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Development in the use of firearms was so rapid during the 15th and 16th centuries as to require a radical change in military architecture. French troops marched through Italy in 1494 and, with their guns, reduced castle after castle with astonishing rapidity. The age of the medieval castle came to an end, and the era of modern military fortification opened. The principle governing the design of the new forts constructed all over Europe was that the whole building should be concentrated in one compact block. Its low walls could then be defended all around by artillery, the guns being mounted on bastions and redans. Gone were the high and multi-layered defensive walls, keeps, and baileys that were the staple of old castles.
Early Castles (9th – 11th Centuries)
An example of a shell keep that is still standing today is Clifford’s Tower, which is situated on a high mound in North Yorkshire, England. The castle was built for William the Conqueror in 1068 and is part of York Castle. Although the keep is mainly a ruin, its two-story layout and other historical details can be seen. We discussed in detail the motte and bailey visually in our post on the parts of a castle. The castle design was introduced into England by the Normans when they invaded England following the Battle of Hastings in 1066.
Structure of a Medieval Castle
In any case, many existing wooden motte-and-bailey castles were replaced by shell keeps. The shell keep design seems to have been primarily chosen because of the issue of weight. Many mottes could simply not support the enormous weight of a free-standing stone keep, and so a shell keep represented an excellent solution. Not only were stone keep castles powerful defensive fortifications, but they were also spacious enough to act as domestic spaces for the lords who owned them, allowing them to live in great luxury. The imposing appearance of these castles, along with their very high construction cost, also served to increase the prestige of their owners.
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The motte itself was an earth mound, which was flattened on top to make space for the construction of a keep. The Motte-and-bailey castle design appears to have originated in Northern Europe, particularly in Normandy and Britain – although there are also many examples in Germany, Denmark and Italy. In The Golden Days of San Simeon, author Ken Murray describes the castle’s piecemeal construction process, which added to the exorbitant cost.
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How Did They Build Castles in Medieval Times?
The bailey was surrounded by a wooden wall or palisade, and sometimes featured a moat and gatehouse for added protection. Artificial mottes probably took somewhere between four to nine months to construct, and on top of it a simple wooden tower or ‘keep’ was added. These keeps varied greatly in size, some being little more than watch towers with room for a few guards, some being great towers with room to house the lord and his entourage. The Land Walls of Theodosius at Constantinople, built in the 4th-5th century, is a spectacular example of an early double-layered concentric curtain wall defence. Norman castles also featured buttresses (a kind of architectural support built against a wall) and were often highly decorated, with curved Romanesque arches and even blind arcading on exterior walls. Hearst was inspired by the castles he’d seen on a European tour as a boy and wanted his home to emulate the palaces of Europe.
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For the most part, these Victorian castles were made as fancy living spaces. People weren’t concerned about invaders and other crazy problems like that during this time period. It was simply a castle where the wealthy and influential members of society could live. Round stone keeps are actually preferable to square stone keeps for one important reason. You see, people eventually figured out that you could undermine the structural integrity of a square stone keep by damaging the corners of the structure. This wasn’t a simple thing to do, but it was possible to collapse a square stone keep if you managed to damage the corners enough.
Some royal castles were tied to royal forests, and had special roles in managing the law and economic activities there. Most castles drew their water from wells inside the walls; some well shafts could be extremely deep. Later castles also made use of lead piping to bring water into the castle.
Used by both defenders and attackers, it was more accurate and had a greater range than the mangonel. The inner slope of a ditch or moat or the edge of the earth platform on which a castle may be built to increase its height. An oval or circular earthwork with a bank and ditch which encloses domestic or other buildings. The raised section which alternates with crenets (gaps) in the battlements of a wall or tower. A hole in the projecting overhang of a wall or tower through which missiles may be dropped on the enemy and through which the base of the wall can be monitored. Toilet or garderobe, usually with a waste shaft emptying directly outside the walls.
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The most secure area in the centre of the castle would have been wrapped by two mighty outer stone walls. The shell keep is really just a circular wall of stone that is surrounding a structure. When Motte-and-Bailey castles are upgraded to this style, it means simply replacing the fence with tall and round stone walls. Concentric castles also made use of active defense measures including arrowslits, murder holes, and postern gates to give the garrison as many opportunities as possible to disrupt an assault by besiegers. On top of all this, concentric castles were incredibly expensive and highly impressive structures that dominated any landscape and its inhabitants. In the crusader states, where siege warfare was common in the 12th and 13th centuries, the first concentric castles were built.
Another stone keep castle style that developed in the 11th and 12th century was the shell keep. Shell keeps developed as successors to motte-and-bailey castles when the wooden palisade around the top of a motte was replaced by a stone wall. Initially, this took the form of upgrading existing wooden motte-and-bailey fortifications to stone, but free-standing stone keep castles also began to emerge.
The ruler commissioned Bartolomeo Rastrelli in 1754, who devised the plan to embellish the facades of St. Petersburg estate with a two-tier colonnade and vases on the roof. Across the three floors of the Catherine Palace, each hall and room features its own unique style and decorations. The renovated Chapel of Catherine Palace boasts an impressive collection of artwork on its cobalt walls with gold ornamentation. The Normans were the descendants of Norse raiders who settled in northern France in the early 10th century. Stone castles were also far more durable and did not need repairing and maintenance work nearly so regularly as wooden castles, which were quite susceptible to the elements.
In a motte and bailey castle, the interior buildings would have been mostly of wattle and daub. The round keep aimed to strike a perfect balance between the square stone keep and the shell keep. Like the square stone keep, the round version was also constructed from stone, but it was less expensive to build because it had fewer rooms and staircases. Fewer rooms could be seen as a disadvantage, but by the time round keep castles became the norm, the castle’s residential accommodations were commonly situated in other buildings on the grounds. Round stone keeps were used mainly for defense, and they served this purpose well.
These castles have become some of the most recognizable, and they quickly spread throughout the continent as incredibly important defensive castles. Usually constructed in a square formation, stone keep castles had four towers at each corner connected by formidable stone walls. The walls of the keep were extremely solid and could be as much as 9 feet thick.
The fantastic fairytale castle at Neuschwanstein was built as the pinnacle of his reign of marvelous achievements. This beautiful palace with ornate architecture was built to honor the composer Richard Wagner. Visitors had their pick from Ludwig’s magnificent stables of purebred Arabian horses. Star forts, also called bastion forts, originated in Italy during the late 15th and early 16th centuries, during the French invasion of the Italian peninsula.
All of the living quarters and other essential rooms are housed within the safety of the walls. There would be a large gate that can only be opened from the inside as another method to keep intruders at bay. There are still examples of shell keeps that are standing to this very day. A square stone keep was probably the most common type of stone keep that you will see. Some of these keeps are more rectangular in nature, but they are generally lumped together when they are classified.
From their origins in the 9th and 10th centuries, castles grew to be a key feature of the landscape in medieval Europe. In this feudal society, based around land ownership and service, securing possession of territory was crucial to lords and nobles being able to maintain their social, economic and political position. The steep slopes on which Krak des Chevaliers is built protect the castle from the attack on all sides except one – here the walls are thicker and the defences more formidable. The actual shape of these fortifications varied greatly, as they were often placed on existing natural hills – in this scenario, the walls of the castle would mirror the shape of the hilltop.
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