A Thousand Years of European Castles 

I knew England had a few castles but not like a lot of them, just 3,4 and major tourist stops.

@@maehake2791 Most of them are well away from the tourist spots. I think Northumberland on its own has about 60 or 70. Lots of them up here are in ruins as they were either besieged/fought over or the stone robbed from them over the years to build barns/houses and stuff. As I say from up here they are just there - what you grow up with you take for granted I suppose.

Bamburgh, Warkworth, alnwick and Lindisfarne Castle are great too! I live in prudhoe and we have a castle in our small town. The only castle in Northumberland to not be captured by the invading Scots 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

I know what you mean - we had a ruined castle [Howley Hall] to play in as kids. then when I moved my neighbour had one in his garden - Wressle Castle. Talking to my American friends is really strange "What do you mean you have never seen a castle??"

@@piccalillipit9211 Probably similar for people who live near giant sequoias that get as big as some of those castle towers.

Same. Many yrs ago visited several castles in Portugal and Spain, one was turned into a hotel of sorts and we stayed there, so cool and strange to sleep in such rock rooms, wide dark passageways. I was endlessly fascinated with it all as a teenager, still am. Great memories, incredible building achievements. They are simply captivating from a distance or close up

I actually love when a video pops up out of nowhere. Sometimes it leads to a few other videos I never knew existed.

looks like it's you who'll be coming across your feed haha sorry couldn't resist

during the 80's did just the same in Portugal!

No shit right!!!

you're giving them your data so it's not totally free

@@mitchclark1532 Free monetarily. I'll take giving them my data over a damn paid subscription any day.

And Catalunya, "land of castles" too

Isabelle was from Castilla and Fernadad from Argon, became King and Queen of. Spain ND the 15th century

I am always day dreaming about time travel. Imagining the clothes, the smells, sounds, the attitudes......

Ha, imagine blowing up a dolmen without explosive so you can harvest the stones to build a strong house or tower. Later on churches.. water/ vinegar and fire and ice. It's not like there are many rocks in the Netherlands so people had to make due. I wonder if they wonderd the same thing you are wondering about right now 😉

The castles were apparently plastered and painted white.

Agree

The outer walls, the castle itself, and the various other old buildings enclosed in the walls make for a spectacular view from afar. Unfortunately the place has become a complete tourist trap - historic buildings turned into tacky souvenir shops and shitty restaurants.

Is Carcassonne really well preserved or it has been rebuild? Never been there, I'm asking because I have seen some castles that look great but when you look closer you can see the concrete. Castelo de São Jorge in Lisbon is good example of this.

@@samuelgordino been also to Castelo de São Jorge in Lisbon…check out Carcassone…it’s a different level…

@@samuelgordino is an absolutely rebuilt complex, if u look for old photos or ink drawings about 19th century Carcassone u can see that were mostly ruins and lower part of the town walls. But because the rebuilding was done more than one century and half ago if I’m not mistaken, the pass of time made that the stone gets darker and looks practically like the original parts. However if u are there in person u can distinguish the rebuilt part and the original. Another thing that is SO obvious are the roofs, if u visit many castles around Europe (the ones that just have been consolidated or preserved the structure but not rebuilt or at least like this level) u can see that absolutely no one or 99% of them have the original roofs any longer, cause those structures mostly were sustained by wooden beams, and the wood with pass of time rots, so is understandable that those kind of Disney castle tower roofs have been rebuilt in recent times as also the typical French defense wooden structures that in the last were used to protect the towers, that allowed to have more people defending the tower, u can see good example of this structure in Caracassone, and it’s really nice even not been original, which is logical cause if we talked about rot wood protected from rain, inside a tower, u can imagine how would be with an outside wood structure. Even so Caracassone deserves to visit cause the city is really beautiful and the castle itself allows to understand really well how it worked in the past and the landscape of the castle with the surroundings is really amazing. So, is it original ? No. Deserves to visit ? Definitely

The tallest keep in France was that of Coucy castle, in Aisne. It was blown up by the German army in WW1. a lamentable act of cultural vandalism.

@@Foxglove963 not only the tallest castle keep in France, but in the world

An awesome project!

@@sabrinamurphy4009 Carcassone is massive -but you have to realize that most of it is an 19th century restoration by the great military architect Viollet le Duc who also restored many other French chateaux like the vast Pierrefonds castle further north.

@@kaloarepo288 and then after ... ?!

Well pet it was the indigenous British that actually BUILT these castles in Britain not the Lords or nobles.. 🙄🇬🇧

@@Ionabrodie69 They show one castle in Britain, all the others are in France but you cannot look at it from a 20th or 21st Century perspective or even earlier. Social classes are a thing of the industrial era, back in the Middle Age, there were taxes ("la dîme" from which comes the English word dime and "la gabelle") but a Lord had to keep his people fed and safe otherwise he would be quickly overthrown. The knights protected the population against invasions and guaranteed their safety and living, hence the castles. Everybody was cooperating. This protection was incidentally the reason for the only crusade that was truly successful led by Saint Louis, Godefroy de Bouillon and such. The crusaders went there to guarantee a safe passage to the pilgrims in Jerusalem, not to invade. From the moment the Crusades became a divisive war of attrition between Lords who were willing to spread their power in the region, they lost it all and were ultimately defeated by Saladin by the time they had their 3rd Crusade. It was not today's Monarchy were your monarch is just a spoiled crooked figurehead though, they have it easy nowadays. It is like our Cathedrals, there is a reason why Kings and people all walk in through the same door, back then all were equal before God. The French adage adopted by the British Monarchs "Dieu et mon Droit" means God and my right. It means God comes first and your right comes second. Nowadays, your Lords and our Presidents are playing God and that is wrong, except that in a Republic (which I despise by the way) a President is sadly not held by an adage. I don't like our Republic, it produced nothing but crooked politicians but I don't like modern Monarchies either, they all sell their image to the newspapers and come complain there are consequences for it. They are all a bunch of Prima Donnas, thieves and traitors as far as I am concerned.

The English really hate it when you say that :)) They also hate it when you say that half their vocabulary is derived from French after the Norman conquest (also notice how they refer to it as Norman and not French). They also hate it when you point out that their Royal Family is German. :)

@@goldeagle8051 Exact, in the Anglo-Saxon psyche the Norman are somehow Scandinavian because it means Men from the North but the North of Scandinavia is the Arctic, therefore it should be quite obvious the Norman are not people of Scandinavia. They are not, the Norman are from Normandy, France. Their ancestors were half Vikings, half Franks but the Norman themselves come from France and were born in France. William the Conqueror was born in France hence the reason why English is derived from the French language otherwise it would have derived from Danish, Swedish or Norwegian. It is quite obvious to anyone born in France but somehow it is not quite obvious to some Anglo-Saxon people by lack of interest I guess. Although it is easy to understand why, the English do not know their History because it does not fit the narrative of their Empire quite simply. I know for a fact that when I was working in England no English man knew who were the Plantagenet who defined the path to Modern days England with the Magna Carta signed by King John (who was a Plantagenet). Likewise I have never met an Englishman who actually knew what the motto of their Monarchy means and in what language it was written, whereas every Frenchman would know. The point is every time an Englishman mentions the 100 Years War, they ignore it was an all French affair between two French branches of the Kingdom of France one of which invaded England.

@@BonuxCouleur I think it has a lot to do with pride and chauvinism and the centuries long animosity with France. They don’t want to admit that they were actually conquered by France at one point and that it shaped their culture more than for instance the Danish invasions prior to that.

I believe it's produced by French producer. The goal was to show the evolution and french castles were a good way to show evolution.

Maybe not intentional but if fits my stereo impression : when the French talk about Europe they mean France. Of course it is a good example.

Grandeur

If you haven't already, visit the Sainte Chapelle in Paris. Most impressive collection of medieval stained glass I have seen. York cathedral in England also comes to mind.

our modern cities are built without a will for greatness

Se atenian al construirlos, la necesidad, no la estética. El trabajo de arquitectura e ingeniería, es mucho más notable en las grandes construcciones de los siglos XX y XXI. Muchísimo más sofisticada en todos los aspectos.

@@pavirko3733 Precisamente, entonces se construían por necesidad defensiva. Ahora se construye desde el punto de vista de la grandeza y la estética. Más Alto. Más Grande. Mirar los países árabes que siempre vivieron en Haimas lujosas ( los ricos). Ahora son iguales al modo actual imperante en el mundo.

You can thank my namesake for that one

You can thank the English for most of them

Dude I don’t want to sound disrespectful but Wales has like 500 castles while other countries like France Spain England have more than 2500 each

@@ashenone3050 in wales they’re all very close to each other in comparison and it has some of the best preserved and well built castles in the world. He’s right. It’s one of the best places to go see them.

@@MalleusIudaeorum so. It doesn’t make them any better than Castles in other parts of the UK.. 🤷‍♀️🇬🇧

Yes well when studying any ancient society people look at their architecture and decorative tastes. Now some people shop at IKEA for pressboard garbage and scoff at antiques.

@@annalisavajda252 No, it is because genuine wood is scarce and expensive, antique furniture is even more expensive.

Eu também. Conheci agora.

There are still real castles built post 1700 for military use. Castillo De San Marcos is one example

Most Castles have become a prestige object as early as the 1400s. By that time, knights have become a cultural phenomenon with no real use and the same has happened with their castles. Many knights, now lower nobility, moved their domicile closer to their serfs. The castle itself would have been either completely abandoned or only manned by a small garrison to keep it in shape. Wealthy lords would renovate them with stylized elements without real use (like fake machicolations etc). Ofc, some castles have kept their original use for centuries, but those are exception.

Broadly speaking anything after about 1650 was basically not useful.

​@@viktordickinson7844those are artillery forts not castles.

​@@Matze239that's not true at all even into the 1500s castles we're being used as battle forts.

It never works that way. They didn't have much choice and most wanted to work. Guilds an all. The same for the construction of CHURCHES in Europe. Hundreds of which have been burned to the ground by the " religion of peace". Good luck Europe. Your dead soon from all the troons

Well, when they were in use it was nothing like a happy-ending fairy tale, it was all about gory bloody battles and sieges.

The Romans were unbelievable.. and they had massive cranes, levers, technology that is still marveled upon.. the Aqueducts.. they made water run up-hill? .. reverse flow siphon.. 40 mile long stretches with a 3-4 foot drop.. they had under ground mines and used Slave powered water wheels to pump out the water.. 8-10 stories under ground.. 8-10 water wheels in succession.. they did the same thing with water wheels stacked on top of each other to grind grain.. huge production 2300 years ago..

@@artmosley3337 Yes very true. It’s amazing what they did with no engines or electricity. Lots of their technology was lost in the Middle Ages unfortunately. Also, they conquered half the world and walked there to do it!

@@wplains yep building roads and bridges still used today… ya know why they built the roads straight as an arrow? Because they could 😂😂😂😂😂.. and a straight road takes less effort and time to move troops .. also they started a standard wheel with.. so the wheel ruts were the same.. still used today.. the same with as a railroad track… unbelievable 💪🥇❤️

@@wplains here ya go… www.aghost.net/images/e0186601/ahistorylessonofrailroadtracks.pdf

@@artmosley3337 aqueducts may run up hill but the channel inside the aquedect through early but precise plum blob levels it always runs downhill.

Yep. Even though they don't "meet code." 😁

There’s a ridiculous abundance of videos and info about English castles. There is almost no documentaries available about medieval France and French castles. Idk why y’all are complaining, literally every other video on RU-vid is about English ones.

@@BobUikder-ig4uqthe complaint is about the false title. I went into this with the expectation of seeing spanish, german, french and so on castles but it was only France. Therefore: disappointment even if the french castles are nice

The Motte are early 11th century and were initially surmounted by a wooden tower, later replaced by a stone built tower. The towers of Carcasonne are medieval, not Roman, though the walls contain Roman stone and tiles. The turrets of Carcassone are 13th to 14th century. Motte and baily castles are not Celtic or Germanic in origin. Los Millares in Spain is a complete NEOLITHIC fortification.

@@Foxglove963 Wiki: " Its strategic importance was quickly recognized by the Romans, who occupied its hilltop until the demise of the Western Roman Empire." When I visited it, the history I learned then was that it was founded by the Romans, and later expanded.

@@Foxglove963it was certainly an influence

Love that book!

In my understanding and in the Northern parts of the Netherlands a Borg is a Castle. I assumed this is the same in Sweden?

@@Hooibeest2D Both yes and no actually. Borg ( in swedish ) usually means the type of castle that was built for military purposes. A Castle is called Slott in swedish. But some people dont know the difference and call it one or the other.

@@Mange070 ha in Dutch a Borg is a Castle without defensive purpose. A Castle with a moat is a slot the moat is called a slotgracht. A Castle with several walls around the castle is named a burcht and the towers,walls and ditches without the castle are named bolwerk. In case of the Muiderslot, it was used as part of Dutch defence lines till ww2 😅 guess the forgot about airplanes haha Love Sweden by the way!

All Germanic languages are very similar. the German for borg and slott being burg and Schloss. The English bulwark being from dutch bolwerk.

They probably farted in His general direction 😞

@@andriandrason1318 those smelly bastards ate only beans for breakfast and dinner.

I visited that border fortress. There is another fort across the ravine.

More surprising that you know about it.

OFC, where do you think castles and knight came from ?

@@user-vy7gi8jo1v Lol. not from France, I'll tell you that.

@@karlkarlos3545 rofl. Knight is born in France. it was created in France lol. Castles too. When guillaume conquest England, he bring the french monarchy and the castle to England.

@@user-vy7gi8jo1v Names like Castle and Knight might have have french roots, but the oldest fortifications in Europe were built when there wasn't even a country called France. Like the old Saxon Burgs for example. (I'm talking about post Roman times of course.)

@@karlkarlos3545France or if you prefer ''Kingdom of the Franks'' wich is the same entity until Philippe 2 Augustus changed the name, was the center of Chivalry ''Chevalerie'' in French its also in France that the first ''Castles'' not ''Fortresses'' (u dummy) were created and oh yeah you might have heard of the the gothic style that influenced most of the cathedrales during the central middle ages in Europe guess where it came from 😏

Well in Europe most castles are considered monumental heritage so they're usually protected in some way. The historical appearance must stay the same, which makes living there very expensive. These buildings are massive so maintaining their appearance is unfathomably costly. Therefore the castles that have no family owning them (who often don't live there), can be bought from a government for a symbolic €1. You're then obliged to either maintain the castle, or host some kind of touristy enterprise. Ik pretty sure though most castles have been replaced several times in the past thousand years, some are impressively old...and some have been rebuild.

da odlicno jos samo da naprave emisiju ko ih je gradio i kako ,kojom tehnikom su rezali ,dizali i spajali kamene blokove ,a u Francuskoj bi to trebalo biti dokumentovano jel nije bilo ratova kao kod nas.

Peasants were always well fed. They were only starving in times of droughts or war. Infact the problem of starving poor only came about in large cities during and after industrial revolution that were working in factories under subhuman conditions.

We have poor starving people now plagues( covid aids drug pandemics) endless wars a very rich class the few who rule the many . Haven't come very far have we? These fortresses were built to withstand an onslaught why are we not building in this manner now? Flooding and tornadoes are the new enemy .

Well in America the Amish are rich and eat well and live like God's serfs working hard and perfecting their craft I would imagine that Europe was somewhat like that but with wenches and alcohol

@@automedoniliad3269 Those sweet sweet wenches

As more and more documents are uncovered, there is greater evidence that what we've thought of as the "Dark" ages and the medieval period were, indeed, quite different than what we've always been taught. I suppose that's the nature of history - to learn more as more is uncovered.

Marienburg

Da spricht der Nationalismus aus dir. Die schönsten Burgen befinden sich dort wo man sie gerade selbst am schönsten findet.

Sounds like those documentaries where they claim the pyramids where built by aliens.

The nuraghi of Sardinia are a bit older

🙄🇬🇧

@@Ionabrodie69 Free Scotland

@@Just_another_Euro_dude I mean the Egyptians were building the pyrimaids another 2000 years before that.

@@obi-wankenobi5926 that’s outside Europe though

Or Germany with its army of castles