Dug In: Castles and Keeps

Dover Castle, England, 1154-89, outer curtain walls early 13 th cen.

Traditional histories on castle architecture start with castles as feats of military engineering and ends with castles as high-status country manors. Is this the whole story?

Beaumaris Castle, 1295, Wales (Great Britain) Azay-le-Rideau château, 1515-25, France

First reference to privately owned castle toward the end of the Carolingian period

Invasions of Europe – 9th-10th centuries Division of Charlemagne's empire in 843

Charles the Bald: "Castles and fortifications and enclosures made without our permission shall be demolished by 1st August" (864)

“Here below, some pray, others fight, still others work.” (11th century, Bishop Adalbero of Laon)

“From the beginning, mankind has been divided into three parts,

among men of prayer, farmers, and men of war.”(11th century, Bishop Gerard of Cambrai)

Feudalism emerges in Europe after the disintegration of the Carolingian Empire

Normans – identity emerges in 900-950 in Normandy

William the Conqueror (1024-87)

Normans spread feudalism and its architecture in their many conquests

First castles: motte-and-bailey castles

Detail of Bayeux Tapestry, ca. 1070-77

Normans spread feudalism and its architecture in their many conquests

Remains of motte-and-bailey castle at Pleshey,

England

two-story timber hall

great hall and other buildings

motte

bailey

Motte-and-bailey castles

great hall and other buildings

Saxon royal hall at Cheddar, England, ca. 1100

Vernacular timber halls of northern Europe

Halls and Great Hall of the Saxon royal court at Yeavering, England, 7th - 9th cen.

two-story timber hall → future masonry keep

Keep at Hedingham Castle, 1140 England

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Dover Castle, England, 1154-89, outer curtain walls early 13th cen.

outer curtain wall

inner curtain wallkeep (tower)

II. Exactly what was fortified about the fortified residence?

Double circuit of walls of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople

inner curtain wall

outer curtain wall

Defensive systems: Byzantine innovations on Roman fortified walls in the Byzantine Empire

Defensive systems: Byzantine innovations on Roman fortified walls in the Byzantine Empire

City walls of the Byzantine capital, Constantinople

curtain wall

defensive towers

machicolation- a projection at the top of a wall from which missiles an be dropped down against an invading enemy

Defensive fortifications – devil in the details

box machicolation

rampart machicolations

Crusader Castle, Crac des Chevaliers, Syria, 1142-1213

Defensive fortifications – devil in the details

wood hoardings

Wood hoarding mounted on curtain wall with or w/o machicolations

attack by mobilesiege tower

Ditch filled by attackers

Defense from wood hoarding mounted on the curtain wall

Defensive fortifications – devil in the details

portcullis - a heavy barred gate that moves vertically up and down in a fortress gateway

Cairo (al-Qahira) Bab al-Futuh gate

Defensive fortifications – devil in the details

arrow slits

arrow slits

Cairo (al-Qahira) Bab al-Futuh gate

Defensive fortifications – devil in the details

murder holes

Defensive fortifications – devil in the details

the trebuchet (medieval innovation)ballista (Greek & Roman)

Growing sophistication in siege machines in the Middle Ages

Crac des Chevalier’s open tank on the south side fed by an aqueduct.

glacis – sloping wall

tank/moat

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in response to growing sophistication of siege

engines

III. Keeps – residential quarters of the elite laymen in 11th-century Europe

most castles of lay elite Keep (donjon) of Loches CastleLoches, France, 1030s

keep or donjon or turris

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engaged shafts

Cluny LochesEngaged shafts, passageways in walls, and ashlar masonry: these already appear at Loches before they become widespread in church architecture

Keeps and churches share common decorative vocabulary

Carolinigan “castles” (castellum) and “towers” (turris) = church westworks

St. Gall

FuldaCentula

St.-Denis

Corvey Abbey

Possible origins of the keep or donjon

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Elite domus of a Carolingian abbot Great halls raised on a basement – established in France in the 11th century

Bayeux Tapestry, 1066-82

Loches

Possible origins of the keep or donjon

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4 floor levels inside the donjon at Loches Plan of the donjon at Loches

great hall

chambers

armory

chambers

Inside a keep – stacked halls and chambers

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Inside the donjon at Loches todayThe chapel (3rd floor)

Inside a keep – religious space

Bodiam Castle, in East Sussex, England, 1385, owned by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge

IV. Bodiam: Last military castle or early castellated manor house?

Bodiam Castle: as seen from an artillery platform or from viewing terrace?

Bodiam: Last military castle or early castellated manor house?