And being a dreamy kind who imagined herself fairy tale character Lohengrin, he planned to build his own castle in order to hide in it from the harsh reality of the defeat of Bavaria in alliance with Austria in 1866 in the war with Prussia.

Away from state concerns, the young king demanded too much from the army of architects, artists and artisans. Sometimes he set completely unrealistic deadlines, the observance of which required round-the-clock work of masons and carpenters. During the construction, Ludwig II went deeper and deeper into his fictional world, for which he was later recognized as crazy. Architectural project The castle was constantly changing. So the rooms for guests were excluded and a small grotto was added. small hall for audiences it was transformed into the majestic Throne Room.

A century and a half ago, Ludwig II of Bavaria tried to hide from people behind the walls medieval castle- today they come by the millions to admire his fairy-tale hideaway.

(German: Burg Hohenzollern) - an old castle-fortress in Baden-Württemberg, 50 km south of Stuttgart. The castle was built at an altitude of 855 m above sea level on the top of Mount Hohenzollern. Only the third castle has survived to this day. The medieval castle fortress was first built in the 11th century and completely destroyed after the capture, at the end of a grueling siege by the troops of the cities of Swabia in 1423.

On its ruins in 1454-1461 was built new fortress, which served as a refuge for the House of Hohenzollern during the Thirty Years' War. Due to the complete loss of the fortress of strategic importance By the end of the 18th century, the castle was noticeably dilapidated, and some parts of the building were finally dismantled.

The modern version of the castle was erected in 1850-1867 on the personal instructions of King Friedrich Wilhelm IV, who decided to completely restore the family castle of the Prussian royal house. The construction of the castle was led by the famous Berlin architect Friedrich August Stüler. He managed to combine new, large-scale castle buildings in the neo-Gothic style and the few surviving buildings of the former ruined castles.

(Karlštejn), built by decree of the Czech king and emperor Charles IV (named after him) on a high limestone cliff above the Berounka River, as a summer residence and a place of storage of sacred relics of the royal family. The first stone in the foundation of Karlštejn Castle was laid by Archbishop Arnošt, close to the Emperor, in 1348, and in 1357 the construction of the castle was completed. Two years before the end of construction, Charles IV settled in the castle.

The stepped architecture of Karlštejn Castle, which ends with a tower with the Grand Cross Chapel, is quite common in the Czech Republic. The ensemble includes the castle itself, the Church of the Virgin Mary, the Catherine Chapel, the Big Tower, the Mariana and Well Towers.

The majestic Student Tower and the imperial palace, which housed the king's quarters, take tourists back to the Middle Ages, when a powerful monarch ruled the Czech Republic.

Royal Palace and Fortress Spanish city Segovia, in the province of Castile and León. The fortress is built on a high rock, above the confluence of the Eresma and Clamores rivers. Such a good location made it almost impregnable. Now it is one of the most recognizable and the most beautiful palaces Spain. Built originally as a fortress, the Alcazar was at one time and royal palace, and a prison, and the royal artillery academy.

The Alcazar, which was a small wooden fortress in the 12th century, was later rebuilt into a stone castle and became the most impregnable defensive structure. This palace became famous for great historically significant events: the coronation of Isabella the Catholic, her first marriage to King Ferdinand of Aragon, the wedding of Anna of Austria with Philip II.

(Castelul Peleş) was built by King Carol I of Romania near the city of Sinai in the Romanian Carpathians. The king was so fascinated by the local beauty that he bought up the surrounding land and built a castle for hunting and summer holiday. The name of the castle was given by a small mountain river flowing nearby.

In 1873, the construction of a grandiose building began, under the leadership of the architect Johann Schulz. Along with the castle, other necessary for comfortable life buildings: royal stables, guard houses, hunting house and power plant.

Thanks to the power plant, Peles became the first electrified castle in the world. The castle officially opened in 1883. At the same time, central heating and an elevator were installed in it. The construction was completed in 1914.

It is a symbol of the small city-state of San Marino on the territory modern Italy. The beginning of the construction of the fortress is considered to be the 10th century AD. Guaita is the first of three San Marino fortresses built on the peaks of Mount Titano.

The construction consists of two rings of fortifications, the inner one has retained all the signs of the forts of the feudal era. The main entrance gate was located at a height of several meters, and it was possible to pass through it only by a drawbridge, now destroyed. The fortress was restored many times in the 15th-17th centuries.

Well, so we looked at some medieval castles and fortresses in Europe, of course, not all of them. Next time we will admire the fortresses on the tops of impregnable rocks. There are so many exciting discoveries ahead!

As mentioned above, medieval castles and each of their components were built according to certain rules. The following main structural elements of the castle can be distinguished:

Courtyard

fortress wall

Let's consider them in more detail.

Most of the towers were built on natural hills. If there were no such hills in the area, then the builders resorted to arranging the hill. As a rule, the height of the hill was 5 meters, but there were more than 10 meters high, although there were exceptions - for example, the height of the hill on which one of the Norfolk castles near Thetford was placed reached hundreds of feet (about 30 meters).

The shape of the territory of the castle was different - some had an oblong shape, some - square, there were courtyards in the form of a figure eight. Variations were very diverse depending on the size of the host state and the configuration of the site.

After the site for construction was chosen, it was first dug in with a moat. The excavated earth was thrown onto the inner bank of the moat, resulting in a rampart, an embankment called a scarp. The opposite bank of the moat was called, respectively, the counterscarp. If it was possible, then the ditch was dug around a natural hill or other elevation. But, as a rule, the hill had to be filled, which required a huge amount of earthwork.

The composition of the hill included earth mixed with limestone, peat, gravel, brushwood, and the surface was covered with clay or wooden flooring.

The first fence of the castle was protected by all sorts of defensive structures designed to stop an enemy attack that was too swift: hedges, slingshots (placed between pillars driven into the ground), earthen embankments, hedges, various protruding structures, for example, a traditional barbican that protected access to lift bridge. At the foot of the wall there was a ditch, they tried to make it as deep as possible (sometimes more than 10 m deep, as in Trematon and Lass) and wider (10 m - in Loches, 12 - in Dourdan, 15 - in Tremworth, 22 m - - in Kusi). As a rule, ditches were dug around the castles as part of the defensive system. They made it difficult to access the fortress walls, including siege weapons such as a battering ram or a siege tower. Sometimes the moat was even filled with water. In shape, it more often resembled the letter V than U. If a ditch was dug right under the wall, a fence was erected over it, the lower shaft, to protect the sentinel path outside the fortress. This piece of land was called a palisade.

An important property of a moat filled with water is the prevention of undermining. Often, rivers and other natural bodies of water were connected to ditches to fill them with water. The ditches needed to be periodically cleared of debris to prevent shallowing. Sometimes stakes were placed at the bottom of the ditches, making it difficult to overcome it by swimming. Access to the fortress, as a rule, was organized through drawbridges.

Depending on the width of the moat, it is supported by one or more pillars. While the outer part of the bridge is fixed, the last segment is movable. This is the so-called drawbridge. It is designed so that its plate can rotate around an axis fixed at the base of the gate, breaking the bridge and closing the gate. To set the drawbridge in motion, devices are used, both on the gate itself and on its inside. The bridge is raised by hand, on ropes or chains passing through the blocks in the slots of the wall. To facilitate the work, counterweights can be used. The chain can go through the blocks to the gate, located in the room above the gate. This gate can be horizontal and rotated by a handle, or vertical and driven by beams horizontally threaded through it. Another way to raise the bridge is with a lever. Swinging beams are threaded through the slots in the wall, the outer end of which is connected by chains to the front end of the bridge plate, and counterweights are attached to the rear inside the gate. This design facilitates the rapid lifting of the bridge. And, finally, the bridge plate can be arranged according to the rocker principle.

The outer part of the plate, turning around the axis at the base of the gate, closes the passage, and the inner part, on which the attackers may already be, goes down into the so-called. a wolf pit, invisible while the bridge is down. Such a bridge is called overturning or swinging.

In Fig.1. The diagram of the entrance to the castle is presented.

The fence itself was made up of thick solid walls - curtains - part of the fortress wall between two bastions and various side structures, collectively called

Fig.1.

towers. The fortress wall rose directly above the moat, its foundations went deep into the ground, and the bottom was made as gentle as possible to prevent possible undermining by the attackers, and also so that shells dropped from a height would ricochet off it. The shape of the fence depended on its location, but its perimeter is always significant.

The fortified castle did not at all resemble an individual dwelling. The height of the curtains ranged from 6 to 10 m, the thickness - from 1.5 to 3 m. However, in some fortresses, for example, in Chateau Gaillard, the thickness of the walls in places exceeds 4.5 m. Towers, usually round, less often square or polygonal , were built, as a rule, on the floor above the curtains. Their diameter (from 6 to 20 m) depended on the location: the most powerful - in the corners and near the entrance gate. The towers were built hollow, inside they were divided into floors by ceilings made of wooden boards with a hole in the center or on the side, through which a rope passed, used to raise shells to the upper platform in case of protecting the fortress. The stairs were hidden by partitions in the wall. Thus, each floor was a room where the warriors were located; in the fireplace, arranged in the thickness of the wall, it was possible to make a fire. The only openings in the tower are the archery slits, long and narrow openings widening inwards (Fig. 2).

Fig.2.

In France, for example, the height of such loopholes is usually 1 m, and the width is 30 cm outside and 1.3 m inside. Such a structure made it difficult for enemy arrows to penetrate, but the defenders were able to shoot in different directions.

The most important defensive element of the castle was the outer wall - high, thick, sometimes on an inclined plinth. Worked stones or bricks made up its outer surface. Inside, it consisted of rubble stone and slaked lime. The walls were placed on a deep foundation, under which it was very difficult to dig.

At the top of the fortress wall was the so-called sentinel path, protected from the outside by a battlemented parapet. It served for observation, communication between the towers and protection of the fortress. A large wooden board, held on a horizontal axis, was sometimes attached to the battlements between two embrasures, crossbowmen took cover behind it to load their weapons. During the wars, the sentinel path was supplemented with something like a folding wooden gallery of the desired shape, mounted in front of the parapet. Holes were made in the floor so that the defenders could shoot from above if the attackers were hiding at the foot of the wall. Starting from the end of the 12th century, especially in the southern regions of France, these wooden galleries, which were not very strong and flammable, began to be replaced by real stone ledges built along with the parapet. These are the so-called mashikuli, galleries with hinged loopholes (Fig. 3). They performed the same function as before, but their advantage was greater strength and the fact that they made it possible to throw down the cannonballs, which then ricocheted off the gentle slope of the wall.

Fig.3.

Sometimes several secret doors were made in the fortress wall for the passage of infantrymen, but always only one large gate was built, which was invariably fortified with special care, since it was on them that the main blow of the attackers fell.

The earliest way to protect the gates was to place them between two rectangular towers. A good example of this type of protection is the arrangement of gates in the Exeter Castle of the 11th century that has survived to this day. In the 13th century, square gate towers give way to the main gate tower, which is a merger of the two former ones with additional floors built on top of them. Such are the gate towers in the castles of Richmond and Ludlow. In the 12th century, the more common way to protect the gate was to build two towers on both sides of the entrance to the castle, and only in the 13th century did gate towers appear in their finished form. Two flanking towers are now connected into one above the gate, becoming a massive and powerful fortification and one of the most important parts of the castle. The gate and entrance are now transformed into a long and narrow passage, blocked at each end by porticoes. These were doors sliding vertically along the gutters cut in stone, made in the form of large lattices of thick timber, the lower ends of the vertical bars were sharpened and bound with iron, so the lower edge of the portico was a series of sharpened iron stakes. Such lattice gates were opened and closed using thick ropes and a winch located in a special chamber in the wall above the passage. Later, the entrance was protected by mertieres, deadly holes drilled into the vaulted ceiling of the passage. Through these holes, anyone who tried to break through to the gates by force, poured and poured objects and substances common in such a situation - arrows, stones, boiling water and hot oil. However, another explanation seems more plausible - water was poured through the holes if the enemy tried to set fire to the wooden gates, since the best way to get into the castle was to fill the passage with straw, logs, soak the mixture well with combustible oil and set it on fire; they killed two birds with one stone - they burned the lattice gates and roasted the defenders of the castle in the gate rooms. In the walls of the passage there were small rooms equipped with shooting slots through which the defenders of the castle could hit with bows. close range a dense mass of attackers seeking to break into the castle. In Fig.4. various types of shooting slots are presented.

In the upper floors of the gate tower there were quarters for soldiers and often even living quarters. In special chambers there were gates, with the help of which they lowered and raised on chains drawbridge. Since the gate was the place that was most often attacked by the enemy besieging the castle, they were sometimes supplied with another means of additional protection - the so-called barbicans, which began at some distance from the gate. Usually the barbican consisted of two high thick walls running parallel outward from the gate, thus forcing the enemy to squeeze into a narrow passage between the walls, exposing themselves to the arrows of the archers of the gate tower and the barbican's upper platform hidden behind the battlements. Sometimes, to make access to the gate even more dangerous, the barbican was set at an angle to it, which forced the attackers to go to the gate on the right, and parts of the body not covered by shields turned out to be a target for archers. The entrance and exit of the barbican was usually very fancifully decorated.

Fig.4.

Each more or less serious castle had at least two more rows of defensive structures (ditches, hedges, curtain walls, towers, parapets, gates and bridges), smaller in size, but built on the same principle. Quite a considerable distance was left between them, so each castle looked like a small fortified city. Freteval can again be cited as an example. Its fences are round in shape, the diameter of the first is 140 m, the second is 70 m, the third is 30 m. The last fence, called the “shirt”, was erected very close to the donjon in order to block access to it.

The space between the first two fences was the lower courtyard. A real village was located there: the houses of peasants who worked on the master's fields, workshops and dwellings of artisans (blacksmiths, carpenters, masons, carvers, carriage workers), a threshing floor and a barn, a bakery, a communal mill and a press, a well, a fountain, sometimes a pond with live fish, washroom, counters of merchants. Such a village was a typical settlement of that time with randomly arranged streets and houses. Later, such settlements began to go beyond the castle and settle in its vicinity on the other side of the moat. Their inhabitants, as, indeed, the rest of the inhabitants of the seigneury, took refuge behind the fortress walls only in case of serious danger.

Between the second and third fences there was an upper courtyard with many buildings: a chapel, housing for soldiers, stables, kennels, dovecotes and a falcon yard, a pantry with food supplies, kitchens, a pond.

Behind the "shirt", that is, the last fence, the donjon towered. It was usually built not in the center of the castle, but in its most inaccessible part; it simultaneously served as the dwelling of the feudal lord and the military center of the fortress. Donjon (fr. donjon) - the main tower of a medieval castle, one of the symbols of the European Middle Ages.

It was the most massive building that was part of the castle buildings. The walls were gigantic in thickness and were set on a powerful foundation, capable of withstanding the blows of picks, drills and battering rams of the besiegers.

In height, it surpassed all other buildings, often exceeding 25 m: 27 m - in Etampes, 28 m - in Gisors, 30 m - in Uden, Dourdan and Freteval, 31 m - in Châteauden, 35 m - in Tonquedek, 40 - in Locher, 45 m - in Provins. It could be square (Tower of London), rectangular (Loches), hexagonal (Tournoel Castle), octagonal (Gizors), four-lobed (Etampes), but more often there are round ones with a diameter of 15 to 20 m and a wall thickness of 3 to 4 m.

Flat buttresses, called pilasters, supported the walls along their entire length and at the corners, at each corner such a pilaster was crowned with a turret on top. The entrance was always located on the second floor, high above the ground. An external staircase led to the entrance, located at a right angle to the door and covered by a bridge tower, installed outside directly against the wall. For obvious reasons, the windows were very small. On the first floor there were none at all, on the second they were tiny and only on the next floors they became a little larger. These distinguishing features - the bridge tower, the outer staircase and the small windows - can be clearly seen at Rochester Castle and Headingham Castle in Essex.

The forms of donjons are very diverse: in the UK, quadrangular towers were popular, but there were also round, octagonal, regular and irregular polygonal donjons, as well as combinations of several of these shapes. The change in the shape of donjons is associated with the development of architecture and siege technology. A round or polygonal turret is better able to withstand projectiles. Sometimes, when building a donjon, builders followed the terrain, for example, placing a tower on an irregularly shaped rock. This type of tower arose in the 11th century. in Europe, more precisely in Normandy (France). Initially, it was a rectangular tower, adapted for defense, but at the same time being the residence of the feudal lord.

In the XII-XIII centuries. the feudal lord moved to the castle, and the donjon turned into a separate structure, significantly reduced in size, but stretched vertically. From now on, the tower was located separately outside the perimeter of the fortress walls, in the most inaccessible place to the enemy, sometimes even separated by a moat from the rest of the fortifications. It performed defensive and sentinel functions (at the very top there was always a combat and sentinel platform, covered with battlements). It was considered as the last refuge in the defense against the enemy (for this purpose there were weapons and food warehouses inside), and only after the capture of the donjon the castle was considered conquered.

By the 16th century the active use of cannons turned the donjons towering above the rest of the buildings into too convenient targets.

The donjon was divided inside into floors by means of wooden ceilings (Fig. 5).

Fig.5.

For defensive purposes, its only door was at the level of the second floor, that is, at a height of at least 5 m above the ground. They got inside by stairs, scaffolding or a bridge connected to a parapet. However, all these structures were very simple: after all, they had to be removed very quickly in the event of an attack. It was on the second floor that there was a large hall, sometimes with a vaulted ceiling - the center of the seigneur's life. Here he dined, had fun, received guests and vassals, and even administered justice in winter. One floor above were the rooms of the owner of the castle and his wife; climbed up a narrow stone staircase in the wall. On the fourth and fifth floors there are common rooms for children, servants and subjects. The guests slept there. The top of the donjon resembled the upper part of the fortress wall with its battlemented parapet and sentinel path, as well as additional wooden or stone galleries. To this was added a watchtower to monitor the surroundings.

The first floor, that is, the floor under the great hall, did not have a single opening that went out. However, it was neither a prison nor stone bag, as archaeologists of the last century assumed. Usually there was a pantry where firewood, wine, grain and weapons were stored.

In some donjons in the lower room, in addition, there was a well or an entrance to a dungeon dug under the castle and leading to an open field, which, however, was quite rare. By the way, the dungeon, as a rule, served to store food during the year, and not at all to facilitate a secret flight, romantic or forced Lapin R.I. Donjon article. Encyclopedic Fund of Russia. Access address: http://www.russika.ru/.

Of particular interest in the framework of the work is also the interior of the donjon.

DONJON INTERIOR

The interior of the lord's dwelling can be characterized by three features: simplicity, modesty of decoration, and a small amount of furniture.

No matter how high (from 7 to 12 meters) and spacious (from 50 to 150 meters) the main hall was, the hall always remained one room. Sometimes it was divided into several rooms by some kind of drapery, but always only for a while and due to certain circumstances. Trapezoidal window openings separated in this manner and deep niches in the wall served as small living rooms. Large windows, rather high than wide, with a semicircular top, were arranged in the thickness of the walls in the same way as tower loopholes for archery.

No matter how high (from 7 to 12 meters) and spacious (from 50 to 150 meters) it was, the hall always remained one room. Sometimes it was divided into several rooms by some kind of drapery, but always only for a while and due to certain circumstances. Trapezoidal window openings separated in this manner and deep niches in the wall served as small living rooms. Large windows, rather high than wide, with a semicircular top, were arranged in the thickness of the walls in the same way as tower loopholes for archery. In front of the windows there was a stone bench, which served to talk or look out the window. Windows were rarely glazed (glass is an expensive material used mainly for church stained-glass windows), more often they were covered with a small lattice of wicker or metal, or they were covered with glued cloth or an oiled sheet of parchment nailed to the frame.

A hinged wooden sash was attached to the window, often internal rather than external; usually it was not closed, unless they slept in a large hall.

Despite the fact that the windows were few and rather narrow, they still let in enough light to illuminate the hall in summer days. In the evening or winter, sunlight replaced not only the fire of the fireplace, but also resin torches, tallow candles or oil lamps, which were attached to the walls and ceiling. Thus, interior lighting always turned out to be a source of heat and smoke, but this was still not enough to defeat dampness - a real scourge. medieval dwelling. Wax candles, like glass, were reserved only for the richest houses and churches.

The floor in the hall was covered with wooden boards, clay or, more rarely, stone slabs, however, whatever it was, it was never left uncovered. In winter, it was covered with straw - either finely chopped, or woven into coarse mats. In spring and summer - reeds, branches and flowers (lilies, gladioli, irises). Fragrant herbs and incense plants such as mint and verbena were placed along the walls. Wool carpets and embroidered bedspreads were generally used for seating only in bedrooms. In the great hall, everyone was usually located on the floor, spreading skins and furs.

The ceiling, which is also the floor of the upper floor, often remained unfinished, but in the 13th century they began to try to decorate it with beams and caissons, creating geometric patterns, heraldic friezes or ornate ornaments depicting animals. Sometimes the walls were painted in the same way, but more often they were simply painted in some particular color (red and yellow ocher were preferred) or covered with a pattern that imitated the appearance of hewn stone or a chessboard. Frescoes are already appearing in princely houses depicting allegorical and historical scenes borrowed from legends, the Bible or literary works. It is known, for example, that King Henry III of England liked to sleep in a room whose walls were decorated with episodes from the life of Alexander the Great, a hero who aroused special admiration in the Middle Ages. However, such a luxury remained available only to the sovereign. An ordinary vassal, inhabitant of a wooden dungeon, had to be content with a rough bare wall, ennobled only by his own spear and shield.

Instead of wall paintings, tapestries with geometric, floral or historical motifs were used. However, more often these are not real tapestries (which were usually brought from the East), but mostly embroidery on thick fabric, like the so-called “Queen Matilda carpet”, stored in Bayeux.

Tapestries made it possible to hide a door or a window, or to divide a large room into several rooms - "bedrooms".

This word quite often meant not the room where they slept, but the totality of all the tapestries, embroidered canvases and various fabrics intended for interior decoration. Going on a trip, they always took tapestries with them, because they were the main element of decorating an aristocratic home, capable of giving it personality traits.

Furniture in the XIII century existed only wooden. She was constantly moved (The word "furniture" comes from the word mobile (fr.) - movable. (Note. Lane)), because, with the exception of the bed, the rest of the furniture did not have a single purpose. So, the chest, the main type of furniture, served simultaneously as a cabinet, table and seat. To perform the latter function, he could have a back and even handles. However, the chest is only an extra seat. They mostly sat on common benches, sometimes divided into separate seats, on small wooden benches, on small stools without a back. The chair was intended for the owner of the house or an honored guest. The squires and women sat on bundles of straw, sometimes covered with embroidered cloth, or simply on the floor, like servants and lackeys. Several boards laid on the goats made up a table; for the duration of the meal, it was arranged in the center of the hall. It turned out to be long, narrow and somewhat taller than modern tables. Companions sat on one side, leaving the other free to serve dishes.

There was little furniture: in addition to chests, in which dishes, household utensils, clothes, money and letters were shoved at random, sometimes there was a wardrobe or sideboard, less often a sideboard where the richest placed precious dishes or jewelry. Often, such furniture was replaced by niches in the wall, hung with draperies or closed with doors. Clothes were usually not folded, but rolled up and scented. They also rolled letters written on parchment before putting them in a linen bag, which served as a kind of safe, where, in addition, one or more leather wallets were kept.

To get a more complete picture of the furniture and decor of the main hall of the donjon, you need to add a few more caskets, some knick-knacks and some cult accessories (relics, sprinklers). As we can see, in this respect it is very far from abundance. There was even less furniture in the bedrooms: the men had a bed and chest, the women had a bed and something like a dressing table. No benches or chairs, sitting on straw covered with cloth, on the floor or on the bed. The huge square bed looked more wide than long. One usually did not sleep.

Even if the owner of the castle and his wife had separate bedrooms, they still had one common bed. In the rooms of children, servants or guests, the beds were also shared. Two, four or six of them slept on them.

The bed of the lord usually stood on a raised platform, with his head to the wall, his feet to the fireplace. A kind of vault was created from a wooden frame, where a canopy was hung to isolate the sleeping people from the outside world. The bedding was almost indistinguishable from modern ones. A feather bed was laid on a straw mattress or mattress, and a bottom sheet was laid on top of it. She was covered with a top sheet that was not tucked in. On top lay a duvet or wadded blanket, quilted like modern ones. The bolster and pillowcases are also similar to those we use today. White embroidered sheets were made of linen or silk, woolen bedspreads were lined with ermine or squirrel fur. For less prosperous people, burlap was used instead of silk, and twill was used instead of wool.

In this soft and spacious bed (so wide that it was possible to make it only with the help of a stick) they usually slept completely naked, but with a cap on their heads. Before going to bed, they hung clothes on a rod driven into the wall like a hanger, protruding almost to the middle of the room parallel to the bed, they left only a shirt on themselves, but they took it off already in bed and, having folded it, put it under the pillow to put it on again in the early morning before getting up.

The fireplace in the bedroom was not heated all day. It was bred only in the evening during the family vigil, which took place here in a more intimate atmosphere than in the great hall. In the hall there was a truly gigantic fireplace, designed for large logs; in front of him stood several shops, which could accommodate ten, fifteen or even twenty people. A conical hood with protruding posts formed something like a house inside the hall. The fireplace was not decorated with anything; the custom of placing a family coat of arms on it appeared only at the beginning of the 14th century. In some, more spacious rooms, two or three fireplaces were sometimes built, but not at opposite walls, but all together in the center of the room; for their hearth they used a single flat stone of enormous size, and the exhaust hood was erected in the form of a pyramid of brick and wood.

The donjon could well be used only for military and economic purposes (observation posts on the tower, a dungeon, a storehouse of provisions). In such cases, the feudal lord's family lived in the "palace" - the living quarters of the castle, standing apart from the tower. The palaces were built of stone and had several floors in height.

medieval castle residential interior

Since the seas and rivers provided a great overview for tracking down and attacking foreign invaders.

The supply of water made it possible to maintain ditches and ditches, which were an indispensable part of the castle's defense system. Castles also functioned as administrative centers, and reservoirs helped facilitate the collection of taxes, since rivers and seas were important trade waterways.

Also, castles were built on high hills or in cliffs of rocks that 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 piled up inside. It turned out a mound or hill, which was called "mott". A castle was later built on it.

Then the walls of the castle were built. Often two rows of walls were erected. The outer wall was lower than the inner one. It had 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. The basement rooms were intended to store food in case of a siege. The platform, which was surrounded by an inner wall, was called "bailey". On the site there was a tower where the feudal lord lived. Castles could be supplemented with extensions.

What were castles made of?

The material from which the castles were made depended on the geology of the area. The first castles were built of wood, but later stone became the building material. Sand, limestone, granite were used in construction.

All construction was done by hand.

The walls of castles were rarely made entirely of solid stone. Outside, the wall was lined with processed stones, and on its inside, uneven shapes and different sizes were laid out. These two layers were connected with lime mortar. The solution was prepared right on the site of the future structure, and stones were also whitened with it.

Wooden scaffolding was erected at the construction site. At the same time, horizontal beams were stuck into holes made in the walls. Boards were laid on top of them. On the walls of the castles of the Middle Ages, you can see square recesses. These are the marks from the scaffolding. At the end of the construction, the construction niches were filled with limestone, but over time it fell off.

The windows in the castles 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 a royal residence, then specialists from all over were hired for the construction. So the king of medieval Wales, Edward the First built his ring castles. The masons cut the stones into blocks of the correct shape and size, using a hammer, chisel and measuring tools. This work required a high level of skill.

Stone castles were expensive. King Edward almost ruined the state treasury by spending 100,000 pounds on their construction. About 3,000 workers were involved in the construction of one castle.

The construction of castles took from three to ten years. Some of them were built in the war zone and took longer to complete. Most of the castles built by Edward the First are still standing.

For the first time, Schaaken is mentioned in the chronicle of the Teutonic Order for 1258, when, according to an agreement on the division of territories between the Order and the Bishop of Samland Heinrich von Strittberg, the area around Schaaken remained with the Order. The wooden fortress began to be built in 1261, about 4 km from Curonian Lagoon. For the construction, the Shaaken River (now Bolshaya Moryana) was dammed, and a defensive fortification was built on marshy marshy soil. The castle was used during the Order's campaigns deep into the Prussian territories to Nadravia, Sudavia and further to Shalavia. It was also intended to defend the coast of the Curonian Lagoon, on the ice of which the Prussian tribes of the Skalovs, and later the Litvins, often made their raids.

Construction of the stone castle began in 1328. By that time, the Order had developed its own tradition of building castles. As a rule, these were quadrangular castles with one to four outbuildings with a bergfried and high defensive walls. These castles without fail had pre-castle fortifications (forburgs). Castle Schaaken, unlike most of the castles of the Order, had an almost round perimeter, because due to the urgency, the construction of a stone fortress wall was carried out along the old perimeter of the ramparts surrounding it.

After the secularization of the Teutonic Order in 1525, Schaaken Castle fell into the hands of rebellious peasants for a short time. Since 1526, the castle housed the ducal chamber of justice, from the middle of the 16th century - the Land Office of Samland.

The ancient fortress in 1606 was destroyed by a strong fire. In 1684, the castle began to be restored; during these works, serious architectural changes were made to the appearance of the inside of the castle.

In 1697, part of the Great Russian Embassy arrived in Schaaken, en route to Western Europe. And on November 11, 1711, in Schaaken, on the way to Russia, Peter I stopped for the night with Catherine.

In 1815-1819. Schaaken was the seat of the village administration. Probably, during this period, the main building was rebuilt, through which the gate passed in the time of the order. After the restructuring, the gates were laid and from the western side in ancient wall new gates were built.

During the hostilities in 1945, the castle was not damaged. A collective farm stable was located on its territory, which existed until the early 1960s. Then the castle was given over to housing, and the outbuildings were used for household needs. In the 1980s, only one family lived in the castle, which used the still habitable rooms. The lack of timely repairs led to the destruction of the ceiling and walls. Now the castle building and the surviving buildings have turned into ruins. A private museum has been organized on the territory of Schaaken Castle.

2 Tapiau Castle (Gvardeysk, Kaliningrad region)

Tapiau Castle was first mentioned in 1258 as the property of the Prussian noble Zapelle, who converted to the Christian faith and swore allegiance to the Teutonic Order. In 1262, a small wooden and earthen order fortress was built on the banks of the Deima. In 1265 it was captured and destroyed by the Lithuanian army. In the same year 1265, Master of the Teutonic Order Arno von Sangershausen ordered the construction of a fortress on the northern bank of the Pregel River.

In 1275, the fortress of Tapiau was stormed by the Litvin troops. The fortress survived, but its position on the ground seemed to the defenders not entirely successful. It was decided to move it to another place. In 1280-1290, under the leadership of commander Ulrich von Bauer, a new wooden fortress was built on the eastern bank of the Deima. In 1340-1351, under the leadership of Marshal of the Order Siegfried von Danenfelde, a stone two-story castle with four outbuildings and a forburg was built in the Pregel bend, protected by a horseshoe-shaped moat and an earthen rampart. This fortification in a rebuilt form has survived to this day.

In the middle of the 16th century, by order of the Duke of Prussia, Albrecht of Brandenburg-Ansbach, a large-scale reconstruction was carried out in Tapiau Castle.

In the reign of King Frederick William III, starting from 1786, a shelter for the poor operated in Tapiau Castle, and in 1793 the house of contempt accepted the first decrepit, wretched, sick and orphans. During these years, three outbuildings of the castle were demolished. In 1879, during the restoration of Tapiau Castle, two floors were added, the house church was located on the top floor, after which the castle began to be used as an administrative building.

In 1902, a complex of red brick buildings was built on the territory of the castle. During the Weimar Republic and under the Nazis, Tapiau Castle housed a prison. Since April 1945, the castle housed a pre-trial detention center for the detention of war criminals, later - again a prison.

3 Waldau Castle (Nizovye village, Kaliningrad region)

The first order wooden and earthen fortification in Waldau was built in 1258-1264. The expansion of the territory controlled by the Teutonic Order led to the fact that Waldau Castle lost its defensive significance.

In 1457, the old fortifications were rebuilt, after which the castle began to be used as the summer residence of the Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order. After the secularization of the Order in 1525, Waldau Castle became a ducal domain.

On May 17-18, 1697, the main part of the Great Russian Embassy, ​​headed by Admiral Franz Yakovlevich Lefort, stopped at the Waldau Castle, on May 17, Tsar Peter I visited the castle. Since 1720, the Waldau Castle was rented out by the royal government of Prussia.

In 1858, the castle housed an agricultural school. In the 1860s, the building was thoroughly rebuilt, the towers and fortress walls were finally dismantled. Since 1945, the castle building was under the jurisdiction of an agricultural school (SPTU No. 20). Since 1947, the left wing has been used as a hostel for an agricultural school. On this moment there is a museum in the western wing.

4 Lauken Castle (Saranskoye village, Kaliningrad region)

Around 1260, in the town of Lovka, on the site of the future castle, order ramparts were built. Since 1270, the fortress of Lauken has been a springboard on the right bank of the Laba for the onslaught of the Teutonic Order on Nadrovia.

In 1327 a stone castle was built. Lauken is mentioned in 1466 in the documents of the II Peace of Thorn and the Treaty of Krakow in 1525. During the time of Duke Albrecht, the castle was used as a hunting lodge. At the behest of Duke Georg Friedrich, Lauken was rebuilt between 1581 and 1584 by the architect Blasius Berwart. After that, the castle was named Friedrichsburg. Shortly after perestroika, Georg Friedrich gave an audience to the Swedish ambassador at the castle.

In subsequent years, the castle, becoming a knight's estate, was repeatedly rebuilt. At the end of the 19th century, Lauken became the property of the von Bieberstein family, the last owner being Ludwig von Bieberstein.

After the end of World War II, the castle building remained in good condition. In the first post-war years, it was converted into a school, later with north side added another building. In this form, the building was preserved until the beginning of the XXI century. Cellars of order times have been preserved.

5 Georgenburg (Chernyakhovsk, Kaliningrad region)

In 1264, on the high northern bank of the Inster, on the site of the old Prussian settlement of Kapzovin, the knight of the German Order Hartmann von Grumbach built a fortification named Georgenburg in honor of St. George. In 1337 a castle was founded here, in 1351, by order of the Grand Master of the Teutonic Order, Winrich von Kniprode, its reconstruction in stone began.

In 1364 and 1376 the castle was destroyed by the Lithuanians, in 1385-1390 it was restored, later a forburg was added on the western side. In 1403, Georgenburg was taken by the Lithuanian army under the leadership of Prince Vitovt. In 1657, the castle was badly damaged during a Tatar raid, and in 1679 it was occupied by the Swedes.

Since 1709, the castle with the estate was rented out. In 1752-1799 the von Koidell family began to breed horses here. The last owner of Georgenburg Castle, since 1937, was Dr. Martin Geling.

In 1994-1995, Georgenburg was leased by the Russian Insurance Bank for 99 years to create a cultural and entertainment center. On its territory were archaeological excavations until the 1997 crisis, when the bank abandoned this project. The castle is currently on the verge of destruction.

6 Vyborg Castle (Vyborg, Leningrad Region)

Vyborg Castle was founded in 1293 during the third Swedish crusade. The Swedes landed on the coast of the Gulf of Finland in the area of ​​present-day Vyborg and destroyed the Karelian settlement and the Karelian outpost on small island. The Swedes founded a castle on the island and named it Vyborg (translated from Old Swedish as “Holy Fortress”). A stone wall was built around the central elevated part of the island. And in the center of the island - a quadrangular stone donjon tower was erected. The Swedes named it St Olaf's Tower in honor of King Olaf II Haraldsson, who established Christianity in Norway.

The castle became the residence of the governor of the Swedish king. For many years, Vyborg Castle was the main border fortress of Sweden in the east and administrative center Vyborg len. Vyborg Castle reached its peak in the middle of the 15th century, during the years of the governorship of Karl Knutsson Bunde, who later became King Charles VIII of Sweden. At that time, the main building was rebuilt, where the governor's quarters and apartments were located, in which kings and high-ranking officials stayed during their visits to Vyborg. In front of the main building and the tower of St. Olaf, a southern defensive wall was built with four towers: New, Guard, Fire and Prison. On the northeast side of the island, the Shoemaker's Tower was erected, and on the southeast, the Paradise Tower. The main gate was arranged in the passage arch of the Fire Tower.

In 1555 King Gustav I Vasa visited the Vyborg Castle, personally inspecting the royal castles of Sweden. Dissatisfied with the state of the fortifications and towers, the king ordered a large-scale reconstruction of the fortress, which was little adapted to artillery defense. Work began in 1559. New supporting walls were built on the Castle Island, the towers of the castle and its main building were rebuilt. The reconstruction of the castle donjon began in 1561 and lasted four years. The tower of St. Olaf was dismantled to the level of the second tier, and then built on with brick: the third and fourth tiers were tetrahedral, the top three received an octahedral shape. The height of the tower (without a roof) was 38 meters. Large-caliber guns were installed at the loopholes of the upper floors. In the 1580s, the southern defensive wall underwent reconstruction. In 1582, the construction of a stone outer wall began, encircling the island in an arc from the west and from the north. In 1606-1608, the Fire Tower and the gatehouse at the entrance to the island were rebuilt and merged into one building - the Governor's House, which later became the residence of the Vyborg governor.

In 1710, during the siege of Vyborg by the troops of Peter I, the walls and buildings of the fortress were significantly damaged by Russian artillery. Throughout the 18th century, the castle buildings were repeatedly repaired and rebuilt. During this period, the buildings of the Barracks Corps and arsenals appeared. In 1834 and 1856, two devastating fires broke out in Vyborg Castle. In 1891-1894 the castle was restored by the forces of the Vyborg Fortress Military Engineering Administration.

From 1944 to 1964 the Vyborg Castle was used by the Soviet military. The 71st Separate Guards Communications Battalion and the 49th Separate Guards Engineer Battalion of the 45th Guards Division were stationed in the castle. Military families lived in the premises of the castle. In 1964, the USSR Ministry of Defense transferred the Vyborg Castle to the State Inspectorate for the Protection of Monuments. In 1970, the first expositions of the Vyborg Museum of Local Lore opened here.

7 Preussisch-Eylau Castle (Bagrationovsk, Kaliningrad region)

In 1325, on the orders of the grand master of the Teutonic Order Werner von Orseln, master Arnold von Eilenstein, on a hill surrounded by swamps and a river, on the site of the Prussian fortress Sutvirt, began the construction of a fortified house, called Ile Castle. On the river, the orderers built a dam with a mill, the water level rose and the castle ended up on an island. By 1330, a square-shaped stone fortification was built, surrounded by a moat, with a drawbridge and a portcullis gate. A forburg was attached to the fortification on the eastern side.

IN historical documents the first mention of the castle dates back to 1326, where it is called "Ile", in the records of 1342 - "Iladia", in 1400 - "Prusche Ilov" (Preussisch-Eylau). Until 1347, Preussisch-Eylau was the residence of the order pfleger, then it housed the administration of the kammerat, which was part of the Balga commandery.

In February 1454, during the Thirteen Years' War, Preussisch-Eylau Castle was captured by the rebellious population and partially damaged. The order organized active resistance, and most of the cities of Natangia again came under his authority. Preussisch-Eylau was occupied by the order garrison, consisting of several knights and 60 militia men, all damage was eliminated. In 1455 and 1456, the Prussian troops tried to take possession of the castle, but they did not succeed.

After the reformation in 1525, the order castle became the residence of the departmental estate of Hauptmann Preussisch-Eylau. In 1814 the estate was bought by Heinrich Sigismund Valentini. In 1817 it was named Henriettenhof after the owner's wife. The estate was located on the territory of an old forburg, still well preserved. The castle, due to the lack of a roof, was actively destroyed. It was unpleasant to live near the ruins, and soon a new house. Almost the entire economy was transferred there.

In 1932, in an old mansion located near the walls of the former order castle, a district local history museum. During the Second World War, the territory of the castle was not badly damaged. After the war, the living quarters of the former mansion gradually fell into disrepair and were no longer in use by the beginning of the 1960s. On November 27, 1961, the territory of the castle and the fort was transferred under the act to the Bagration office of the district consumer union, after which the basements of the castle and the fort were used as warehouses.

In the surviving building of the forburg, the roof began to collapse due to rotten rafters; by 1989, holes appeared in the roof. In August 1990, the middle section of the building burned down. In the early 1990s, a decision was made to carry out minor excavations and convert the forburg into a hotel with a bar. But in the last stages, the forburg was abandoned.

The Middle Ages in Europe was a turbulent time. The feudal lords, for any reason, arranged small wars among themselves - or rather, not even wars, but, in modern terms, armed “showdowns”. If a neighbor had money, they had to be taken away.

Lots of land and peasants? It's just indecent, because God ordered to share. And if knightly honor is hurt, then here it was simply impossible to do without a small victorious war.

Initially, these fortifications were made of wood and did not resemble the castles known to us in any way - except that a moat was dug in front of the entrance and a wooden palisade was erected around the house.

The lordly courts of Hasterknaup and Elmendorv are the ancestors of castles.

However, progress did not stand still - with the development of military affairs, the feudal lords had to modernize their fortifications so that they could withstand a massive assault using stone cannonballs and rams.

The besieged castle of Mortan (withstood the siege for 6 months).

Beaumarie Castle, owned by Edward I.

Welcome

We are on our way to the castle, which stands on a ledge of a mountain slope, on the edge of a fertile valley. The road goes through a small settlement - one of those that usually grew near the fortress wall. Common people live here - mostly artisans, and warriors guarding the outer perimeter of protection (in particular, guarding our road). This is the so-called "castle people".

Scheme of castle structures. Note - two gate towers, the largest stands separately.

The first barrier is a deep ditch, and in front of it is a rampart of excavated earth. The moat can be transverse (separates the castle wall from the plateau), or sickle-shaped, curved forward. If the landscape allows, the moat encircles the entire castle in a circle.

The shape of the bottom of the ditches could be V-shaped and U-shaped (the latter is the most common). If the soil under the castle is rocky, then ditches were either not made at all, or they were cut down to a shallow depth, which only hindered the advancement of infantry (it is almost impossible to dig under the castle wall in the rock - therefore, the depth of the moat was not decisive).

The crest of an earthen rampart lying directly in front of the moat (which makes it seem even deeper) often carried a palisade - a fence of wooden stakes dug into the ground, pointed and tightly fitted to each other.

A bridge over the moat leads to the outer wall of the castle. Depending on the size of the moat and bridge, the latter supports one or more supports (huge logs). The outer part of the bridge is fixed, but its last segment (right next to the wall) is movable.

Scheme of the entrance to the castle: 2 - gallery on the wall, 3 - drawbridge, 4 - lattice.

Counterweights on the gate lift.

This drawbridge is designed so that in a vertical position it closes the gate. The bridge is powered by mechanisms hidden in the building above them. From the bridge to the lifting machines, ropes or chains go into the wall holes. To facilitate the work of people servicing the bridge mechanism, the ropes were sometimes equipped with heavy counterweights that took part of the weight of this structure onto themselves.

Of particular interest is the bridge, which worked on the principle of a swing (it is called “overturning” or “swinging”). One half of it was inside - lying on the ground under the gate, and the other stretched across the moat. When the inner part rose, closing the entrance to the castle, the outer part (to which the attackers sometimes managed to run) fell down into the moat, where the so-called “wolf pit” was arranged (sharp stakes dug into the ground), invisible from the side, until the bridge is down.

To enter the castle with the gates closed, there was a side gate next to them, to which a separate lifting ladder was usually laid.

Gates - the most vulnerable part of the castle, were usually made not directly in its wall, but were arranged in the so-called "gate towers". Most often, the gates were double-leaf, and the wings were knocked together from two layers of boards. To protect against arson, they were upholstered with iron on the outside. At the same time, in one of the wings there was a small narrow door, which could be entered only by bending over. In addition to locks and iron bolts, the gate was closed by a transverse beam lying in the wall channel and sliding into the opposite wall. The transverse beam could also be wound into hook-shaped slots on the walls. Its main purpose was to protect the gate from their landing attackers.

Behind the gate was usually a drop-down portcullis. Most often it was wooden, with iron-bound lower ends. But there were also iron gratings made of steel tetrahedral rods. The lattice could descend from a gap in the vault of the gate portal, or be behind them (on the inside of the gate tower), descending along the grooves in the walls.

The grate hung on ropes or chains, which, in case of danger, could be cut off so that it quickly fell down, blocking the way for the invaders.

Inside the gate tower there were rooms for guards. They kept watch on the upper platform of the tower, asked the guests for the purpose of their visit, opened the gates, and, if necessary, could hit all those who passed under them with a bow. For this purpose, there were vertical loopholes in the vault of the gate portal, as well as “tar noses” - holes for pouring hot resin on the attackers.

All on the wall!

Zwinger at Laneck Castle.

On top of the wall was a gallery for defense soldiers. From the outside of the castle, they were protected by a solid parapet, half the height of a man, on which stone battlements were regularly arranged. Behind them it was possible to stand at full height and, for example, load a crossbow. The shape of the teeth was extremely diverse - rectangular, rounded, in the form of a dovetail, decoratively decorated. In some castles, the galleries were covered (wooden canopy) to protect the warriors from bad weather.

A special type of loophole - ball. It was a freely rotating wooden ball fixed in the wall with a slot for firing.

Pedestrian gallery on the wall.

Balconies (the so-called “mashikuli”) were arranged in the walls very rarely - for example, in the case when the wall was too narrow for the free passage of several soldiers, and, as a rule, performed only decorative functions.

At the corners of the castle, small towers were built on the walls, most often flanking (that is, protruding outward), which allowed the defenders to fire along the walls in two directions. In the late Middle Ages, they began to adapt to storage. The inner sides of such towers (facing the courtyard of the castle) were usually left open so that the enemy who broke into the wall could not gain a foothold inside them.

Flanking corner tower.

The castle from the inside

The internal structure of the castles was diverse. In addition to the mentioned zwingers, behind the main gate there could be a small rectangular courtyard with loopholes in the walls - a kind of “trap” for the attackers. Sometimes castles consisted of several "sections" separated by internal walls. But an indispensable attribute of the castle was a large courtyard (outbuildings, a well, premises for servants) and central tower, she is “donjon” (donjon).

Donjon at the Château de Vincennes.

The location of the water source depended primarily on natural causes. But if there was a choice, then the well was dug not in the square, but in a fortified room in order to provide it with water in case of shelter during the siege. If, due to the peculiarities of the occurrence of groundwater, a well was dug behind the castle wall, then a stone tower was built above it (if possible, with wooden passages to the castle).

When there was no way to dig a well, a cistern was built in the castle to collect rainwater from the roofs. Such water needed to be purified - it was filtered through gravel.

The combat garrison of castles in peacetime was minimal. So in 1425, two co-owners of the Reichelsberg castle in the Lower Franconian Aub entered into an agreement that each of them exposes one armed servant, and two gatekeepers and two guards are paid jointly.

Kitchen at Marksburg Castle.

Inside the tower there was sometimes a very high shaft going from top to bottom. It served as either a prison or a warehouse. The entrance to it was possible only through a hole in the vault of the upper floor - “Angstloch” (in German - a frightening hole). Depending on the purpose of the mine, the winch lowered prisoners or provisions there.

If there were no prison facilities in the castle, then the prisoners were placed in large wooden boxes made of thick boards, too small to stand up to their full height. These boxes could be installed in any room of the castle.

Of course, they were taken prisoner, first of all, for a ransom or for using a prisoner in a political game. Therefore, VIP-persons were provided according to the highest class - guarded chambers in the tower were allocated for their maintenance. This is how Friedrich the Handsome spent his time in the Trausnitz castle on Pfaimd and Richard the Lionheart in Trifels.

Chamber in Marksburg Castle.

Abenberg castle tower (12th century) in section.

At the base of the tower there was a cellar, which could also be used as a dungeon, and a kitchen with a pantry. The main hall (dining room, common room) occupied an entire floor and was heated by a huge fireplace (it spread heat only a few meters, so that iron baskets with coals were placed further along the hall). Above were the chambers of the feudal lord's family, heated by small stoves.

Sometimes the donjon did not serve as living quarters. It could well be used only for military and economic purposes (observation posts on the tower, dungeon, provisions storage). In such cases, the feudal lord's family lived in the "palace" - the living quarters of the castle, standing apart from the tower. The palaces were built of stone and had several floors in height.

It should be noted that the living conditions in the castles were far from the most pleasant. Only the largest carpets had a large knight's hall for celebrations. It was very cold in the donjons and carpets. Fireplace heating helped out, but the walls were still covered with thick tapestries and carpets - not for decoration, but to keep warm.

The windows let in very little sunlight (the fortification character of the castle architecture affected), not all of them were glazed. Toilets were arranged in the form of a bay window in the wall. They were unheated, so visiting the outhouse in winter left people with simply unique sensations.

Large temples had two floors. The common people prayed below, and the gentlemen gathered in the warm (sometimes glazed) choir on the second tier. The decoration of such premises was rather modest - an altar, benches and wall paintings. Sometimes the temple played the role of a tomb for the family living in the castle. Less commonly, it was used as a shelter (along with a donjon).

War on earth and underground

To take the castle, it was necessary to isolate it - that is, to block all the ways of supplying food. That is why the attacking armies were much larger than the defending ones - about 150 people (this is true for the war of mediocre feudal lords).

The issue of provisions was the most painful. A person can live without water for several days, without food - for about a month (in this case, one should take into account his low combat capability during a hunger strike). Therefore, the owners of the castle, preparing for the siege, often went to extreme measures - they drove out of it all commoners who could not benefit the defense. As mentioned above, the garrison of the castles was small - it was impossible to feed the whole army under the siege.

The attackers had no less problems. The siege of castles sometimes dragged on for years (for example, the German Turant defended itself from 1245 to 1248), so the question of supplying the rear of an army of several hundred people was particularly acute.

In the case of the siege of Turant, the chroniclers claim that during all this time the soldiers of the attacking army drank 300 fouders of wine (a fuder is a huge barrel). This is about 2.8 million liters. Either the scribe made a mistake, or the constant number of besiegers was over 1,000.

View of the castle Eltz from the counter-castle Trutz-Eltz.

The war against castles had its own specifics. After all, any more or less high stone fortification was a serious obstacle for conventional armies. Direct infantry attacks on the fortress could well have been successful, which, however, came at the cost of heavy casualties.

That is why a whole range of military measures was necessary for the successful capture of the castle (it was already mentioned above about the siege and starvation). Undermining was one of the most time-consuming, but at the same time extremely successful ways to overcome the protection of the castle.

Undermining was done with two goals - to provide troops with direct access to the courtyard of the castle, or to destroy a section of its wall.

So, during the siege of the castle of Altwindstein in Northern Alsace in 1332, a brigade of sappers of 80 (!) People took advantage of the distracting maneuvers of their troops (periodic short attacks on the castle) and for 10 weeks made a long passage in the hard rock to the southeastern part fortresses.

If the wall of the castle was not too large and had an unreliable one, then a tunnel broke through under its base, the walls of which were reinforced with wooden struts. Next, the spacers were set on fire - just under the wall. The tunnel collapsed, the base of the foundation sagged, and the wall above this place crumbled into pieces.

Curious devices were used to detect tunnels. For example, large copper bowls with balls inside were placed throughout the castle. If the ball in any bowl began to tremble, this was a sure sign that a mine was being dug nearby.

But the main argument in the attack on the castle were siege machines - catapults and battering rams.

Storming of the castle (miniature of the 14th century).

A type of catapult is a trebuchet.

Sometimes barrels filled with combustible materials were loaded into catapults. To deliver a couple of pleasant minutes to the defenders of the castle, catapults threw the severed heads of captives to them (especially powerful machines could throw even whole corpses over the wall).

Assault the castle with a mobile tower.

In addition to the usual ram, pendulum ones were also used. They were mounted on high mobile frames with a canopy and were a log suspended on a chain. The besiegers hid inside the tower and swung the chain, forcing the log to hit the wall.

In response, the besieged lowered a rope from the wall, at the end of which steel hooks were fixed. With this rope, they caught a ram and tried to lift it up, depriving it of mobility. Sometimes a gaping soldier could get caught on such hooks.

Having overcome the shaft, breaking the palisades and filling up the moat, the attackers either stormed the castle with the help of ladders, or used high wooden towers, the upper platform of which was on the same level with the wall (or even higher than it). These gigantic structures were doused with water in order to avoid arson by the defenders and rolled up to the castle along the flooring from the boards. A heavy platform was thrown over the wall. The assault group climbed up the internal stairs, went out onto the platform and with a fight invaded the gallery of the fortress wall. Usually this meant that in a couple of minutes the castle would be taken.

Silent glanders

Sapa (from the French sape, literally - a hoe, saper - to dig) - a method of extracting a moat, trench or tunnel to approach its fortifications, used in the 16-19 centuries. Flip-flop (quiet, secretive) and flying glanders are known. The work of the crossover glanders was carried out from the bottom of the original ditch without the workers coming to the surface, and the flying glanders were carried out from the surface of the earth under the cover of a pre-prepared protective mound of barrels and bags of earth. In the second half of the 17th century, specialists - sappers - appeared in the armies of a number of countries to perform such work.

The expression to act "on the sly" means: sneak, slowly, imperceptibly go, penetrate somewhere.

Fights on the stairs of the castle

It was possible to get from one floor of the tower to another only through a narrow and steep spiral staircase. The ascent along it was carried out only one after another - it was so narrow. At the same time, the warrior who went first could only rely on his own ability to fight, because the steepness of the turn of the turn was chosen in such a way that it was impossible to use a spear or a long sword from behind the leader. Therefore, the fights on the stairs were reduced to single combat between the defenders of the castle and one of the attackers. It was the defenders, because they could easily replace each other, since a special extended area was located behind their backs.

samurai castles

We know the least about exotic castles - for example, Japanese ones.

Stone castles began to be built at the end of the 16th century, taking into account European achievements in fortification. An indispensable attribute of a Japanese castle is wide and deep artificial ditches with steep slopes that surrounded it from all sides. Usually they were filled with water, but sometimes this function was performed by a natural water barrier - a river, a lake, a swamp.

Inside, the castle was a complex system of defensive structures, consisting of several rows of walls with courtyards and gates, underground corridors and labyrinths. All these buildings were located around central square honmaru, on which the feudal lord's palace and the high central tenshukaku tower were erected. The latter consisted of several rectangular tiers gradually decreasing upwards with protruding tiled roofs and gables.

Japanese castles, as a rule, were small - about 200 meters long and 500 wide. But among them there were also real giants. Thus, Odawara Castle occupied an area of ​​170 hectares, and the total length of its fortress walls reached 5 kilometers, which is twice the length of the walls of the Moscow Kremlin.

The charm of antiquity

Saumur French castle (14th century miniature).

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