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Forum:	Castles In General & Medieval History
Topic:	palace

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T O P I C R E V I E W
Maria There is a diference between palace and castle, right? I'm just not sure which it is.
ipflo hi,
I found this nice answer from some one else on http://bb.castles.org/Post00326.php
" The main difference is defense. Castles, which usually date from an earlier time period, were built mainly with the idea of keeping other people out. Although they could sometimes be very lavishly decorated, particularly the keep, which was the castle holder's private residence and the last hold out in invasion, castles were primarily millitary instillations. They were hugely expensive to build, and so became quite a status symbol, but they were primarily military.
As gun powder became more common in Europe (what I've been talking about is European castles--my degree is in Medieval European history--non-European castles are a whole other thing) it became a waste of money to build thick walls and high towers, only to have them brought down with an explosion. By that time, armies were becoming larger and borders were better defended, royalty was becoming more powerful, and were able to enforce the peace so their nobles didn't have to worry about defending against EACH OTHER. The aristocracy was also becoming more wealthy and wanted to show it. Palaces really reappeared with the Renaissance. Earlier, people who had had palaces were the most powerful--Emperors, Popes, during the Classical period, Roman Senatores and generals. Basically people who could afford some other line of defence, so they could show their wealth--and security, because wealth BOUGHT security--by opulence.
By the way, palaces aren't exactly the decendents of castles. Weathly medieval people tended to favor manor houses, which were often fortified, unless they were near a castle where the family could evacuate to in case of war, or town houses, which didn't need to be fortified if it were in a walled town. By the Renaissance, there was getting to be less and less difference between the landholding class and the wealthier merchants. As the class lines blurred, the homes of the two started to be more and more alike."
Also it is nice to know that the word castle derives from the word "castellum", Latin for small fortress. And that palace derives from Palatium, the Latin name for the hill in Rome where the palace stood of the Roman emperors.
ipflo
Maria Thank you!
Merlin Well, I specialiced in medieval palaces for my degree in history, and I see things the other way 'round. It's correct that the term 'palatium' comes from 'Palatinum' - the emperors' hill and palaces in ancient Rome. In the early middle ages it was used for unfortified residences of the merovingian and carolingian kings of Franconia. From the 10th century onwards, also bishops began to call their residences 'palatium', same as the saxonian emperors of Germany. In that time, fortifications were attached to the palatii and the differences from palatium to royal castles became fluent. But the palatii of that time – always built in stone, became something lika a model for early stone-castles of the high nobility like earls and counts. The german term for the residential-building of a castle, 'palas', comes also from 'palatium'.