Castles
By Guneri Tugcu In 1494 the armies of the
French king, Charles VIII, invaded
Italy to capture the kingdom of
Naples. They swept through the country and
bombarded and destroyed many
castles. This invasion signaled the end of the
castle as a stronghold of
defense. For centuries it had been the dominant
fortification in Western
Europe for the defense of kings, nobility, and
townspeople. Ancient cities
were often walled to keep out invaders, and within
the walls there was
usually a citadel, a strongly built fortification occupying
the highest or
militarily most advantageous position. A castle is much like such
a walled
city and its citadel contracted into a smaller space. Castles were
basically
fortified locations. The word itself comes from the Latin castellum.
Up
to the 6th century fortifications were primarily communities in which most
of
the population lived. But in the middle of the 6th century, the armies of
the
Byzantine Empire began to build strong forts as defensive positions.
For the
next few centuries this castle building was confined to the Byzantine
Empire,
but later hordes of Islamic warriors who swept out of Arabia to
conquer the
Middle East, North Africa, and much Byzantine territory also
started building
such forts. Western Europe, in the depths of the Dark Ages
from the 5th through
the 9th century, had no such works. But late in the 9th
century, as local lords
and kings began to consolidate power, castle building
began probably in France.
Once begun, castle building spread rapidly to
other areas. But it was not until
the 12th and 13th centuries, after the
Crusaders returned from their wars
against Islam in Palestine, that castles
as imposing as those of the Byzantine
or Islamic empires were constructed in
Europe. Many of the stone castles of the
late Middle Ages still stand. Some
are tourist attractions, in various states of
repair, along the Rhine River
from Mainz to Cologne in Germany, dotted about the
French countryside, or
perched on hilltops in Spain. The original French castles
had been built on
open plains. Later ones, however, were situated on rocky
crags, at river
forks, or in some position where advancing enemies would find
approach
extremely difficult, if not impossible. The fortifications became
more
elaborate with time, with considerable attention paid to making the
living
quarters more comfortable. A typical castle was usually guarded on the
outskirts
by a surrounding heavy wooden fence of sharp-pointed stakes called
a barbican.
It was intended to prevent surprise attacks by delaying the
advance of
assailants and giving those within the castle compound time to
prepare to resist
and attack. Inside the barbican stretched the lists, or
wards: strips of land
that encircled the castle. The lists served as a road
in time of peace and as a
trap in war; once within the barbican the enemy was
in the range of arrows shot
from the castle walls. In peacetime the lists
also served as an exercise ground
for horses and occasionally as tournament
grounds. Between the lists and the
towering outer walls of the castle itself
was the moat, usually filled with
water. Across it stretched a drawbridge,
which was raised every night. At the
castle end of the drawbridge was the
portcullis, a large sliding door made of
wooden or iron grillwork hung over
the entryway. It moved up and down in grooves
and was raised every day and
lowered at night. In times of danger it blocked the
way to the heavy oak
gates that served as doors to the castle compound. These
gates were so large
that they were rarely opened except on ceremonial occasions.
A smaller
door was built into one of them to provide easy entrance and exit for
those
who lived in the castle . A person known as the chief porter was charged
with
the responsibility of making sure that only friends passed through. The
outer
walls of most castles were massively thick, sometimes as much as 15
feet.
At intervals were high towers, each a small fort in itself with
provisions to
withstand a long siege. When an attack was expected, wooden
balconies were hung
over the outer edges of the wall. During an attack, large
stones were thrown or
boiling oil poured from the balconies onto anyone
trying to climb the wall. The
wall and the towers had hundreds of narrow
openings through which defenders
could shoot arrows and other missiles.
Inside the walls was the bailey, or
courtyard. At intervals around the bailey
were the stables, a carpentry shop,
the shop of the armorer and blacksmith,
barracks for the men-at-arms and for
servants, a chapel, and a storehouse.
There was also an oven room where the
bread was baked, a kitchen, a kennel
for dogs, and a well and drinking fountain
. The largest building along the
wall was the castle owner's home. It contained
the apartment for the master
and his family and a great hall. This great hall
was the center of social
life such as wedding feasts, banquets, and knighting
ceremonies. Within the
walls there was another structure called the keep, or
donjon (dungeon) . The
keep was the focal point of the castle, the place to
which, in times of
attack or siege, the whole population of the castle retired
if the outer
defenses were failing. The keep had its own walls and was often
protected by
a moat as well. It contained private apartments, service rooms,
weapons
supplies, and a well to provide water. Most keeps were rectangular
structures
from two to four stories high. The entrance doorway was often on the
second
floor, with access by a stairway protected by a wall or forebuilding. In
the
Middle East the Crusaders from Europe found keeps that were built with
round
or multiangular towers to defend them more easily against an enemy
coming from
any direction. The round keep became common in Europe after the
12th century.
Some later castles were built in a square and enclosed by
one or two lines of
walls. At each corner of the inner line of walls was a
strong tower. Powerful
gateways took the place of the keep, and great care
was taken in building the
outerworks to make access to the castle difficult.
The castles of Conway and
Caernarvon in Wales are both of this type. The
terms castle and palace have
often been used interchangeably, but they are
not the same. Castles are
fortifications, while palaces have been built for
centuries as residences for
kings and nobles . But as castles began to lose
their defensive role, they
became residences; and to them were added the
customary luxuries. As early as
the 15th century, imposing residential tower
houses, designed more for elegance
than defense, were built within castles,
such as those at Vincennes near Paris
and Tattershall in England.
Historically the palace antedates the castle by
several centuries. Although
the word derives from the Palatine Hill in Rome,
where the emperors built
their residences, palaces were built for the pharaohs
of ancient Egypt as
early as the 16th century BC. Much larger than the Egyptian
palaces were
those built in Assyria, which today is Iraq. The palace at
Khorsabad of
Sargon II, who ruled from 721 to 705 BC, extended over more than 25
acres. In
Rome more than 1 million square feet of the Palatine Hill were devoted
to
splendid residences of such emperors as Augustus, Tiberius, and
Septimius
Severus. Palace building declined in Europe during the Middle
Ages until
prosperity and a measure of safety returned during the
Renaissance. Then, in
Italy, every prince and wealthy family had its
palazzo. Many are still standing:
the Pitti and Medici palaces in Florence
and the palaces along the Grand Canal
in Venice. London has three notable
palaces: Buckingham, Whitehall, and St.
James. Many German cities notably
Wurzburg and Munich have impressive palaces.
Among those most recently
built are those of Ludwig II of Bavaria in the 19th
century. The most famous
and most frequently pictured is Neuschwanstein, located
near Fussen. But for
many the most appealing is the small Linderhof, a jewel of
rococo design near
Oberammergau. Ludwig's Herrenchiemsee palace on an island in
the lake named
Chiemsee was modeled after Louis XIV's magnificent edifice at
Versailles,
near Paris. Versailles has other imitations, including the
beautiful
Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna. Palaces will probably be built for
as long as there
is wealth enough to pay for them. In the 1980s the sultan of
Brunei, Sir Muda
Hassanal Bolkiah Muizzaddin Waddaulah, opened his new
palace. Named New Istana,
it contains 1,788 rooms, making it one of the
grandest palaces anywhere.
Although castles are no longer readily built,
because of the lack of money or
just the lack of need, they will always be
appreciated for their beauty,
architecture, and most importantly the land
that they helped to defend.