There is a great documentary series with three archeologists by the BBC about medieval castles featuring Guédelon as a real live example from around 2014. I really enjoyed watching this and highly recommend it.
A bit offtopic. Is it possible to cast these videos somehow from the browser to a TV? I know it's possible to download them, but I am wondering if it's possible to stream them to the TV instead...
somewhere in the US, a man built a stone castle single handedly, useing whatever tools he could get, so not historicaly accurate, but the insights into what can be done would be valid, started in the 70's?, 60's, and last I heard had found a sucessor to continue construction
I know a man who built a stone barn from salvaged granite foundation block's, and have watched an very large amish timber frame barn go up, by hapenstance on a back road in Pennsylvania, and have a bit of stone and timber frame experience myself, so seeing stuff like this makes my hands itchy.....abandoned quaries bieng plentiful
These are so common in England they have a name: follies.
Typically named after (often Victorian) idle playboy who built them, and often with no attempt made to conceal their origins; they are only as "medieval" as the tastes of the playboy ran (so, more Tennyson than Terry Jones).
As an European, I find Americans more fascinated about Medieval buildings than us. I can see medieval churches and such by just a 10 minutes subway trip into the old town of the capital with ease. Less than 1 eur with a travelling pass card.
It's just there, we see them without giving them too much care.
The same with squares with buildings showing up arcs in the first floor. They give you both a shadow and and a place to rest.
A pity the modern brutalist architecture wants these wiped out.
Still, liking them doesn't make must fascinating, but just useful
and charming because of the slowed down ambient compared to modern cities.
To me the modern US folklore and weird stuff (contraculture, UFO cults and such), scifi/hippie/hackers cross-polination are much more fascinating, because it's something 'modern' and 'weird',
more machine bound than a utilitarian-but-pretty inspired design.
Such as the Illuminatus trilogy.
Back to Europe, tons of medieval knowledge was still in use in small villages, such as knitting methods, homemade soap with cooking oil and so on. Oh, and lewd jokes/limericks, these were told and sang across centuries.
I grew up in a part of the US that was “settled” in the mid 19th century. The absolute oldest buildings are just now approaching 200 years old and there aren’t many of those even. From that perspective it’s astonishing to be able to see the work of someone’s hands from so long ago. Obviously there were native Americans here long before European settlement, but evidence of their presence has been so thoroughly erased that it feels like everything you see sprung up in the last century. Even our forests are new, as pretty much the entire state was clear cut by the start of the 20th century.
There is a really good winery in Napa Valley, called Castello di Amorosa. Really good wine, and it is also built as a medieval castle. I bet there are more places like that around the world.
Maybe, but more likely they will read the records from today (we are much better at archiving) and wish they could find someone to sponsor them to do the same. They will of course criticize something - that with some discovery we don't yet have - they know was done wrong.
If AI doesn't destroy us but actually frees people from the need to work, then projects like this could really bloom. We all need a reason to get up in the morning, as well as being part of something bigger then ourselves -- this is a wonderful example of how that could look like.
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[ 3.4 ms ] story [ 131 ms ] threadI remember that you could see all the trades explaining how they used to work back in medieval times. Very enlightening.
This article makes me want to go back and see the progress.
https://archive.org/details/secrets-of-the-castle
Edit: spelling
https://youtu.be/drvX9huKowA
3D Guide - How to Build the Perfect Medieval Castle https://youtu.be/Syjg6PHYFBo?si=JceRfeOks3hOVqWu
How to Lay Siege to a Medieval Fortress (1000-1300) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQ7hTNoK-OA&t=1900s
Bring food. LOTS of it.
Wait.
(However, it's apparently easier to do it the fast way. Food storage in the field was quite difficult, and supply lines are vulnerable.)
How to Build a Medieval Castle https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13518800 30-jan-2017 57 comments
Guédelon Castle https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22844118 11-apr-2020 40 comments
https://lovelandcastle.com/
https://lovelandcastle.com/
Reading through that website is...a trip.
Typically named after (often Victorian) idle playboy who built them, and often with no attempt made to conceal their origins; they are only as "medieval" as the tastes of the playboy ran (so, more Tennyson than Terry Jones).
Still, liking them doesn't make must fascinating, but just useful and charming because of the slowed down ambient compared to modern cities. To me the modern US folklore and weird stuff (contraculture, UFO cults and such), scifi/hippie/hackers cross-polination are much more fascinating, because it's something 'modern' and 'weird', more machine bound than a utilitarian-but-pretty inspired design. Such as the Illuminatus trilogy.
Back to Europe, tons of medieval knowledge was still in use in small villages, such as knitting methods, homemade soap with cooking oil and so on. Oh, and lewd jokes/limericks, these were told and sang across centuries.
And chat in a forum about it.
love it nevertheless.
Not a ziggurat-style Mayan temple.
An Egyptian pyramid. Built for the movie Cleopatra.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ozark_Medieval_Fortress
http://www.dupontcastle.com/
Sadly, I thing age and the scope of the project has caught up to him and his wife.
Oh wow I would have never guessed that.