Defensive structures of the Middle Ages. Secrets that medieval castles hide. Reichsburg Castle, Germany
Functions
The main functions of a feudal castle with suburbs were:
- military (center of military operations, means of military control over the district),
- administrative-political (the administrative center of the district, the place where the political life of the country was concentrated),
- cultural and economic (handicraft and trade center of the district, a place of the highest elite and folk culture).
Defining Characteristics
It is widely believed that castles only existed in Europe, where they originated, and the Middle East, where the Crusaders carried them. Contrary to this view, similar structures appear in 16th and 17th century Japan, where they developed without direct contact or influence from Europe and have a completely different development history, built differently from European castles and designed to withstand attacks of a completely different nature.
Components
Hill
A mound of earth often mixed with gravel, peat, limestone, or brushwood. The height of the embankment in most cases did not exceed 5 meters, although sometimes it reached 10 meters or more. The surface was often covered with clay or wooden flooring. The hill was round or approximately square at the base, the diameter of the hill being at least twice the height.
At the top, a wooden, and later a stone, defensive tower was erected, surrounded by a palisade. Around the hill there was a ditch filled with water or a dry one, from the earth of which an embankment was formed. Access to the tower was through a wooden bridge and a staircase built on the hillside.
Courtyard
A large courtyard with an area (with rare exceptions) of no more than 2 hectares, surrounding or adjacent to the hill, as well as various residential and outbuildings - the dwellings of the owner of the castle and his soldiers, stables, forge, warehouses, kitchen, etc. - inside it. Outside, the courtyard was protected by a wooden palisade, then a moat, which was filled from a nearby reservoir, and an earthen rampart. The space inside the courtyard itself could be delimited into several parts, or several courtyards adjacent to each other were built near the hill.
Donjon
Castles themselves appeared in the Middle Ages and were the homes of feudal nobles. Due to feudal fragmentation and, as a consequence, frequent internecine wars, the dwelling of the feudal lord had to serve a defensive purpose. Typically, castles were built on hills, islands, rocky ledges and other hard-to-reach places.
With the end of the Middle Ages, castles began to lose their original - defensive - purpose, which now gave way to a residential one. With the development of artillery, the defensive task of castles disappeared completely; features of the castle architecture were preserved only as decorative elements (French castle Pierrefonds, late 14th century).
A regular layout with clearly defined symmetry prevailed, the main building acquired a palace character (Madrid Castle in Paris, XV-XVI centuries) or Nesvizh Castle in Belarus (XVI century). In the 16th century, castle architecture in Western Europe was finally replaced by palace architecture. The castles of Georgia, which were actively built until the 18th century, retained their defensive task for the longest time.
There were castles that belonged not to one feudal lord, but to a knightly order. Such castles were larger in size, for example Königsberg Castle.
Castles in Rus'
The main part of the medieval castle was the central tower - the donjon, which served as a citadel. In addition to its defensive functions, the donjon was the direct home of the feudal lord. Also in the main tower there were often living rooms for other inhabitants of the castle, a well, and utility rooms (food warehouses, etc.). Often the donjon housed a large ceremonial hall for receptions. Elements of the donjon can be found in the castle architecture of Western and Central Europe, the Caucasus, Central Asia, etc.
Wasserschloss in Schwerin
Usually the castle had a small courtyard, which was surrounded by massive battlements with towers and well-fortified gates. Next came the outer courtyard, which included outbuildings, as well as the castle garden and vegetable garden. The entire castle was surrounded by a second row of walls and a ditch, over which a drawbridge was thrown. If the terrain allowed, the moat was filled with water and the castle turned into a castle on the water.
The centers of defense of the castle walls were towers protruding beyond the plane of the walls, which made it possible to organize flanking fire on those going on an attack. In Russian fortification, sections of walls between towers were called pryasly. In this regard, the castles were a polygon in plan, the walls of which followed the terrain. Numerous examples of such structures have survived to this day in Great Britain, Germany, France, Ukraine and Belarus (for example, Mir Castle in Belarus or Lutsk Castle in Ukraine).
Over time, the structure of the castles became more complex; The territory of the castles already included barracks, a court, a church, a prison and other buildings (Cousy Castle in France, XIII century; Wartburg Castle in Germany, XI century; Harlech Castle in Great Britain, XIII century).
Rosenberg Castle in Kronach. Moat and ventilation towers of the auditory gallery
With the beginning of the mass use of gunpowder, the era of castle building began to decline. Thus, the besiegers began to carry out sapper work, if the ground allowed, - discreetly digging glanders, which made it possible to place large explosive charges under the walls (the assault on the Kazan Kremlin in the 16th century). As a countermeasure, the besieged dug an underground gallery in advance at a noticeable distance from the walls, from which they listened in order to detect tunnels and destroy them in a timely manner.
However, the development of artillery and the increase in its destructive effect eventually forced the abandonment of the use of castles as the basis of defensive strategy and tactics. The time has come for fortresses - complex engineering structures with a developed system of bastions, ravelins, etc.; The art of building fortresses developed - fortification. The recognized authority on fortification of this era was the chief engineer of Louis XIV, Marshal of France Sebastien de Vauban (1633-1707).
Such fortresses, sometimes developed over time from castles, were also used in World War II to pin down enemy forces and delay their advance (see: Brest Fortress).
Construction
The construction of the castle began with the choice of location and building materials. A wooden castle was cheaper and easier to build than a stone castle. The cost of building most castles has not survived to this day; most surviving documents on the topic relate to royal palaces. A wooden castle with motte and bailey could be built by unskilled labor - peasants dependent on the feudal lord, who already possessed the skills necessary to build a wooden castle (they knew how to cut wood, dig and work with wood). Forced to work for the feudal lord, workers most likely were not paid anything, so building a castle out of wood was cheap. According to experts, it took 50 workers and 40 days to build an average-sized hill - 5 meters high and 15 meters wide. The famous architect en: James of Saint George, responsible for the construction of Beaumaris Castle, described the costs associated with the construction of the castle:
| If you are wondering where so much money can be spent in a week, we inform you that we needed and will need in the future 400 masons, as well as 2000 less experienced women, 100 carts, 60 carts and 30 boats for the supply of stone; 200 workers at the quarry; 30 blacksmiths and carpenters to lay cross beams and floors, and to do other necessary work. This is all without taking into account the garrison... and the purchase of materials. Of which large quantities are required... Payments to workers are still delayed, and we are having great difficulty retaining workers, because they simply have nowhere to live. |
A study was conducted examining the costs associated with the construction of the Château de Langeais, built in 992 in France. The stone tower is 16 meters high, 17.5 meters wide and 10 meters long with walls averaging 1.5 meters. The walls contain 1200 square meters of stone and have a surface of 1600 square meters. It was estimated that the tower required 83,000 man-days to construct, most of which required unskilled labor.
Stone castles were not only expensive to build, but also to maintain because they contained large quantities of wood, which was often unseasoned and required constant maintenance.
Medieval machines and inventions proved indispensable during construction; ancient methods of timber frame construction have been improved. Finding stone for construction was one of the main problems; Often the solution was a quarry near the castle.
Due to the shortage of stone, alternative materials were used, such as brick, which was also used for aesthetic reasons, as it was in fashion. Therefore, even despite the sufficient amount of stone, some builders chose brick as the main material for building a castle.
The material used for construction depended on the area: Denmark has few quarries, so most of its castles are made of wood or brick, in Spain most castles are made of stone, while in Eastern Europe castles were usually built using wood.
Castles today
Nowadays, locks serve a decorative function. Some of them are turned into restaurants, others become museums. Some are restored and sold or rented.
The position of the defenders of the besieged castle was far from hopeless. There were many ways they could push back their attackers. Most castles were located in hard-to-reach places and were designed to withstand a long siege. They were built on top of a steep hill or surrounded by a ditch or trench. The castle always had impressive supplies of weapons, water and food, and the guards knew how to defend themselves. However, in order to survive the siege, a born leader was needed, knowledgeable in the art of war, defensive tactics and military tricks.
The Crenellated Parapet The guards kept a constant watch over the surrounding area from behind a crenellated parapet, behind which a walkway ran along the top of the castle walls. Defense equipment If the defenders knew in advance that attackers were approaching, they prepared to defend themselves, stocking up on provisions and providing shelter to surrounding residents. Villages and fields around were often burned so that the besiegers would not get anything. The castles were designed to the highest technical standards of those times. Wooden castles caught fire easily, so they began to build them from stone. Stone walls withstood shells from siege weapons, and ditches prevented enemy attempts to dig a tunnel into the fortress. Wooden paths were made on top of the walls - from them the defenders threw stones at the attackers. Later they were replaced by stone crenellated parapets. The spread of cannons brought radical changes to the design of castles and methods of warfare. Loopholes The defenders could safely fire at the enemy from the loopholes and from behind the jagged parapet on the castle walls. For the convenience of archers and musketeers, the loopholes expanded inward. This also made it possible to increase the firing sector. But it was difficult for the enemy to get into the narrow loophole, although there were sharp shooters who were trained specifically for this purpose.
Loopholes There were different types of loopholes: straight, in the shape of a cross and even a key. All for the sake of protection 1 The weak point of every castle was the gate. First the enemy had to pass a drawbridge, and then a gate and a portcullis. But even here the defenders had a few surprises in store. 2 Holes in the wooden floor allowed the defenders to throw stones down onto the heads of the besiegers, sprinkle hot sand on them and pour slaked lime, boiling water or oil. 3 The defenders were digging a defensive tunnel. 4 Arrows and other projectiles bounced off rounded walls better. 5 Crenellated parapet. 6 Attackers were often injured by stones bouncing off the walls. 7 They fired at the enemy from the loopholes. 8 The soldiers defending the castle used long poles to push back the ladders of the attackers. 9 The defenders tried to disarm the battering ram by lowering mattresses on ropes or trying to catch the end of the ram with a hook and pull it up. 10 Extinguishing a fire within the castle walls.
After all, medieval architects were geniuses - they built castles, luxurious buildings that were also extremely practical. Castles, unlike modern mansions, not only demonstrated the wealth of their owners, but also served as powerful fortresses that could hold a defense for several years, and at the same time life in them did not stop.
Even the very fact that many castles, having survived wars, natural disasters and the carelessness of their owners, still stand intact, suggests that more reliable housing has not yet been invented. They are also incredibly beautiful and seem to have appeared in our world from the pages of fairy tales and legends. Their tall spiers remind of the times when the hearts of beauties were fought for, and the air was saturated with chivalry and courage.
Reichsburg Castle, Germany
The thousand-year-old castle was originally the residence of King Conrad III of Germany and then King Louis XIV of France. The fortress was burned by the French in 1689 and would have fallen into oblivion, but a German businessman acquired its remains in 1868 and spent much of his wealth restoring the castle.
Mont Saint Michel, France
Swallow's Nest, Crimea
Initially, there was a small wooden house on the rock of Cape Ai-Todor. And “Swallow’s Nest” received its current appearance thanks to the oil industrialist Baron Steingel, who loved to vacation in Crimea. He decided to build a romantic castle that resembles medieval buildings on the banks of the Rhine River.
Castle Stalker, Scotland
Castle Stalker, which means "Falconer", was built in 1320 and belonged to the MacDougal clan. Since that time, its walls have survived a huge number of strife and wars, which affected the condition of the castle. In 1965, the owner of the castle became Colonel D. R. Stewart from Allward, who personally, together with his wife, family members and friends, restored the structure.
Bran Castle, Romania
Bran Castle is the pearl of Transylvania, a mysterious fort museum where the famous legend of Count Dracula - the vampire, murderer and commander Vlad the Impaler - was born. According to legend, he spent the night here during his campaigns, and the forest surrounding Bran Castle was Tepes’s favorite hunting ground.
Vyborg Castle, Russia
Vyborg Castle was founded by the Swedes in 1293, during one of the crusades against Karelian land. It remained Scandinavian until 1710, when the troops of I pushed the Swedes back far and wide. From that time on, the castle managed to be a warehouse, a barracks, and even a prison for the Decembrists. And today there is a museum here.
Cashel Castle, Ireland
Cashel Castle was the seat of the kings of Ireland for several hundred years before the Norman invasion. Here in the 5th century AD. e. Saint Patrick lived and preached. The castle walls witnessed the bloody suppression of the revolution by the troops of Oliver Cromwell, who burned soldiers alive here. Since then, the castle has become a symbol of the cruelty of the British, the true courage and fortitude of the Irish.
Kilhurn Castle, Scotland
The very beautiful and even slightly creepy ruins of Kilhurn Castle are located on the shores of the picturesque Lake Euw. The history of this castle, unlike most castles in Scotland, proceeded quite calmly - numerous earls lived here, who replaced each other. In 1769 the building was damaged by lightning and was soon abandoned, as it remains to this day.
Lichtenstein Castle, Germany
Built in the 12th century, this castle was destroyed several times. It was finally restored in 1884 and since then the castle has become a filming location for many films, including the film “The Three Musketeers”.
Medieval castles were actually more than just large fortresses with massive stone walls. These were ingeniously designed fortifications that used many ingenious and creative ways to protect the castle's inhabitants from attack by enemies. Literally everything - from the outer walls to the shape and placement of the stairs - was very carefully planned to ensure maximum protection for the inhabitants of the castle. This review is about little-known secrets hidden in the construction of medieval castles.
Almost every castle was surrounded by a moat filled with water. It is generally accepted that this was an obstacle to the assaulting troops, but in fact this was not the main function of the ditch.
Wischering Castle in Germany. The castle consists of an outer defensive courtyard, protective gateways, a drawbridge spanning a moat, a main building and a chapel.
One of the biggest concerns for the inhabitants of a medieval castle or fortress was that an invading army could dig tunnels under the fortifications. Not only could the enemy get inside the castle underground, but the tunnels could also cause the castle walls to collapse. The ditch prevented this, since the tunnel dug under the ditch inevitably flooded with water and it collapsed.
Nesvizh Castle. Belarus.
This was a very effective deterrent against tunneling. Often the moat was laid not around the outer wall of the castle, but between the outer and inner walls.
Concentric circles of defense
This was an extremely effective method of defense for the inhabitants of a medieval castle, which appeared as a series of obstacles surrounding the castle.
Hochosterwitz Castle. Austria.
As a rule, such obstacles were (depending on the distance from the castle) a scorched and dug up field, an outer wall, a ditch, an inner wall, and a donjon tower. The attacking army had to overcome each of these obstacles in turn. And it took a lot of time and effort.
Main Gate
The main gate of a castle was often the most dangerous place in the entire structure, as it could turn into a deadly trap if necessary.
Eltz Castle in Germany.
They often led to a small courtyard, at the other end of which there was also another gate equipped with an iron lowering grate. If the attackers broke through the first gate and found themselves in the courtyard, then the grate would lower, after which the aggressors would be trapped.
Svirzh Castle in the village of Svirzh, Lviv region. Main gate.
At the same time, there were small holes in the walls of the courtyard through which the defenders could shoot from bows and crossbows at the enemy soldiers who were trapped.
Hidden secrets of stairs
Staircases in medieval castles were actually very carefully designed. Firstly, they were almost always screw-type, very narrow and built clockwise.
Spiral staircase in Mir Castle. Belarus.
This meant that attacking opponents who climbed up the stairs (and one at a time, because the stairs were narrow) had a very difficult time fighting, because they had a sword in their right hand. And since there was always a wall on the right hand, they had no opportunity to swing. The defenders had the wall of the spiral staircase on their left hand, so they had more opportunities to swing.
A staircase with a reverse twist and uneven steps at Wallenstein Castle in Germany.
Another original feature of the stairs was that they had uneven steps: some were very high, and others were low. The defenders of the castle, being familiar with the local stairs, could quickly ascend and descend along them, and the attackers often stumbled and fell, exposing themselves to attack.
Secret passages
Many castles had secret passages that served various purposes. Some of them were made so that the inhabitants of the castle could escape in case of defeat, and also so that during a siege the defenders would not be cut off from food supplies.
Koretsky Castle in Ukraine.
Secret passages also led to secret chambers where people could hide, food could be stored, and (quite often) an additional well was dug for water.
Predjama Castle in Slovenia.
Therefore, a medieval castle was much more than just a big glamorous palace with massive stone walls around it. It was a structure designed down to the smallest detail to protect its inhabitants. And each castle was full of its own little secrets.
The Middle Ages in Europe were a turbulent time. The feudal lords, for any reason, organized small wars among themselves - or rather, not even wars, but, in modern language, armed “showdowns”. If a neighbor had money, it had to be taken away.
Lots of land and peasants? This is simply indecent, because God ordered sharing. And if knightly honor was affected, then it was simply impossible to do without a small victorious war.
Initially, these fortifications were made of wood and did not resemble the castles we know in any way - except that a ditch was dug in front of the entrance and a wooden palisade was placed around the house.
The manorial courts of Hasterknaup and Elmendorv are the ancestors of the castles.
However, progress did not stand still - with the development of military affairs, the feudal lords had to modernize their fortifications so that they could withstand a massive assault using stone cannonballs and rams.
The besieged castle of Mortan (withstood the siege for 6 months).
Beaumarie Castle, owned by Edward I.
Welcome
We are heading to the castle, which stands on a ledge of a mountain slope, on the edge of a fertile valley. The road goes through a small settlement - one of those that usually grew up near the fortress wall. Simple people live here - mostly artisans, and warriors guarding the outer perimeter of defense (in particular, guarding our road). These are the so-called “castle people”.
Scheme of castle structures. Note that there are two gate towers, the largest one standing separately.
The first obstacle is a deep ditch, and in front of it is a shaft of excavated earth. The moat can be transverse (separates the castle wall from the plateau) or crescent-shaped, curved forward. If the landscape allows, a moat encircles the entire castle in a circle.
The bottom shape of ditches could be V-shaped or U-shaped (the latter is the most common). If the soil under the castle is rocky, then ditches were either not made at all, or they were cut down to a shallow depth, preventing only the advance of infantry (it is almost impossible to dig under the castle wall in the rock - therefore the depth of the ditch was not of decisive importance).
The crest of the earthen rampart lying directly in front of the ditch (which makes it seem even deeper) often carried a palisade - a fence made of wooden stakes dug into the ground, pointed and tightly fitted to each other.
A bridge spanning a moat leads to the outer wall of the castle. Depending on the size of the ditch and bridge, the latter is supported by one or more supports (huge logs). The outer part of the bridge is fixed, but its last section (right next to the wall) is movable.
Scheme of the entrance to the castle: 2 - gallery on the wall, 3 - drawbridge, 4 - grate.
Counterweights on the gate lift.
This drawbridge is designed so that in a vertical position it covers the gate. The bridge is powered by mechanisms hidden in the building above them. From the bridge to the lifting machines, ropes or chains go into the wall openings. To facilitate the work of people servicing the bridge mechanism, the ropes were sometimes equipped with heavy counterweights, taking part of the weight of this structure on themselves.
Of particular interest is the bridge, which worked on the principle of a swing (it is called “tipping” or “swinging”). One half of it was inside - lying on the ground under the gate, and the other stretched across the ditch. When the inner part rose, covering the entrance to the castle, the outer part (which the attackers sometimes already managed to run into) sank down into the ditch, where the so-called “wolf pit” was built (sharp stakes dug into the ground), invisible from the outside until the bridge is down.
To enter the castle when the gates were closed, there was a side gate next to them, to which a separate lift ladder was usually laid.
The gate is the most vulnerable part of the castle; it was usually not made directly into its wall, but was located in the so-called “gate towers”. Most often, the gates were double-leaf, and the doors were knocked together from two layers of boards. To protect against arson, they were lined with iron on the outside. At the same time, in one of the doors there was a small narrow door that could only be passed through by bending over. In addition to locks and iron bolts, the gate was closed by a transverse beam lying in the wall channel and sliding into the opposite wall. The cross beam could also be inserted into hook-shaped slots on the walls. Its main purpose was to protect the goal from being attacked by attackers.
Behind the gate there was usually a lowering grate. Most often it was made of wood, with lower ends bound in iron. But there were also iron gratings made from steel tetrahedral rods. The lattice could descend from a gap in the arch of the gate portal, or be located behind them (on the inside of the gate tower), descending along grooves in the walls.
The grate hung on ropes or chains, which in case of danger could be cut off so that it would quickly fall down, blocking the path of the invaders.
Inside the gate tower there were rooms for guards. They kept watch on the upper platform of the tower, asked the guests the purpose of their visit, opened the gates, and, if necessary, could shoot with a bow all those who passed under them. For this purpose, in the arch of the gate portal there were vertical loopholes, as well as “resin noses” - holes for pouring hot resin onto the attackers.
All on the wall!
Zwinger at Lanek Castle.
At the top of the wall there was a gallery for defense soldiers. On the outside of the castle they were protected by a strong parapet of half human height, on which stone battlements were regularly located. You could stand behind them at full height and, for example, load a crossbow. The shape of the teeth was extremely varied - rectangular, round, swallowtail-shaped, decoratively decorated. In some castles, the galleries were covered (wooden canopy) to protect the soldiers from the weather.
A special type of loophole is a ball loophole. It was a freely rotating wooden ball fixed to the wall with a slot for firing.
Pedestrian gallery on the wall.
Balconies (the so-called “machiculi”) were installed in the walls very rarely - for example, in the case when the wall was too narrow for the free passage of several soldiers, and, as a rule, performed only decorative functions.
At the corners of the castle, small towers were built on the walls, most often flanking (that is, protruding outward), which allowed the defenders to fire along the walls in two directions. In the late Middle Ages, they began to be adapted for storage. The inner sides of such towers (facing the castle courtyard) were usually left open so that an enemy who broke into the wall could not gain a foothold inside them.
Flanking corner tower.
Castle from the inside
The internal structure of the locks was varied. In addition to the mentioned zwingers, behind the main gate there could be a small rectangular courtyard with loopholes in the walls - a kind of “trap” for attackers. Sometimes castles consisted of several “sections” separated by internal walls. But an indispensable attribute of the castle was a large courtyard (outbuildings, a well, rooms for servants) and a central tower, also known as the “donjon”.
Donjon at Vincennes Castle.
The location of the water source depended primarily on natural causes. But if there was a choice, then the well was dug not in the square, but in a fortified room, in order to provide it with water in case of shelter during a siege. If, due to the nature of the occurrence of groundwater, a well was dug behind the castle wall, then a stone tower was built above it (if possible, with wooden passages into the castle).
When there was no way to dig a well, a cistern was built in the castle to collect rainwater from the roofs. Such water needed purification - it was filtered through gravel.
The military garrison of castles in peacetime was minimal. So in 1425, two co-owners of the castle of Reichelsberg in the Lower Franconian Aube entered into an agreement that each of them would provide one armed servant, and pay two gatekeepers and two guards together.
Kitchen at Marksburg Castle.
Inside the tower there was sometimes a very high shaft going from top to bottom. It served either as a prison or a warehouse. Entry into it was possible only through a hole in the vault of the upper floor - “Angstloch” (German - terrifying hole). Depending on the purpose of the mine, the winch lowered prisoners or provisions into it.
If there were no prison premises in the castle, then the prisoners were placed in large wooden boxes made of thick boards, too small to stand up to their full height. These boxes could be installed in any room of the castle.
Of course, they were taken prisoner primarily to obtain a ransom or to use the prisoner in a political game. Therefore, VIPs were provided with the highest class - guarded chambers in the tower were allocated for their maintenance. This is exactly how Frederick the Handsome spent his time at Trausnitz Castle on Pfeimde and Richard the Lionheart at Trifels.
Chamber at Marksburg Castle.
Abenberg Castle tower (12th century) in section.
At the base of the tower there was a basement, which could also be used as a dungeon, and a kitchen with a pantry. The main hall (dining room, common room) occupied an entire floor and was heated by a huge fireplace (it distributed heat only a few meters, so iron baskets with coals were placed further along the hall). Above were the chambers of the feudal lord's family, heated by small stoves.
Sometimes the donjon did not serve as a living space. It could well have been used only for military-economic purposes (observation posts on the tower, dungeon, food storage). In such cases, the feudal lord’s family lived in the “palace” - the living quarters of the castle, standing apart from the tower. The palaces were built of stone and had several floors in height.
It should be noted that the living conditions in the castles were far from the most pleasant. Only the largest palaces had a large knightly hall for celebrations. It was very cold in the dungeons and palaces. Fireplace heating helped, but the walls were still covered with thick tapestries and carpets - not for decoration, but to preserve heat.
The windows let in very little sunlight (this was due to the fortification nature of the castle architecture); not all of them were glazed. Toilets were arranged in the form of a bay window in the wall. They were unheated, so visiting the outhouse in winter left people with a unique feeling.
Large temples had two floors. Commoners prayed below, and gentlemen gathered in a warm (sometimes glassed-in) choir on the second tier. The decoration of such rooms was quite modest - an altar, benches and wall paintings. Sometimes the temple served as a tomb for the family living in the castle. Less often it was used as a refuge (along with the donjon).
War on earth and underground
To take the castle, it was necessary to isolate it - that is, to block all food supply routes. That is why the attacking armies were much larger than the defending ones - about 150 people (this is true for a war of mediocre feudal lords).
The issue of provisions was the most painful. A person can live without water for several days, without food - about a month (one should take into account his low combat effectiveness during a hunger strike). Therefore, the owners of a castle preparing for a siege often took extreme measures - they drove out all the commoners who could not benefit the defense. As mentioned above, the garrison of the castles was small - it was impossible to feed an entire army under siege conditions.
The attackers had no less problems. The siege of castles sometimes lasted for years (for example, the German Turant defended from 1245 to 1248), so the question of logistics for an army of several hundred people arose especially acutely.
In the case of the siege of Turant, chroniclers claim that during all this time the soldiers of the attacking army drank 300 fuders of wine (a fuder is a huge barrel). This amounts to about 2.8 million liters. Either the census taker made a mistake, or the constant number of besiegers was more than 1000 people.
View of Eltz Castle from Trutz-Eltz Counter-Castle.
The war against castles had its own specifics. After all, any more or less high stone fortification presented a serious obstacle to conventional armies. Direct infantry attacks on the fortress could well be crowned with success, which, however, came at the cost of great casualties.
That is why, in order to successfully capture the castle, a whole range of military measures was necessary (the siege and starvation have already been mentioned above). One of the most labor-intensive, but at the same time extremely successful ways to overcome the castle’s defenses was undermining.
Undermining was done for two purposes - to provide troops with direct access to the castle's courtyard or to destroy a section of its wall.
So, during the siege of the Altwindstein castle in Northern Alsace in 1332, a brigade of sappers of 80 (!) people took advantage of the diversionary maneuvers of their troops (periodic short attacks on the castle) and within 10 weeks made a long passage in solid rock to the south-eastern part fortresses
If the castle wall was not too large and had an unreliable wall, then a tunnel was dug under its base, the walls of which were strengthened with wooden struts. Next, the spacers were set on fire - just under the wall. The tunnel was collapsing, the base of the foundation was sagging, and the wall above this place was falling apart.
Curious devices were used to detect tunnels. For example, large copper bowls with balls inside were placed throughout the castle. If a ball in any bowl began to tremble, this was a sure sign that a tunnel was being mined nearby.
But the main argument in attacking the castle were siege engines - catapults and rams.
Storming of the castle (14th century miniature).
A type of catapult is a trebuchet.
Sometimes the catapults were loaded with barrels filled with flammable materials. To give the defenders of the castle a couple of pleasant minutes, catapults threw the severed heads of prisoners to them (especially powerful machines could even throw whole corpses over the wall).
Storming the castle using a mobile tower.
In addition to the usual ram, pendulum ones were also used. They were mounted on high mobile frames with a canopy and looked like a log suspended on a chain. The besiegers hid inside the tower and swung the chain, causing the log to hit the wall.
In response, the besieged lowered a rope from the wall, at the end of which steel hooks were attached. With this rope they caught the ram and tried to lift it up, depriving it of mobility. Sometimes an unwary soldier could get caught on such hooks.
Having overcome the rampart, broken the palisades and filled in the ditch, the attackers either stormed the castle using ladders or used tall wooden towers, the upper platform of which was flush with the wall (or even higher than it). These gigantic structures were doused with water to prevent the defenders from setting them on fire and were rolled up to the castle along a plank flooring. A heavy platform was thrown over the wall. The assault group climbed up the internal stairs, went out onto the platform and fought into the gallery of the fortress wall. Usually this meant that in a couple of minutes the castle would be taken.
Silent Sapa
Sapa (from the French sape, literally - hoe, saper - to dig) is a method of digging a ditch, trench or tunnel to approach its fortifications, used in the 16th-19th centuries. The switchback (quiet, secretive) and flying glanders are known. Work with a shift gland was carried out from the bottom of the original ditch without workers going to the surface, and with a flying gland - from the surface of the earth under the cover of a previously prepared protective embankment of barrels and bags of earth. In the 2nd half of the 17th century, specialists - sappers - appeared in the armies of a number of countries to perform such work.
The expression to act “on the sly” means: to sneak, slowly, unnoticed, to penetrate somewhere.
Fights on the castle stairs
From one floor of the tower it was possible to get to another only by a narrow and steep spiral staircase. The ascent along it was carried out only one after another - it was so narrow. In this case, the warrior who went first could only count on his own ability to fight, because the steepness of the turn was chosen in such a way that it was impossible to use a spear or long sword from behind the leader’s back. Therefore, the battles on the stairs were reduced to single combat between the defenders of the castle and one of the attackers. Namely the defenders, because they could easily replace each other, since there was a special extended area behind them.
Samurai castles
We know the least about exotic castles - for example, Japanese ones.
Stone castles began to be built at the end of the 16th century, taking into account European achievements in fortification. An indispensable feature of a Japanese castle are wide and deep artificial ditches with steep slopes that surrounded it on all sides. Usually they were filled with water, but sometimes this function was performed by a natural water barrier - a river, lake, swamp.
Inside, the castle was a complex system of defensive structures, consisting of several rows of walls with courtyards and gates, underground corridors and labyrinths. All these structures were located around the central square of Honmaru, on which the feudal lord's palace and the high central tenshukaku tower were erected. The latter consisted of several gradually decreasing rectangular tiers with protruding tiled roofs and pediments.
Japanese castles, as a rule, were small - about 200 meters long and 500 wide. But among them there were also real giants. Thus, Odawara Castle occupied an area of 170 hectares, and the total length of its fortress walls reached 5 kilometers, which is twice the length of the walls of the Moscow Kremlin.
Ancient charm
French castle of Saumur (14th century miniature).
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