American Reacts Top 25 Medieval Places To Visit In Europe | Ryan Shirley

Watch stuff and learn and chill hi whatsup ⚔️👋🧐

Hi everyone! I'm an American from the Northeast (New England). I want to create a watering hole for people who want to discuss, learn and teach about history through YouTube videos which you guys recommend to me through the comment section or over on Discord. Let's be respectful but, just as importantly, not be afraid to question any and everything about historical records in order to give us the most accurate representation of the history of our species and of our planet!

#europe
#travel
#ryanshirley
#medieval
#top10
#top25
#visit
#visiteurope
#uk
#american
#mcjibbin
#americanreacts
#reaction

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[StellaTZH]

It’s a bit of an exaggeration, not every European drives by a 13th century castle on their way to work. The one I pass by is just your run off the mill 11th century castle atop a vineyard.

[laurentsalomonoriginals]

Excellent video, thanks. About the half timbered medieval houses in Germany and Alsace (e.g. Colmar): the pannels are made of a mortar consisting of mud and straw, applied over short staves jammed between the posts of the timber-frame wall. The whole set is covered with a lime render in different colors. Greetings from France.

[balcerzaq]

To me (and I'm Polish) Czech Republic is and always have been a western country. Just a bit unlucky to belong to soviet block - which made people think its east. It was the mostindustrialised country before ww2, with good standard of living for all - comparing lets say United Kingdom. Before Independence - part of Austria - west!

[bohomazdesign]

Finally a video that mentions anything east from Prague and Vienna :) Europe has over 10 thousand castles. Add to that another 50 thousand (or more) Palaces and aristocrat mansions thats like a lifetime of content for that dude.

[BilllB]

Czech Republic is Magical! The cities and country there are simply epic and the people are Legends! ❤

[zorglub]

if you go to Mont Saint-Michel someday, just try to avoid the peak season where it is overcrowded. It would waste the magic of the place. As a Frenchman I had the chance and the luck to visit in between a couple of lockdowns during the pandemic. It was deserted by the tourists and really enjoyable.

[lyndarichardson]

Thanks for posting this video Connor, I've never seen it before. I hope you get to visit all these places one day!

[johanwittens]

14:19 The oldest known stepped facades are located in my city of Gent in Flanders, Belgium, and date from the 12th century. They were first built in the Romanesque style. They seemed to have been a way to make a stone Facade more interesting and decorative. It probably also was a way to make these stone façades more distinguished from the back then much more common wooden houses and façades. But that last one is only conjecture...

28:38 These buildings aren't really true stepped facades anymore but are more ornate later iterations in baroque and later styles. After the renaissance the stepped facades became unfashionable and were often replaced with more "fashionable" styles. It isn't until the 19th century and the revival of old styles that step facades came back into use mostly in neo-gothic architecture.

17:35 Medieval half-timbered constructions such as this were a way to build in wood, but still better insulate the building. It's also more flame resistant than full wood buildings. It's basically a structural wooden frame made of high quality wood (the visible beams), and then the holes are filled up with lower quality sticks that are woven into each other like wickerwork. This is then plastered with a loam, clay or plaster, but usually it's a loam mix. The wood allows for (relatively) cheap sturdy construction and the loam has a better heat and cold regulating capacity, so it was a good middle ground between cheaper but more flammable and less insulated wooden buildings, and expensive stone buildings.

And concerning other old buildings, I pass over 500 year old buildings on a daily basis, including a 12th century castle located right at the heart of the city. This is a pretty common occurrence in europe. I've lived as a student in a 17th century building, and a few years back bought a small house with my then partner that dated back to the 1870s. It's not that remarkable to us living here in Europe.

[dzzope]

If Dubrovnik looks a bit familiar, GoT Filmed lots of the on location Kings Landing scenes there.

Also, at least in Ireland, I drive past 4 or 5 castles on my route every day..
I'd say most people do, though they are generally much smaller rural ones rather than anything as grand as Conway, though many of the historically important towns and cities (usually on coast or river crossings) would have more major structures, not dis-similar to conway or larger.
The closest things you would have are ranch houses / plantation houses and the forts that used to line the frontier.
The castles were built by the landowners and regional governers/nobles for basically the same purposes, though obviouslky more focus on defense (or at least the apprearance of it, many "castles" aren't really castles).

P.S. Way to go dude (and rip shins)

Mont Saint Michel: They are butresses.. You see them allot on high stone walls that are too thin to be self supporting like on cathedrals or curtain walls.
It's probably there to support the corner of the monastry on that side of the hill either due to needing more room than the hill provided or the geology was too unstable to build on without it bracing it.

[ianlaccohee]

I come from Norwich in England. We have a castle where construction was ordered by William the conqueror after the 1066 Norman Conquest of England. Construction started on our cathedral in 1096. Sadly, some of our other old buildings were destroyed by bombing during the war. Norwich is the most complete medieval city in England.

[kdpflush]

I have to say I admire your authenticity. Several times (maybe not in this vid, haven't finished watching it yet), I've seen you accidentally dos/ay something an "influencer" might do/say, immediately get disgusted at yourself, and then apologize. Just wanted to let you know it's appreciated.

[Ardschuna]

Regarding your question, how long the wood in these old buildings will last before it has to be replaced.. I am no expert in this matter, but once I was inspecting the wooden roof beams of my grandma’s house in Germany, together with an expert/assessor/surveyor. The wooden beams were black as coal and hard as stone, like petrified. The assessor estimated them to be around 500 years old. And he said, if the house does not burn down, they will last another 1000 years.
Any wood expert here, who can confirm or debunk this claim?

[bigbird]

Great video 👍I think your appreciation of history and a enquiring mind will make you!
Tip saying less and observing is the best way forward.

[jean-loupdesbordes]

The material between the wooden lumbers you see in France and even other countries is called "torchis" it's a mixture of clay and straw and somtimes animal hair (horse, cow...) stuck on a chesnut trellis + a cover of lime and mineral pigments it had many qualities, the first one is rather soft and anti-seismic (easy to restore and dangerless), the secund is thermal insulation the third is that is that it is rot-proof non flammable, the fourth is that these wood assembllies were done without any metal nail, that means that a family that had to move for any reason could unmount and rebuild the house at their new adress.

[williambranch]

There is a "living archeology" group in France building a castle using Medieval methods only. Your question regarding stepped rooftops ... Hanseatic League? A plaza is where you set up the monthly faire (WalMart).

[balcerzaq]

Gdansk -1. 2WW started there (Westerplatte battle) (Gdansk was a free state run by Germans); 2. Solidarity movement started there during Communist era

[Prof.Dr.Diagnose]

Maybe someone said it before. The earliest examples of stair like roofs are from the region of Flanders in Belgium in the 12th century, then came to Germany and then spread out to the north from there.
The areas between the beams of the half timbered houses are of stones or wooden braids and clay. And at least in Germany, half timbered houses are a heritage and if you buy one and want to do anything with it (restoring, adding rooms etc.) you have to do that in a specific way to preserve the style. If you ignore the rules you get fined by up to 40.000€

[laurentsalomonoriginals]

On the step gabled houses: they seem to have appeared in the 12th century in Ghent (Belgium) and spread over the whole Hanseatic League cities, and beyond. The Hanseatic League is definitely worth a video, as it is one of the first international trade organizations.

[sirrodneyffing]

In Britain, in between the timbers of a house is wattle and daub...wooden strips plastered with a mixture of clay, straw, horse hair and cow s*it. Wooden structures last very well unless they're burnt down. Westminster Halls Hammer Beam roof was built in 1393.

[teer]

Gdańsk? You may know it from its German name - Danzig. So quite a historically important city - one of the most important cities of the Hanseatic League, the most important commercial city of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Free City of Danzig (after I World War), one of the reasons for the beginning of the Second World War, birthplace of the polish Solidarity (Solidarność) trade union (it helped to destroy communism in Poland and the Warsaw Pact in general).