Author
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Topic: Castles?
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Miri Member
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posted 03-02-2002 04:48 PM
I know the basics of castles. They have an outer wall and a curtain wall. Towers, grounds, kennels, mews, blacksmiths, tailors, stables, tailorshops, and other things. There are towers, a huge kitchen, and the keep. But how, exctly, does it all fit together? Was it simple, or were there lot sof little passageways and whatnot? ------------------ O! How I dreamt of things impossible. |
Erik Schmidt Senior Member
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posted 03-02-2002 06:42 PM
The style of the castle depended on the nature of the site, the provenance and period, the builder, as well as the history of previous building at the site. So how it all fit together varied enormously, and was sometimes very complex due to the constant additions, alterations and partial rebuilding of the various castle structures.Not all castles have two walls and many do not have a keep. Castles having lots of little passageways is somewhat of a myth, similar to the myths of Dungeons and torture chambers. They all existed, but most castles did quite well without them. Some castles had passageways within the walls, but this was not so common, especially in the earlier castles. The Norman keeps, having very thick walls, had passageways and rooms inside the walls. From what I have seen, the rooms within buildings were not generally connected by passageways, but simply by doors, hallways and spiral staircases. There were instances of passageways leading out of the castle in secret locations, but they are rare to find today. In almost all castles, the main way of getting around within it involved crossing the courtyard, especially if the buildings were not adjacent to eachother. The wall walk was also useful for getting around, and sometimes had connections directly to the buildings. Erik |
Miri Member
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posted 03-03-2002 03:09 PM
Thanks! That's very interesting! Passageways and rooms inside the walls! That's so cool! | |