The different types of medieval CASTLES

There are thousands of medieval castles but which castle is what type?

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[flare]

Shad: How many types of castles are there?
History: Yes.

[erddun]

Castle count:
0:17
0:26
0:28
0:47
0:55
1:28
1:33
1:39
1:41
1:48
1:49
2:11
2:24
2:25
2:34
2:58
2:59
3:01
3:11
3:13
3:15
3:43
3:45
3:52
3:57
4:02
4:19
4:24
4:26
4:27
4:29
4:30
4:37
4:41
4:44
4:51
4:53
5:18
5:19
5:20
5:24
5:25
5:39
5:47
6:03
6:05
6:06
6:16
6:24
6:29
6:42
6:52
6:54
7:23
7:49
8:07
8:10
8:19
8:23
8:33
8:34
8:38
8:46
8:52
9:12
9:15
9:16
9:28
9:29
9:42
9:55
10:01
10:02
10:07
10:08
10:11
10:14
10:15
10:18
10:20
10:30
10:44
10:52
10:57
10:58
11:04
11:05
11:14
11:16
11:27
11:33
11:38
11:45
11:46
11:50
12:21
12:32
12:33
12:39
12:48
13:17
13:24
13:31
13:55
14:00
14:10
14:16
14:28
14:59
15:00
15:04
15:06
15:12
15:13
15:14
15:27
15:37
15:41
15:44
15:45
15:51
15:53
16:10
16:12
16:35
16:36
16:41
16:53
17:17
17:24
17:33
17:34
17:35
17:50
17:52
18:02
18:09
18:18
18:19
18:22
18:28
18:30
18:33
18:35
18:36
18:42
18:44
19:03
19:11
19:27
19:29
19:44
19:45
19:52
20:03
20:08
20:09
20:13
20:14
20:21
20:22
20:24
20:34
20:43
20:51
20:53
20:55
21:05
21:08
21:10
21:20
21:24
21:31
21:32
21:40
21:48
Total castle: 178.

[Thraim.]

Shad is talking about castles. Feels good man.

[rachdarastrix]

I tend to forget that most castles weren't massive. Very few were, but most were made to shelter a smaller army from a bigger army.

[stefanb]

Interestingly, in German castle typology, it is all about the location of a castle. Whether it is on a hill, a ridge, a slope, a plain, etc. And there is always a major emphasis on a building, that Shad rarely, rarely mentions, the well or the cistern, and how much of a burden it is to construct in such a location.

[oliverthole]

I like your approach of defining castles according to their architecture. I am from Germany, where we have the "Deutsche Burgenvereinigung" (German Castles Organization) which is the foremost authority on castles and research related to castles in Germany. I am unsure if the English speaking world has any similar organizations. The "Burgenvereinigung " has published a series of books in 1999 which collects all the existing knowledge about castles in central Europe to that date. The books include a list of classifications of castles, but rather than taking a primarily architectural approach, they went with topography first. This is the usual approach of classifying castles in Germany.


They make two primary distinctions:
- "Höhenburgen" (High Castles), which are castles located on an elevation and
- "Niederungsburgen" (Low Castles) which are castles located on one elevation with the ground.


Within these categories are several subcategories, for example:
- "Gipfelburgen" (Peak Castles), a type of Höhenburg located on the peak of a mountain or hill (e.g. Marksburg),
- "Spornburgen" (Spur Castles), a type of Höhenburg located on a spur of a mountain (e.g. Kriebstein Castle)
- "Wasserburgen (Water Castles), a type of Niederungsburg surrounded by a body of water, usually an all sides (e.g. Bodiam Castle)
I feel like these subcategories are the three most common ones, but that is just my personal judgement.



There are, of course, other approaches to classifying castles, namely by function and architectural design. Functional types include, but are not limited to:
- Pfalzen (Palatinates), which is a residence of the Holy Roman Emperor (e.g. Kaiserpfalz Goslar), usually not that defendable, more like a Schloss, which you mentioned
- Ordensburgen (Order Castles), castles built by military orders, primarily the Teutoniic Order (e.g. Marienburg Castle)
- Ganerbenburgen (no clear translation here, sorry), which were castles owned by multiple parties, and can often be separated into smaller castles inside the main castle (e.g. Eltz Castle)
and more.
Architectural types are not that fleshed out, which is why I especially appreciate the effort you put into classifying them. Architectural types include:

- Turmburgen (Tower Castles), which are castles usually only consisting of a single tower
- Hausburgen (House Castles), which are castles usually only consisting of a single fortified house
and variations of these.


These are just some of the types of castles I know of. There are obviously many more that I might have missed, but are equally deserving to be on this list. I myself am still standing at the beginning of my quest for knowledge about castles and will probably learn a lot more about certain types of castles in the future. But I still hope I could be of help!

[tilted_skirm]

We all know there are two main types of castles: those with MACHICOLATIONS and those without :P

[sevenproxies]

Video I'd like to see: Castles and tunneling.

Dealing with all things tunnels. Both tunneling done dueing sieges in order to break through castle walls or bring them down, and secret tunnels built for the purposes of allowing a secret escape during sieges or to bring in supplies to the castle when it is surrounded.

[TheWampam]

In Germany multi-warded castles are called Abschnittsburgen. A castle made out of sections.

[michaelyoung]

In Minecraft, l tend to try and build enclosed castles. But now, I think I’m going to expand my repertoire. Thanks for the inspiration Shad! This has earned you a sub

[Gnarlf]

Great content. As a german i like your distinction between "Burg" (fortified castle) and "Schloss" (unfortified castle), since i always wondered, why they are the same in english.

[soundblast]

As a German speaker, I really like that you could pick up on the difference between, "Burg" and "Schloss". Burg typically refers to a castle made for actual defense. While Schloss is more so a Palace, or Chateau. Exactly a like Schloss Neuschwanstein. Great vid like always!

[BenBrindley]

Shadiversity: Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle

[IONATVS]

I would use the terms “serial” “parallel” and “nested” for arrangements of multiple wards, since the term “poly-warded” gives no indication that concentric castles wouldn’t count as a sub-type under your system. Bailies are thus “nested” if the inner ward is fully enclosed by and detatched from the outer ward; “arranged in series” or “serial” when you must go through one to get to the other, but aren’t nested, and in parallel if there are multiple on the same “level” of penetration into the castle’s defense just to make things more manageable if a section of wall gets breached. You could actually make a simple diagram that uses symbolic operators for these three to fully describe a castle’s overall defensive scheme, since the keep of “enclosed castle” can be thought of the same way as the next bailey inward on a nested arrangement, and a “linked” castle can be thought of the same way as the next bailey inward on a serial arrangement.

[nealsterling]

Man, it feels like ages since you last made a castle video!
Feels like being home again.

[mikeharry]

Predjama castle is pronounced predyama, and it means In-front-of-a-cave castle :) literally built in front of a cave entrance, through which they smuggled food in when under siege. Wish you could do an episode on it, it has a great story. It's my favourite castle in Slovenia.

[benlear]

You should make a video about different styles of castles, like how a Bohemian castle will look different from a castle you'd find in Britain.

[matthewmillar]

Unwalled Castle
Linked Castle
Enclosed Castle
Concentric Castle
Poly-Ward Castle
Composite Castle (using more than one of the above types)
Schloss (non-castle, psudo-castle)

Sorted and listed, with the addition of the composite castle type. I won't be able to look at my castle calender the same way now. 🙂👍

[ivetanovotna]

In Czech, we have four words for castles. "Hradiště" (an early medieval type of castle with several walls and usually a small "town" within the outer wall), "tvrz" (also an early medieval castle, but small with one wall), "hrad" (medieval castle), and "zámek" (a castle-like unfortified building).

[Artur_M.]

I was kinda expecting to see the Malbork Castle (Marienburg) here. Especially when you started to talk about the "poly-warded" castles. However, Będzin Castle being featured so prominently as the best-preserved example of a "germanic castle" (and being shown multiple times in the video) might be even better. Unlike Malbork, it was actually built as a Polish castle, part of a defensive system created by Casimir the Great that later became known as Orle Gniazda (Eagles' Nests). Considering that, and that your other examples of this type are the reconstruction of Bohemian (Czech) castles maybe calling it "germanic" isn't the best choice? Something like "Central European" would probably make us West Slavic viewers happier. ;)
Although it's fair to assume that this style of the castle was developed specifically in the German lands and then spread to the rest of the region.
Great video anyway!