American Reacts to How to Build a Medieval Castle | Medieval Castle Guédelon | Europe To The Maxx

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[sebastiendoquin]

Every four years, and for the last twenty years, my wife and I have been going to St Fargeau to see the evolution of the Château de Guedelon, it's a fantastic work and our History!!! from the north of France (town of Cambrai).

[Elvebriel]

i remember visiting this castle as a child, and spending half a day observing and speaking with a stone cutter. Still one of the best weekend in my life

[FanNy-kuwt]

The squirrel cages, the scafoldings, the ropes are all made on site.
Also they have to respect the safety rules of 2024, so sometimes they use modern equipment for security, and only when it's required by law.
But you summed it up pretty well. The point is not really to finish the castle, it's more about the whole process of building it and rediscovering how to do it.

[kerouac]

I've been to Guédelon 3 times, about once every three years and am mesmerized each time.

[nicolasmignot]

I visited this castle with my school, that was 20 years ago, at that time there was one the foundations, and I bought a wooden sword at the gift shop.

[thomasstroh-uumj]

In Germany every year tfey make a 1 hour TV report about the castle where they explain anything they do.
The main reason why they are building this is because no one had known how to build this stuff anymore. So they decided to try. At first they traveled all over Europe to look at castles for details. They also interviewed many craftsmen for every little piece of knowledge about tools and stuff. They also looked at several hundred years old reports from Konstruktion site in museums.
One time they experimented weeks to figure out how to close windows. They tried anything from oiled paper to cloth to hide before they used Pergament.
They also build a water mill and a bakery just to learn how to do.
This way they recover piece for piece the lost knowledge of the old times.
The TV report is always a highlight to watch.
And the craftsmen are well known experts now for repairing and restoring old buildings from the middle ages.
When you see this it's even more mind blowing when you see the 20.000 castles all over Germany

[pandaradio]

the ropes are made on site (as seen very early on .. the 3 turning wires at 1:14), the tiles have a bump on them they hook them on the rafters the weight of the tile above it keeps it in place.

[FanFictionneer]

Belgian here, and I visited Guédelon back in 2012. It was super impressive back then and it clearly still is now. Amazing to see the progress they've made.

[HrLBolle]

In southern Germany there is a similar project named "Campus Galli" underway with the goal of building a monastery based off of the St. Gallener Klosterplan

[jarls]

Heavy ceramic/terra-cotta/concrete roof tiles are found all over Europe. They are not typically fastened down at all. On the back end of the tile there is a lip that rests on the horisontal wood truss on the roof (so the tile cannot slide off the roof). One truss for each horizontal row of tiles.
The next row of tiles is rested on the next wood truss - but the distance between the wood trusses are slightly less than that of the tile itself. So this row will partially rest on the row below it. This means you have to lay the tiles from the bottom edge of the roof to to the top. - one row overlaying the row below

Each row thus is held down by the weight of the row above it (and its own weight...they are quite heavy!). And the row above that by the row above that. So it becomes sort of an interlocking system.
But it is flexible enough that it is possible to pull out a single tile and insert a new one if needed - very easily.

The only row that is perhaps fastened (with a nail through a small hole at the back of the tile) would be the top row, near the crown of the roof. also the U shaped tile at the very crown of the roof may be nailed down in the same way.

Naturally such a roof is very heavy and you need to make sure that the roof construction can hold such a weight + potential snow fall on top of that.
Many countries have regulations on how steep a roof must be for it to support a tiled roof. Too flat and you may not be able to put tiles on it (risk of collapse with snow).

There are of course variations - stone slate roofs - wood tiles - terra-cotta and mortar - etc.

Advantage of all these roofs over more "modern" types of roofs is that they can hold for a very long time.

[qiqi]

We went there 8 years ago : if you ever travel to Europe : must see !! It’s like waking right into a movie ! But for real ! They love building there so much, they don’t want it to end ! They are thinking and talking for years already, that when the castle is finished, they want to build an abbey ( next to it ) . In any case, the site is already attracting so many tourists for years, they must make a ton of money out of it too …

[coffeetoffee]

Hello, i am French and I have visited Guédelon twice. It has been magical to see the progress of the castle! The permits for the construction were difficult to obtain, because they use medieval methods of construction but had to have modern security for the workers and the safety of the visitors. The French laws are very strict. That is why they have to use ropes and other modern equipment. The roof tiles are made of terracotta and are held by the weight of the tiles above.

[PeterOConnell-pqio]

Have watched a series of videos following how the castle has emerged from its foundations up over the ~25 year span of this epic experimental archeology project. Fantastic!

[mecha-sheep]

Experimental archeology is a really fun science. They were able to learn a LOT of things thanks to this project. For example, how many stones can be crafted per day by one stonemason with that era technology (answer : a lot more than we could imagine) ?

[happyslappy]

There are about 44, 000 chateaux in France, just over one for each of the 36, 000 French municipalities. If you want to visit one chateau a day, it will take 120 years.

[LeSarthois]

I visited the catle works with school in the early 2000's. It was fascinating. And of course much less advanced than now.
And you're right, it's about the journey. It's not just about pretending to be the middle ages, it's about using the known techniques. For example you might have noticed there are no moat around the castle. Of course since it's still being built, they may not dig them now, but I remember asking back then and they told us that since at that time, such a castle wouldn't have a moat, then Guédelon likely won't have a moat.
For the "locally made" it's true in most cases, and since this would be a small landlord acstle, it would be also true, but even in those years, national and international trade existed already.

For the terracotta tiles, they just sit there. And you may like to know it is still a very common way to cover a roof in France today. If you see a roof with flat orange, terra-cotta tiles, it's still made the same.
Slate are nailed since they don't feature the notches of terracotta tiles. "mechanical" terracotta tiles looks more elaborate and can be nailed down but the point is that they are interlocked so they are not always nailed down.
Not sure how canal tiles are held, it's one type of tile I have no experience with.

[dutchyjhome]

In The Netherlands and probably in more European countries we don't glue roof tiles at all. we put them together in a loose way that no water can leak through and the wind can play with the roof tiles so the way you put them up there is not the way they'll end up laying in the end. Roof tiles will have to settle. And when they have done so, you can throw any wind to the tiles, they will not be impressed by the wind.

[DanielGondol]

You're absolutely right. It is all about how they figure it out, how techniques are revived and not so much about the finished product. It is not that far from being finished and i genuininely fear that a lot of the fascination will be gone once it will be. I really really hope that they will have a concept around life and crafts in the 13th century once this is finished. I had a great time there.

[clymtc]

thank you for looking into this project, absolutely fascinating. I think you are right about the bolts being modern, but they do have a rope maker on site, so the ropes may be new - but authentic. The roof tiles have a little "projection" which holds them onto the laths and stops them slipping down, their weight holds them in place, but you would expect a nail every so often but, not being a medieval roofer, I am not an expert!

[tubekulose]

I've been following this magnificent project for about ten years by now via documentations. I'm pretty sure I'm gonna visit Guédelon some day. 🙂👍