All a siege engine has to do is throw rocks at one spot to make the whole thing collapse. It was entered through a screens passage at one end, and had windows on one of the long sides, often including a large bay window.
At the other end of the hall was the dais where the top table was situated. Begin typing your search term above and press enter to search.
Press ESC to cancel. Skip to content Home Users' questions Did they have windows in medieval castles? Users' questions. Esther Fleming December 10, All Keeps contained a large room known as the Great Hall. The enclosed area between the inside of the wall and the keep. While ancient China, Korea and Japan widely used paper windows, the Romans were the first known to use glass for windows around AD.
In England animal horn was used before glass took over in the early 17th century. Frames were made in timber and windows were small to suit the glass. Plate glass was introduced c. Crown glass involved a blown glass bubble flattened, reheated then rotated to create a dome shape. It could then be cut into shapes or filled in as appropriate. Medieval houses had a timber frame. Panels that did not carry loads were filled with wattle and daub.
Wattle was made by weaving twigs in and out of uprights. Hazel twigs were the most popular with Medieval builders. An embrasure is the opening in a battlement between the two raised solid portions, referred to as crenel or crenelle in a space hollowed out throughout the thickness of a wall by the establishment of a bay.
There are embrasures especially in fortified castles and bunkers. Your email address will not be published. Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Skip to content Windows in a real castle are rarely seen below the top floor, although they have been added in later times in many castles.
When was glass first used in Windows? Did medieval castles have stained glass windows? In a few castles the kitchen shared the same building as the residential quarters, but servants were strictly separated from nobles, by constructing separate spiral stone staircases for use of servants to bring food to upper levels. An extant example of such a medieval kitchen with servants' staircase is at Muchalls Castle in Scotland. With the advent of the chimney, the hearth moved from the centre of the room to one wall, and the first brick-and-mortar hearths were built.
The fire was lit on top of the construction; vaults underneath served to store wood. Pots made of iron, bronze, or copper started to replace the pottery used earlier. Temperature was controlled by hanging the pot higher or lower over the fire, or placing it on a trivet or directly on the hot ashes. Leonardo da Vinci invented an automated system for a rotating spit for spit-roasting: a propeller in the chimney made the spit turn all by itself. This kind of system was widely used in wealthier homes.
Spits were also turned by animals in treadmills, children scullions , suspended wieghts and later by clockwork devices. Cooking and the kitchen were the domain of the servants, and the kitchen was set apart from the living rooms, sometimes far from the dining hall, occasionally connected by underground passageways. A common complaint in great houses well into the twentieth century was that the food always arrived cold because of the distance it had to be carried from the kitchen.
Medieval Castle Cupboards were often built into the thickness of a stone wall. A cupboard built into the thickness of a wall in a fortress in Saudi Arabia.
A cupboard door - these cupboards needed thick doors and sturdy locks as they were effectively safes for expensive spices. Water supplies were critical to medieval castle life, not just for everyday use but also as a scarce resource during sieges. Spring water was ideal but more usual was a dug well.
The well would have to be wide enough to accommodate the diggers as they strove to reach the water table.
Once the water was extracted from the well there would be various ways to distribute it around the castle. Wells in castlesare usually found in the courtyard, or the kitchens. Water for drinking or washing would be available on each floor. This water would be provided by a cistern at a higher level which would then supply the water through piping.
Bathing would be in a wooden tub which might well be covered with a canopy in cold seasons. A well at Carcassonne: For Health and Safety reasons, many o0ld wells are now closed off. A garderobe is a primitive toilet in a castle or other medieval building, usually a simple hole discharging to the outside. Such latrines were often placed inside a small chamber. Technically it was this chamber that was properly called a guarderobe, but it has been extended to the privy within. Depending on the structure of the building, garderobes could lead to cess pits or moats.
Many can still be seen in Norman and Medieval castles and fortifications. They became obsolete with the introduction of indoor plumbing. The original garderobe was a small room or large cupboard, usually adjoining a chamber or the solar and providing safe-keeping for valuable clothes and other possessions of price: cloth, jewels, spices, plate and money. The word garderobe comes through Middle English originating from the Old French words garder to watch, to guard and robe clothing.
A description of the garderobe at Donegal castle indicates that during the time when the castle garderobe was in use it was believed that ammonia was a disinfectant and that visitor's coats and cloaks were kept in the garderobe.
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