Medieval Europe ancient castle construction and style description

Castles are a product of medieval Europe, 1066 to 1400 A.D. is the heyday of the construction of castles, European nobles for the competition for land, food, livestock, population and the constant outbreaks of war, intensive wars led to the nobles to build more and more and more large castles, to guard their own territory.

The architectural art of castles--Roman and Gothic

The architectural art of castles, in the process of development, mainly formed two representative styles. Romanesque and Gothic, of which the Romanesque is also known as the Norman style in the United Kingdom, the two styles are sequential relationship in time, both of which have far-reaching impact on the future development of architectural art.

Romanesque, also known as Romanesque, meaning "the shadow of Rome", was popular in Western Europe in the 11th-12th centuries, but it was not until the 19th century that it was recognized, initially by the 19th-century French historian, De Gervais, from the linguistic point of view. countries using the Roman (Latin) language family, and was later used by the French artist de Cormon to express a style of early medieval European art influenced by ancient Roman culture.

Romanesque castles developed during the period when the defensive function of castles was most emphasized, and their creation was entirely a summation of the 700-year-long history of warfare in Europe that preceded them. Castle architectural style is mostly from the ancient Roman architecture and Byzantine architecture where borrowed, on the one hand, years of war and no conditions for the accumulation of the art of castle construction, so close to the use of the past building technology, on the other hand, the ancient Roman defensive war is still being continued to use the way.

The most important feature of Romanesque architecture lies in its semicircular shape and the barrel vault inherited from the ancient Romans. The barrel vault is representative of the architecture of this period and is generally cross-applied to pilasters and enclosed arcades, which are both strong and artistic. There are also rounded towers, making them less vulnerable to vandalism. Other architectural features are the use of narrow windows, semi-circular arches, low domed roofs, and door frames picked out floor by floor for decoration. The whole building due to the extensive use of columns and various shapes of the vault to achieve a solid and heavy, balanced and stable, strength and saturation of the aesthetic effect, narrow windows and the vast internal space to form a strong contrast, making the castle interior light dim, deep into the deep, giving a sense of mystery and darkness. To give you an intuitive understanding of the game "ico" in the castle is a typical Roman-style castle, exactly located in Scotland's Norman-style castle. I believe that people who have played for the Roman-style castle that kind of solid and stable, mysterious and deep beauty are still fresh in their memory.

The situation in the United Kingdom is relatively special, due to the long-term harassment by the Nordic pirates, their buildings by the influence of the Nordic architectural style. Scandinavian pirates of the bow of the ship using natural curved tree trunks, soon to be applied to the building, the emergence of England and Scandinavia's unique wooden columns and roofs connected to the form of the building, which formed the United Kingdom's own Romanesque architectural style, called the "Norman style". "Norman style" is also a kind of Roman style.

The Romanesque style of architecture has been developing in the direction of higher and larger buildings. But the barrel arch is very bulky, need a huge wall and handrail. This constraints to the castle to the pursuit of high, big. These reasons contributed to the birth of Gothic architecture.

The Gothic style (Gothic) pushed the art of castle architecture to a new height, and the medieval sky after the 12th century was sketched out by these straight contours to create a beautiful landscape. The beautiful sunlight cast through the stained glass windows is a dream-like experience.

The opposite of Romanesque architecture, where secular architecture influences religious architecture, Gothic architecture is religious architecture influencing secular architecture. This has to do with the fact that life in the Middle Ages was so difficult and miserable that people put their hopes on the ethereal religion. At that time, people's devotion to religion to an unimaginable extent, Notre Dame in Paris is by the poor and weak elderly women hard earned pennies to save up. 1140 the first Gothic building appeared in France, by the Abbot of St. Denis Abbey to the abbot of the Surgery of Surgery will be converted into a convent, is a church. The original purpose of the conversion was to make the church building reflect the three ideals of light, number and height. The church of St. Denis caused a sensation when it was built, and immediately this style of architecture spread throughout the land of Europe. Twenty-five years after the construction of this church, a Gothic church leading to heaven stood in every parish that had sent someone to the ceremony. The influence of the Gothic style of architecture on castles is about a century later in time than on churches, and is entirely the result of changing times.

It is generally believed that the word "Gothic" was first coined by the great 16th-century painter Raphael to refer specifically to the architecture of Northern and Central Europe before the Renaissance, and that the word was pejorative and synonymous with "barbarism. Later the art historian Giorgio Vasari went on to define the term "barbaric" as a term of art between the Renaissance and Northern Europe. Vasari went on to call all art between European antiquity and the Renaissance pejoratively Gothic, to emphasize that the Renaissance was a reformation of classical culture, but this designation is a bit too much.

Gothic architecture gives a sense of upward mobility. The architects utilized the sagittal hair curls and cross arches that had appeared in Romanesque architecture and improved on them, producing curved ribbed arches that served as a skeleton, allowing him to extend upward and using pointed arches so that the size of his spans could be designed at will. The whole building almost no walls, the skeleton between the main face is a high and large windows, this building's internal skeleton structure bare bare vertical lines and a sagittal strong pointed scroll, making his interior wide, high and bright; external also take bare structure, vertical piers and elevated flying arches of the vertical columns and scrolls, as well as the handrail forest of small minarets and huge window apertures together, also give a sense of ascension. For the Gothic sense of ascension, modern psychologists believe that the study: high straight visual objects, can make people psychologically produce a strange feeling of reverence, just like people see the jagged mountains, flowing straight down the waterfalls as well as the high volume of the sea tide, it will cause a kind of spiritual impact and a sense of piety. This is very conducive to the expression of religious themes, so widely used by the church, and the castle for the use of Gothic architectural style is entirely out of its exquisite.

The beauty of the Gothic castle also lies in its luxurious interior decoration, mainly reflected in these two points - glass mosaic windows and sculpture. Glass-mosaic windows are a signature feature of Gothic architecture. Due to the almost frame-like structure of Gothic architecture, the windows take up the entire wall between the pillars, so that the sculptures and frescoes have no wall to rely on, so it is natural that people want to think from the window decoration on the brain. Due to technical limitations, it was not possible to make very pure glass, which had a variety of colors due to impurities. On the other hand, inspired by the Mediterranean coast of the mosaic art, so the birth of the Gothic unique glass mosaic window art. When the sunlight passes through the mosaic windows, the colored light creates a surprising beauty on the mottled walls. In addition, sculpture did not flourish until this era, although the Greco-Roman civilization had already developed the art of sculpture to a very high level. But because Christianity had a negative attitude towards idolatry for a long time in the Middle Ages, there was a long vacuum in the art of sculpture at that time. From the 11th century, with a new round of architectural competition, in order to highlight the luxury and prosperity, the citizens gradually in the church and castle to increase the sculpture, craftsmen are not constrained to create, sculpture in the Gothic castle in large quantities as a decorative and used to stimulate the development of this art, the Renaissance also has a positive significance on the subsequent.

Gothic architectural style in the castle building was used in the process of the invention of gunpowder, resulting in the gradual loss of the castle's defense function. In the process of transformation from Romanesque to Gothic, it gradually lost its solemn appearance and became more and more open to the outside, with large and small skylights at the top of the tower, windows on the front of the tower that could look out over the river and the surrounding countryside, and lowered arcades and carved handrail walls and staircases appeared in the inner courtyard. All of this, of course, was traded for the sturdiness of the castle.

The quest for Gothic castles by the lords of the time could be so frenzied that many stonemasons were well paid for doing nothing else but maintaining their castles. So much so that Albereda, Countess of Bayeux, beheaded her architect to ensure that no one would build another castle to compete with hers. The vanity of women developed to this point is horrifying.

The art of the Gothic is the highest achievement in the development of the art of castle architecture in feudal Europe, summarizing its culture and art. The game is very like to use the gothic castle, because it and its exquisite? For example, "Castlevania", "Ghosts" are, especially Castlevania, a large number of the use of Gothic architectural elements spires, mosaics, statues, etc., played the people have their own experience, here will not say more.

Looking at the whole history of castle development art, we can find an interesting phenomenon, like any practiced skills, in the process of its development accumulated successful, credible techniques and methods and another person to feel friendly and comfortable image is always constantly being used, constantly recurring cycle of recurring (which can be referred to our current pop culture, there are a lot of similar places ). So much so, that when a castle with Romanesque style appears in front of us, it is difficult to say whether it is a 3rd century Roman building or an 11th century mid-century European "Romanesque" or what should be called "Norman" building in England, or a 16th century "neo-classical revivalist" building. century "neo-classical revivalist" architecture, or something later. Of course, a more refined categorization can help us to distinguish between these buildings, but the purpose of this statement is to illustrate the gradual nature of architectural development. The development of European castles, or by extension the history of architecture, has moved in such a spiral.

Medieval castles, with the preservation of medieval art of special value, its condensation of medieval aesthetics so that the charm of the everlasting

Military-castle development of the main line

Military, is the castle from the birth of the prosperity to the demise of the main line has always been, throughout the castle development of the whole.

The birth of the castle, from the political environment in which it is located, generally, the castle is the product of political division, the power of the fragmentation.

For example, in medieval Europe, due to the implementation of the cognac system, the ownership of land was dispersed into the hands of the nobles, knights, political fragmentation, empires, kingdoms, duchies, knight territories and so on a variety of large and small feudal political entities all over the world. No one was able to clarify the boundaries between them, nor was anyone able to fully sort out the connections between them. Wars for various reasons often broke out between feudal nobles of all ranks, so they prepared for war at all times and often participated in wars. All the nobles were the equivalent of military generals, and their vassals constituted the various ranks of the officers and soldiers to whom they belonged. It is these large and small wars in all corners of Europe, so that the role of the castle defense gradually prominent. In Germany, for example, only the West German territory, there are 15,000 existing ancient castles, fully reflecting the German medieval state of feudalism. In addition, the medieval war technology and the concept of war also decided that the medieval war is defensive war, at that time, the castle is the most reliable way of defense, enough to resist the cavalry's rapid attack, will be raided into a war of attrition. So lords built castles extensively to secure their estates and possessions from invasion.

Looking at Japan, which is also known for its castle culture, the political environment from the birth of Japanese-style castles to the period when they flourished is similar. During the Warring States period and the Edo period, Japan was politically chaotic as the land and armies were concentrated in the hands of the Shogunate, daimyo, and feudal lords due to the implementation of the bakufu system, and the feudal lords built fortified castles as centers of domination of their territories and as military strongholds, whether for reasons of attacking in order to maximize their own interests, or for reasons of defense in order to protect their own vested interests.

These two examples are very different from our situation in China. China had a strong centralized system of power for most of its feudal history, so there were not many cases of political division and armed conflict. In war, there were no strong castles, but rather the Great Wall was built to defend against foreign invasions. The Great Wall and the castle are both defensive buildings, but the castle, compared to the Great Wall, also has a residence, symbols and other secular role, so once its defensive role because of the evolution of history and disappeared, the Great Wall stopped the development, while the castle as a secular building continues to develop.

So the castle is a defensive structure born to protect the safety of people and property in the territory.

The military role of castles has always shaped their development. In general, the authoritative point of view is that the main development of the castle period from the 9th century A.D. Tugun - the emergence of the outline of the castle to the 14th century gunpowder weaponry of a period of time, this period of time is also known as the medieval military experts, "Castle period".

It has already been said that the castle was born as a fortification. As early as the 3rd century in Rome, because the ancient Roman civilization is very brilliant, the city life is very prominent, huge public buildings, fine art and culture are concentrated in the city. So whenever war came, the Romans had to take the city as the focus of defense. Especially in the 3rd century, due to the unprecedented pressure on the Roman Empire, under the double pressure of barbarian invasion and civil war, the defense of the city put forward a high demand. Attacking castles in resistance in the ancient style of warfare required good siege techniques and months-long supplies of munitions. The Romans' strategy of defense in depth took full advantage of their large number of castles.

But there are some differences between the castles of ancient Rome and what is usually called the medieval castle, because the development of ancient castles was not always smooth sailing, in the political and economic reasons, during which there have been a number of setbacks. Medieval Europe, socio-economic underdevelopment, political fragmentation led to the feudal state, the productivity of the reverse trend, and the 3rd century to the 9th century this period of time throughout Europe is mainly nomadic economy, and do not need strong castles to defend their property. At that time, the architecture of the construction technology or scale is far less than the ancient Rome, the corresponding structural technology and artistic experience has been gradually lost. Ancient Rome, both practically and spiritually, is in ruins.

Usually, the exact meaning of the medieval castle does not include the ancient Roman fortifications, generally refers to the 9th century after the emergence of the mound - the outline of the castle until the 14th century masonry castles. The reason why the castle appeared at this time, mainly because the European economy at that time from the nomadic economy to the farming economy, people's property, the residence of the fixed, so the need for strong castles to protect their lives and property security. Although the development of castles during this period took an independent path, but the ancient Roman castle construction techniques and the concept of defensive warfare more or less influenced the development of medieval castles. Many medieval castles were built on the ruins of abandoned Roman castles in order to avoid the hassle of digging foundations, and after the 14th century, with the birth of firearms, castles gradually lost their military role and became secular residences, but the architectural ideas and styles that were born during the construction of the medieval castles still have a serious impact on it.

The history of the castle is the history of the long-term dispute, is the history of the cut-off areas, is the history of the strong beam phase hacking each other. Those inferiority and superiority are not equal, different heights, different sizes of the vassals, in order to compete for power and profit, in order to dynasty hegemony, coveting each other, each with wariness, war and chaos frequently. In the conditions at that time, the consolidation of territory, based on self-protection, or annexation, strike, the best way is to "build a fort". So, on the European continent, this industry is very popular, year after year, day after day, the lords competing to do their best, quarrying, working day and night, a castle in the green hills and waters have stood up. In order to build these castles, people consumed countless manpower, money, materials, and time, and lost countless human lives. But now, whether it is the might of the hegemony of the party, or the heroes of the party, or the bandits who occupy the mountain as the king, are all together with his remnants of the stirrups of the sword in the mud, ashes and smoke. Only which after the erosion of wind, rain and snow, the baptism of war and artillery remaining mottled, broken walls of the castle to the passing travelers described his former glory.

Increasingly strong castle

The development of the castle, with the development of war technology and economic prosperity and development.

The first medieval castles in Europe were built in northwestern France in the ninth century AD. It was built primarily in response to the War of All Nations at home, as well as to defend against sudden attacks by the Vikings. It is a typical, simple mound - the outline of the castle, to be exact, this is only the prototype of the castle. The castle was built on a high ground made of earth excavated during the digging of a ditch, surrounded by a waterless moat. It was enclosed by a thick, pointed board and batten fence. Towers were built at intervals, the number of which depended on the lord's wealth. At the center of the circle is the main tower, the centerpiece of the castle. Access to this main tower was via a bridge supported by multiple pillars and spanning a trench up to the entrance of the enclosure on the upper level of the hillock. The defensive idea was to use the wooden enclosure to ward off small attacks and once the walls were breached, the main castle tower was the last line of defense in the castle. Subsequent castles with mainly military roles used this structure, including the defensive tactics used during the war were also inherited, and later castles basically did not have any relatively major changes in this regard.

The Togang-Singulum style castles were less demanding in terms of construction techniques and costs, and did not require much in the way of terrain selection, but the disadvantages were obvious, namely, that they were not as sturdy as they should have been, and could only be used to defend against small attacks, and the size of the buildings was relatively small. Around the 11th century, with the development of war technology and the revival of towns and cities, the earth mound -contour castles have been more and more unable to meet the requirements of defense, so at this time, stone castles began to become popular. The First Crusade contributed greatly to the popularity of stone castles in Europe. As large areas of conquered land could only be guarded by a small number of remaining knights, the sturdiness of the castles was exceptionally emphasized. Inspired by the tall walls and strong fortresses of the Byzantine Empire, the knights utilized stone to build larger, stronger, and more complex stone castles, and these models of castle construction were also brought to Western Europe by returning knights, where they were thus spread rapidly. Stone castles were generally built using stone curtain walls instead of the wooden picket fences that had originally surrounded the town. The curtain walls were constructed layer by layer from cut stones, leaving gaps at intervals at the top of the curtain walls to form battlements with spearheads. Along the curtain wall every 20 to 30 meters there is a square-shaped defensive tower, convenient for archers to shoot arrows to defend the castle. The square towers had the obvious disadvantage that their corners were not strong enough and were easily damaged. Therefore, in the 12th century, the Byzantines and Arabs were borrowed to build round or semi-circular towers that were easier to defend. The main tower of the castle has the dual characteristics of the lord's residence and the last position for its design has become very careful, general early stone castles are usually rectangular, which is in the internal layout and comfort considerations. But it as the last line of defense also has the shortcomings of the four corners are not enough to withstand the force, so the later construction of the main building of the castle tends to be rounded or polygonal outside, inside the main tower of the castle for the square. There are also more simple design, only in the square castle outside the main tower and then surrounded by a circle of close to the high wall, called "cover wall". Rounded inside this design does not give the enemy to show any plane, force points scattered, easier to defend, and the internal use of the dome and handrail wall carefully designed to create a tall open space, easy to live, gorgeous and spectacular.

After the thirteenth century A.D. began to appear stone castles to strengthen the type, the British genius architect - St. George's "James" designed the most solid castles ever, this architectural style is known as the "Axis Ring Castle This architectural style is called "Axial Ring Castle". The castle had two concentric castle parapets, reinforcing the outer wall, with the inner wall much higher than the outer wall, in order to give the archers on the inner wall a greater field of vision and range of fire, thus creating a crossfire between the inner and outer walls. A circular tower was built at each of the four corners of the inner circle, so that the importance of the castle's main tower became irrelevant, to the point that the main tower was later omitted altogether, as the precision-designed towers and gatehouses were able to hold out on their own, even in the event of an enemy attack on the inner wall. The castle was also surrounded by a huge lake dug around the castle as a moat, with water drawn from other rivers and lakes. Generally, the "Axis Ring Castle" is an extension of the original Old Town.

After the fifteenth century, the advent of large-caliber artillery led to the rapid demise of the military status of castles, and military castles were gradually abandoned. On the other hand, due to the liberalization of trade, the advent of the Age of Sail, and the migration of the population of the district, the castle became less important as everyone, from the nobility to the poor, began to seek a more open and comfortable life, unwilling to huddle in a small castle.

Residence and commerce - the subplot of castle development

The castle provided a solid defense for its masters, the lords, as well as a place for them to live. In addition to the lords, there were vassals and a large number of servants to keep the castle running, and of course, the army was stationed there. The peasants or tenants were scattered around the castle on the estates, crammed into small, simple, dark and damp huts, and only when war came, with their cattle and chattels, into the castle. John, the English hymn writer of the time, described such a life in these words, "The rich dwell in castles, and the poor in hovels; God hath made them high and low, and ordained them rich and poor." (People were really materialistic back then.)

The architectural style of the castle has been swayed by its defense and residential functions, as mentioned above, the main building of the castle using the rounded design is also the result of the two architectural purposes of mutual compromise. In the early days of the castle development, without compromising the solidity of the castle under the premise of its owner always find ways to make it more comfortable to live, such as the above mentioned internal use of the dome and handrail walls carefully designed to create a high open space, even so, the lord's life is still quite primitive. Until the end of the 14th century after the castle's defense function gradually lost, the castle is completely to art, life for the development of the goal, no longer to the degree of solidity required it. The castles of this era were generally exquisite and luxurious, showing the nobility's tendency towards hedonism.

The Crusades brought the European aristocracy an extravagant culture of oriental hedonism, depicting a beautiful vision of "paradise on earth". This ideal for the pursuit of material life strongly aroused the nobles and knights to the beautiful life, of course, this is based on the vast number of peasants on top of the hardship. This was reflected in the construction of the castles, which gradually became exquisite and artistic, transitioning from pragmatism to art. The rulers did not care about the people's labor, and enjoyed themselves at will. Some rulers took the castle as a pleasure palace, specially choose the beautiful scenery, easy to bird's-eye view of the construction of high places (of course, the construction of castles in high places is more out of the requirements of the defense, which is not contradictory at this point). For example, Theodosius II, Emperor of the Eastern Roman Empire of Germanic origin, can be said to be a representative figure of "excellence" in this regard. He chose the location of his palace on a hilltop by the sea, with a view of the surrounding landscape and the splendor of the sea. Although these aristocratic pleasures exacerbated the hardship of the peasants and increased the class conflict between the two. But it still contributed to the formation of the artistic style of the castle. The truth is indeed a bit dismal. Behind the exquisite Gothic castles were the blood and tears of the serfs. Feudalism art, itself is to serve the rulers, built on the suffering of the working people, both in China and abroad.

The normal functioning of the life of the lord and his servants in the castle had a huge demand for services and commerce, and there were generally stables, stoves, storerooms, storehouses, warehouses, bakeries, laundries, chapels, and servants' huts within the walls, in addition to the main building where the lord lived. The gradually intensifying desire of the nobles for an extravagant life made higher demands on commerce. The city began to grow gradually around the castle through the steps of gathering people, developing settlements, and forming a city. Cities whose names in German end in the suffix "-burg" grew out of a central castle. For example, located on the Elbe River in Germany's first port, the second largest city of Hamburg (Hamburg); located on the Rhine River in Europe's largest river port, Germany's premier steel industry base in Duisburg (Duisburg); Saxony-Anhalt state capital Magdeburg (Magdeburg), etc., are all well-known big cities. There are numerous small and medium-sized cities. The number of small and medium-sized cities is even greater. This is where the word "burgess" comes from. In addition, most of the castles were built in convenient locations and at river crossings (which were valuable for defensive purposes), which made it easy for commerce and trade to develop. With the development of trade, these castles gradually formed trade chains or trade networks, accelerating the formation of their neighboring cities. Especially the castles along the rivers developed very fast, because the transportation in the Middle Ages was most convenient by river. This was especially true along the Rhine, Danube, and Main rivers.

Businesses had to have merchants, but merchants had to be mobile and had to be legally recognized as free, and although many merchants were the sons of serfs dependent on the castle, they were in fact emancipated by leaving their homes. This broke the bondage of land to man in feudal society and prepared the way for the later capitalism. In this respect, the development of the castle itself dug the grave for the feudal society symbolized by the castle.

Of course, the development of castles was not always positive, such as the role of castles in maintaining the peace of a party, but also increased the political capital of the feudal lords and the central confrontation, and became an obstacle in the process of the formation of a unified nation-state. Moreover, many castles were abandoned and became the bandit nests of wandering knights, which not only provided a stronghold for the robbers, but also a gateway for the feudal lords to arbitrarily set up barricades to rob the merchants and travelers, which had a negative impact on the circulation of commerce and the development of the regional economy.