Welcome to the wonderful world of Medieval Castles! Here you can learn about Castles and the people who lived in them. Castles can seem to be terrible things that were never used for good. That is so untrue.

Architecture of medieval castles

The architecture of medieval castles has changed through the years, from timber castles to stone castles. Castles were built all over the world.

The medieval era, (from the 1000s to the late 1400s and early 1500s) had two types of materials for castle building, timber and stone. By the 12^th century most of the newer castles were being made with stone, to make them stronger. One large part of building castles was the expenses, in some places stone was scarce so the stone had to be hauled to the castle site, in order for the castle to be built.

As time went on castles became more elaborate. The lord's apartment was the most magnificent; it was on the second floor. A new style of building called Gothic had large windows and doors with pointed arches on top. The old style had small windows and doors with rounded arches. Glass was expensive so wooden shutters and, or sheets made from horn closed off the windows. After around 1350 castles were not just used for defence; people wanted to live in greater comfort, so new buildings were put up, sometimes even in the castle walls. Rich people became interested in gardens so they planted roses and other flowers, they even had shrubs and trees trimmed into different shapes. Toward the end of the Middle Ages castles began to look like fairy tale castles; they had many pointed roofs, brightly painted walls, and carvings on arches, windows, or walls.

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