Build a Medieval Castle

A. Michel Guyot, owner and restorer of Saint Fargeau castle in France, first had
the idea of building a 13th-century style fortress following the discovery that the
15th-century red bricks of his castle obscured the stone walls of a much older
stronghold. His dream was to build a castle just as it would have been in the
Middle Ages, an ầ ttp://w«[Link]/iclti9 idea which some found mildly amusing
and others dismissed as outright folly. However, Maryline Martin - project
director - was inspired by the exciting potential for the venture to regenerate the
region. It took several months to bring together and mobilise all the various
different partners: architects, archaeologists and financial backers. A site in the
heart of Guédelon forest was found: a site which offered not only all the
resources required for building a castle - a stone quarry, an oak forest and a
water supply - but in sufficient quantities to satisfy the demands of this
gigantic site. The first team started work and on June 20th 1997 the first stone
was laid.
B. Unlike any other present-day building site, Michel Guyot's purpose is clear,
he warmly welcomes members of the public to participate. The workers' role is
to demonstrate and explain, to a wide audience, the skills of our forefathers.
Stone quarrying, the building of vaulted ceilings, the blacksmith's work and the
raising of roof timbers are just some of the activities which visitors can witness
during a visit to Guédelon. The workers are always on hand to talk about their
craft and the progress of the castle. Each year 60,000 children visit Guédelon
with their schools. The site is an excellent educational resource, bringing to life
the history of the Middle Ages. Guided tours are tailored to the
school curriculum and according to age groups: activity trails for primary school
children and interactive guided tours for secondary school children. Pupils of all
ages have the opportunity to follow in the footsteps of medieval stonemasons by
taking part in a stonecarving workshop or discover the secrets of the medieval
master-builders at the geometry workshop.
A. Workers in the Burgundy region of France are building a 13th century castle.
They’re not restoring an old castle. They’re actually building a new old castle.
See the builders are constructing it from scratch. The craftsmen have
been working for nearly ten years now but they’re not even
halfway done yet. That’s because they’re using only medieval tools and
techniques. The World’s Gerry Hadden takes US to the site of what will be the
Guedelon Castle. Another reason said by Jean Francois, a member of Guedelon
stone cutter’s guild, for eight hours a day he bangs on a 13th century chisel with
a 13th century iron mallet.
D. The progress of construction has to give way to
tourists side for their visits. The visitors from 2010, however unsightly they may
be, are vital to the project. The initial funding came not from pillaging the local
peasantry but from regional councils, the European Union and large companies.
For the last 10 years, Guédelon, 100 miles southeast of Paris, has funded itself
from its entrance fees. Last year it had a record 300,000 visitors, who paid
almost €2.5m, making it the second most-visited site in Burgundy. The mostvisited
site was the Hospice de Beaune, a beautiful 15th-century almshouse built
600 years before, or, if you prefer, 200 years "after”, Guédelon.
E. limestone is found in the construction of various local buildings, from the
great and prestigious edifice of Ratilly castle to the more modest poyaudines
houses. This stone contains 30-40% iron oxide; this can make it extremely hard
to extract and dress. Having studied the block in order to determine and
anticipate the natural fault lines of the stone, the quarrymen first carve a series of
rectilinear holes into the block. Iron wedges are then hammered into this line of
holes. The shockwaves produced by the quarrymen’s sledgehammers cause the
stone to split along a straight line. The highest quality blocks are dressed to
produce lintels, voussoirs, corbels, ashlars etc. The medium quality blocks are
roughly shaped by the stonecutters and used on the uncoursed curtain walls, and
as facing stones on the castle's inner walls. There are water-filled clay pits in the
forest. Clay is taken from these pits, cleaned and pugged. It is then shaped in
wooden moulds to form bricks. After the bricks have been left to air-dry, they
are fired in a woodfired kiln for about 12 hours, at roughly 1000°c.
F. The mortar is the "glue" used to bind the castle's stones. It is made up of
precise doses of lime, sand and water. The people working there wear the tunics,
skirts and headgear that they might have worn then, but they wear these over
jeans and shoes with reinforced toes. They mix their mortar primarily as they
would have done then, using sand they dig themselves, but they are not allowed
to use the extremely effective hot lime from medieval days, because of its
toxicity, and so they add a modem chemical ingredient instead, to achieve the
same effect. Workers in the Mid Age obviously were unaware of it and some
died earlier by inhaling toxic gas. And so, we met many wonderful people who
do not pretend to be anything but modem human beings practicing an old
technique and finding out what it would have felt like, as much as possible, to do
it with only the resources of an older time.
G. We also learned that even if there is a straight lintel across a doorway, you
will usually find an arch of stones built into the wall differently. Because of the
physics of an arch, which channels the weight above it down into whatever
is supporting it at each side instead of pressing down in the middle, this helps to
take a lot of the weight off of the lintel itself, whether it is free standing or buried
in the wall against the impact of warfare. The arch is the strongest element for
spanning space in stone architecture. This is why, in ancient ruins, you will often
find the entire wall missing, and the arched windows and doorways still
standing, in beautiful patterns against the sky.
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