Any style, any era. What are the techniques used to build a castle?
Well, I will start with my favorite castles, the small castles which protect every village in the South of France. In particular, let us look at the small castles in the region of the Uzege, around the town of Uzes in Gard, in the South of France.
There are about 30 villages within a 20km radius of Uzes. All 30 have a small castle. Most were built in the 12th century (though many were continuously modified into later centuries, and a few were built later). The average population of these villages was perhaps 400 people in Medieval times.
The city of Uzes itself was a walled city and has a larger castle (now called the “Duche”, as it belongs to the Dukes of Uzes (the premier, or oldest, Duchy in the French peerage) – who’s predecessors were not Dukes in the 12 Century). The Duche was built on the remains of a Roman “Castrum” or camp, which became the seat of the governors of the area in the first millennium.
In the city of Uzes there are also two other great medieval towers or keeps, one owned by the bishops of Uzes, and one owned (eventually) by the Kings of France. These three fortresses kept a balance of power between King, Church and Nobles in the city of Uzes.
We will not go into how these larger castles were built. (There were even grander and more powerful castles built nearby in Medieval times, such as the great castles at Tarascon and Beaucaire where the powers of the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire were embodied in stone, defying each other across the river Rhone. The church also built great fortifications to protect the Papacy in Avignon, such as the “Palais du Papes”, and “Chateau Neuf du Pape”.)
These grand castles were mostly built later than the 12th century. We will not look at them.
We will look instead at the small castles, each housing a “seigneur” or knight and his family and servants, which protected the small villages of the Uzege.
It is the 12th century. Times are lawless and dangerous. Raiders are prevalent, especially Saracens, landing on the coast from North Africa or Spain and raiding inland to seize treasure and particularly slaves. Sometime in the 12th century, raiders became prevalent and strong enough, and local armies weak enough that almost every village began to fortify.
Isolated farms were abandoned. The population concentrated in hilltop or ridge top villages tightly packed, made of stone, and somewhat defensible. They either had a wall, or the outer walls of the houses made a wall with only a few streets which could be blocked leading into the village. The only farms left in the valley bottoms and the rich farmlands were large farms called “mas” which means “big”, which were stone built and defensible themselves.
It was quite a sacrifice to live in villages in a more defensible location, because it meant long walks every morning and evening to get to the fields, but the times were dangerous enough that the sacrifice was made. In fact, these defensible villages didn’t provide enough protection. Every village began to build a castle, and support a knight who could be armed and armored for war and protect the village.
So, if the village was going to build a castle, how would they do it?
First, they would look for a good location. The castle had to be near the village (or in it) so that it would protect the village, and the villagers could easily seek refuge in it. Most castles were built in the village. Some were built on a ridge or more defensible location just on the edge of the village. A few were built on a hill top or good defensible position outside of the village, but not too far away.
Second, the castle should ideally be built on rock. A foundation of bedrock would be stable and able to support the weight of a stone keep. It would also be secure, and difficult for enemies to dig in to undermine the castle. Fortunately, most of the villages had already moved to defensible ridges where there was plenty of bedrock to build on.
To be continued - ran out of space.
Continuation...
Third (and most difficult) the castle should be built over a well which would supply it with water in case of siege. Many of these castles have very deep wells, dug through solid rock. The well must have been one of the more expensive elements in building the castle. Still, a well was essential. If they could not find a well, they might build a castle with elaborate rain water catchments and large cisterns, but this was definitely not the preferred solution. How a site where a productive well could be dug was determined, I don’t know.
After determining a site, the next step was to dig (quarry) the well. These wells can be big. The one in my castle is only about 6 feet across at the top (in the castle courtyard) but it opens up like a bottle dungeon and is 20 feet in diameter by the time you reach the water 60 feet down. (The villagers swear that there is a secret passage leading from the well under the wall and exiting somewhere outside the castle. If there is, it is well hidden or underwater, as I have been down the well looking for it in vain.)
Quarrying the well would produce a lot of stone for the castle, but not enough. A bunch more stone would need to be quarried (hopefully from somewhere very near the castle, as transporting the stone in Medieval times was probably more difficult than quarrying it). Almost all the village castles in the Uzege are mostly built of rough quarried local stone. There are key elements in most castles, however, that are made from better stone quarried in the old quarries that the Romans used to produce the stone from which they built the nearby “Pont du Gard”. Door surrounds, window casements, and ornamental features might well be very precisely crafted from this stone.
So, while digging the well, the materials for building the castle would be assembled: rough stone, dressed stone, crafted stone, some great timbers for beams and rafters, upper floors might be wood or stone or tile. Roofs would be Roman tiles, so the village would need to up its tile production to build up enough materials to build the castle. Digging clay, shaping the curved tiles, and roughly firing them. Almost all the materials used in the castle would be stone, wood, and tile. There would be a few iron components that would keep the village blacksmith busy; some chains for the well bucket and to hoist the portcullis, some hinges for doors and shutters, lock and bar fittings for the main doors, perhaps a well pulley, mounting and handle, and one for the portcullis.
With the well dug, and the material to hand, or coming in, the village could begin to build the castle. There were many differences in castle detail, but some features were common in the 12th century. The village castle would probably have: a large square keep, about 4 stories high; a curtain wall surrounding the castle courtyard; a gate tower, protecting the gate into the courtyard, housing a portcullis and a door. There might be a few other towers as well, but usually not.
The keep would be built first. The ground floor of the keep was usually three large barrel vaults side by side, a spiral staircase in one corner, and the open ends of the barrel vaults filled in by thick stone walls.
The barrel vaults would be built first. Wooden framing would support the stones until the vault was complete and the wooden frames could be removed. The village builder would supervise and oversee the framing. The villagers would lay stone and mortar. The best village stone mason would supervise the spiral staircase (all built in stone) in one corner, as that was a tricky bit of stone work. Once the vaulted ground floor was built, the next three floors were just using scaffold and more stone and mortar to build up each additional floor. There might be some fancy stone on a (high) window, and on the door to the keep, or around some arrow slits. Wood beams would go in to support upper floors, and the floors would be laid, and finally the rafters and roof tiles laid (often leaving a walkway around the perimeter where defenders could shoot from behind stone crenellations.
The villagers were used to this sort of building, as all their houses and barns were built exactly the same way. The only difference being that individual houses did not have a well (though the village did) and that the stone walls of the castle were generally thicker (especially on the lower stories) than the walls of the village houses.
After building the keep, the village would build the gate tower and the curtain wall.
These castles were not very big. They were roughly the size of 8 village houses. A village of 400 people, could probably spare a labor force of 100 for about 6 weeks out of the year each. A few full time craftsmen, plus that labor should have been able to build one of these small castles in a year (if they had the materials on hand). It might have taken the same crew the previous year to dig the well and produce the materials.
That’s how a village built a castle. It’s not very difficult. They could do it again today in exactly the same way if anyone was willing to pay for it. All the same skills are still there and are still used to build in the villages. I know, because I own one of the 30 village castles in the Uzege and have had quite a lot of work and restoration done on it over the years. Chop a window through a four foot thick stone wall? Open up a new door? No problem. The village builders know exactly how to do it and there is nothing to do with building in stone that causes them any worries at all.
Here are some pictures of some of the village castles of the Uzege:
http://earendill.imgur.com/all/