It is enough even today to look at Europe, as we notice the fortified feudal castles, which are sometimes in ruins, and sometimes completely intact or in a state of reconstruction carried out by groups of enthusiasts and young people. Great Britain, France, Spain, Switzerland are especially rich in castles. In France, there are about 600 castles (and there were over 6,000 of them!): Some of them - like Pierrefonds castle (north of Paris) or O'Kenigsburg castle (in Alsace) - have been completely restored, from others - such as the castle Meen-sur-Yevre near Bourges or the Montlery tower - only ruins remain. In turn, Spain has preserved over 2000 castles, of which 250 are in complete integrity and safety.
All these castles (and the armor of medieval knights!) Are strictly individual and unlike one another: each country has generated its own style, which is characteristic only of its buildings. They also differ from each other in the status of their lords: a king, a prince, or a simple small baron, like that Picardian feudal lord named Robert de Clari, who owned a feud of only six hectares. They also differ in the choice of location, whether they are in the mountains (Tarasp or Zion castles in Switzerland), on the seashore (for example, Carnarvon Castle in Wales), along the river banks (Marienburg Castle in Poland) or on an open field (Sals in the province of Roussillon). Even whether they are in a humid or temperate climate favoring forest growth, as in the case of Kusi, or on the edge of a rocky desert, like the Krak des Chevaliers in Syria, influenced their architecture and appearance.
The castle of the knights-crusaders - the legendary Krak de Chevalier.
However, in any case, fortified feudal castles delight us with their amazing power, regardless of whether they are in good condition or badly destroyed by an unforgiving time in eight or nine centuries of their existence. And that unceremonious landowner, who wanted to remove the pile of debris piled up in the middle of his field, knows very well how much work it cost him, and after all, the technology now is not at all what it was then, and … how much work did it take to deliver all these stones to him then ?!
Again, although all the castles look different, there really was a difference between them, primarily because of their purpose. One thing is a castle - a dwelling for a lord, and quite another - a castle belonging to some spiritual-knightly order or the same king who wished to build his power by building it. This is a different scale of construction, and sometimes the speed with which these castles were built, and - perhaps the most important thing for the defense of the castle from the enemy, whoever it may be - is the garrison it contains.
Well, for the local residents who lived in the villages near the castle, he was both a refuge, and a guarantor of security, and a source of income. In addition, it was the castle that in the then gray and ordinary life was the source of all the most interesting news, and, therefore, gossip and gossip. Although we know of the numerous peasant uprisings that took place in the Middle Ages, there are many other examples from which it is clear that in many cases both the peasants who lived around the castles and their lords who lived inside the castle walls were, as it were, one whole and even, happened, and acted together!
Yes, but how were these stone strongholds built, which even today admire us with their size and strength of the walls? Is it really not without space aliens, who are so stubbornly today some ascribe the authorship of the Egyptian pyramids? Of course not! Everything was much simpler and more complicated. For example, the feudal lord could not involve his serfs in the construction of the castle. Even if he really wanted to. Corvee - that is, the labor service in favor of the owner or owners of the castle was unchanged and limited by local customs: the peasants could, for example, be forced to clean the castle moat or drag logs out of the forest for construction, but nothing more.
It turns out that the castles were built by free people who had the right to move freely around the country and there were quite a few of them. Yes, yes, they were free people, artisans who had to be paid regularly for their work, and the rural corvee remained only a kind of help for the feudal lord, but nothing more. After all, it is clear that working with a stone demanded real experts in their field, and where did they get it from the peasants? Well, if the feudal lord wanted the work to go quickly, then besides the bricklayers, he also had to hire laborers, who were also required a lot! For example, it is known that the construction of Beaumaris Castle in England was carried out very quickly - from 1278 to 1280, but it involved the labor of 400 stonemasons and another 1000 laborers. Well, if the lord could no longer pay, there was always work for the stone masters: somewhere nearby there could be some cathedral, a church, a city under construction, so their working hands were always required at that time!
Despite the Roman stone heritage, most of the fortresses built from the 6th to the 10th century were made of wood. And only later did the stone begin to be used - at first in the form of small stones, but gradually larger and more regular shapes. This is the so-called rubble stone, from which most European castles are built, although, for example, in the same Livonia, almost all castles were built of bricks. The vertical surfaces of the walls were made completely smooth to prevent the enemy from finding any clues during the assault. Starting from the 11th century, they will increasingly turn to brick: it is less expensive and provides greater strength to buildings during shelling. However, very often the builders had to be content with what was near the construction site, because a team of oxen with a load weighing two and a half tons was not capable of overpowering more than 15 kilometers in a day.
Coucy castle in France.
Say what you like, but some of the castles erected at that distant time are simply amazing. For example, the castle of Coucy in France was so large that the entrance to it was guarded by a cylindrical tower (donjon) 54 meters high and 31 meters wide. In addition, it was defended by as many as three fortress walls, the last of which completely encircled the town of Kusi. When it was decided to blow up the castle in 1652, the use of gunpowder only managed to slightly crack the walls! Forty years later, an earthquake widened these cracks in the masonry, but the tower survived. At the end of the 19th century, some restoration work was undertaken. But in 1917, the German army for some reason needed to destroy it to the ground, and this required 28 tons of the most modern explosives! That is how large and strong this castle was, although the Kusi family did not belong to the highest nobility. "Neither the king, nor the prince, nor the duke and not the count - mind you: I am Ser Kusi" - that was the motto of this arrogant family!
The well-preserved citadel and keep of the Château Gaillard seem to hang over the river valley.
It took the English king Richard the Lionheart only a year, from 1196 to 1197, to build the fortress of Chateau Gaillard, which he was later very proud of. The castle was built according to a typical Norman design: an embankment surrounded by a moat rose on the edge of a hill, on the very bank of the Seine River. The first bastion guarded a gate, and two high ramparts defended the keep. The castle was supposed to serve as a support for the English possessions in Normandy, and that is why the French king Philip-Augustus undertook to besiege it in 1203. At first glance, it seemed impregnable, but the king of France began by ravaging the neighborhood and forced the local residents (over a thousand people) to hide behind its walls. Soon there began a famine, and the defenders had to drive them away.
Donjon of the Chateau-Gaillard castle.
Then Philip-Augustus ordered to fill up the ditches, to dig and mine the towers. The first bastion fell, and the besieged took refuge in the central part. But one night the French got there, into the very heart of the castle, and they made their way there through … a latrine, which turned out to have too wide a hole! They lowered the drawbridge, panic began, and as a result, his garrison surrendered, without even having time to hide in the keep.
Donjon of Kolossi Castle in Cyprus, built in 1210 by King Guy de Louisignan (https://www.touristmaker.com/cyprus/limassol-district)
As for the castles of the crusaders, in the Holy Land, which in Europe was also called Outremer or "Lower Lands" (and they were called that because they were depicted at the bottom of the then European maps, and, going to the East, the crusaders seemed to move "from top to bottom "), They appeared almost as soon as the knights got there. They captured many castles and fortresses, and then rebuilt, and among them - the castle of the Krak des Chevaliers or "Castle of the Knights", which is so interesting in all respects that you need to talk about it in more detail.
Reconstruction of the appearance of the castle Krak de Chevalier in 1914.
For the first time, the crusaders captured it in 1099, but quickly abandoned it, as they were in a hurry to Jerusalem. Again the fortress was recaptured from the Muslims already in 1109, and in 1142 it was transferred to the Hospitallers. They strengthened the walls, rebuilt the barracks, a chapel, a kitchen with a mill and even … a multi-seat and also stone toilet. The Muslims launched many attacks, trying to reclaim the "fortress on the hill", but each time they were unsuccessful.
Plan of the castle Krak des Chevaliers.
As a result of the earthquake of 1170, the castle was damaged, and the manner of its construction changed significantly. The severity and simplicity of the Romanesque style was replaced by a refined Gothic. In addition, at the end of the 12th - beginning of the 13th centuries, in Krak, the chapel and individual towers destroyed by the earthquake were not only rebuilt, but also fenced off with a powerful outer wall.
Berkil.
Between the inclined buttress in the western part of the fortress and its outer wall, a berkil was made - a deep reservoir that served not only as a storage of water, but also as additional protection from enemies. The dimensions of the castle's premises are amazing. For example, it has a gallery - a 60-meter hall built by Muslims and used by them only as a stable.
The gate to the castle.
Grain, olive oil, wine and provisions for horses were stored in the storerooms of the castle. In addition, the knights had numerous herds of cows, sheep and goats. The well inside the castle supplied the knights with water, in addition, water was also supplied to it through an aqueduct from a natural source.
Aqueduct.
One of the earliest buildings of the castle - a Romanesque chapel - was painted according to the Byzantine canon, although the inscriptions on the frescoes were in Latin. On the walls were banners and trophies of war, weapons of the fallen knights … and even the harness of their horses. After the castle was taken by the Muslims, a mosque was built here.
Chapel.
The surviving paintings.
"And the verse of the Koran sounded from the minbar …" When the Muslims captured Krak, they immediately converted the chapel into a mosque and built a minbar in it.
By the beginning of the 13th century, the Krak fortress had become such a powerful fortification that two thousand people could survive a siege in it for five years.
Its security is also evidenced by the fact that it was the last refuge of the crusaders in the East. Saladin himself, who more than once turned his gaze to the high walls of Krak, did not dare to storm it for a long time, believing that an attack on this fortress would be tantamount to sending soldiers to certain death. Therefore, he limited himself to destroying the crops near the castle walls and appropriating the cattle of the Crusaders grazing nearby, thereby causing them great losses. The Egyptian Sultan Baybars, who had repulsed all their fortifications from the Europeans, like Saladin, also realized that it was almost impossible to take Krak by storm or starvation: powerful walls, thanks to which a garrison of relatively small numbers could be defended in it, as well as huge food supplies created for him, well, an unparalleled "reserve of stability." However, the sultan nevertheless decided to storm the eastern part of his fortifications and, although he suffered heavy losses, he still managed to break into the space between the outer and inner walls. But it turned out to be very difficult to take possession of the entire castle citadel. On March 29, 1271, after a successful undermining, the Sultan's soldiers fell into the very heart of the "nest of the Hospitallers". However, the small garrison did not surrender even after that, but hid from them in the most fortified place - the southern redoubt, where the main food supplies were stored.
It was in these dungeons that everything was kept …
And they are just scary. After all, a kind of thickness of stones over your head.
Now it took a trick to lure them out of this hiding place. A letter was made allegedly from the Grand Master of the Order with the order to surrender the fortress. On April 8 he was taken to the garrison, and her defenders had no choice but to fulfill the will of the “second father”. Now the descendants of the soldiers of the Sultan's army adhere to a different version. According to them, the Arabs, supposedly disguised as Christian priests, came to the castle walls with entreaties to protect them from Muslim warriors. And when, they say, the gullible Hospitallers opened the gates to their "brothers in faith", they grabbed the weapon hidden under their clothes. Whatever it was, but Krak was still taken. However, all the surviving knights were saved by the Muslims. After the invasion of the Mongols, the fortress fell into decay, and then was completely abandoned. There, as in many other forgotten fortresses, there is a small settlement.
South tower of the castle.
"Hall of the Knights". In 1927, restoration work began in the castle, so that today the Castle of the Knights is visible to visitors in almost all of its former grandeur and splendor.
The order castles built in Europe also differed from all others both in their size and in the fact that instead of the usual chapel, a relatively large church was built in them, capable of accommodating all the knight brothers who spent time in it in prayer. The largest room was also allocated for the refectory in the order castles, since several hundred people (knights and sergeants of the order) had to eat in it at the same time, which never happened in those castles that belonged to one feudal lord.
The battle towers in the order's castles were usually placed in its corners and built specifically so that they rose one floor above the walls, which made it possible to fire from them not only the area around, but also the walls themselves. The design of the loopholes was such that it provided the shooters with both a significant firing sector and reliable protection from enemy shots. The height of the castle walls was comparable to the height of a modern three-four-storey building, and the thickness could be four or more meters. Some large castles had several rows of walls, and the approaches to the outer walls were usually protected by water ditches and palisades. The fallen brother knights were buried in the crypt under the church floor, and their gravestones were decorated with sculptural images of stone, made in full growth - effigii. The spacious church inside the castle served the knights for joint prayers and meetings. Donjon, "fortress within a fortress", the largest and tallest tower in the castle, was the last and most reliable stronghold for its defenders. For wine cellars, the knights and, in particular, the Templars did not spare space, since they used wine not only during table meals, but also as medicine. The decoration of the refectory of the order castles was distinguished by asceticism and consisted of wooden tables and benches with the very minimum of decorations, since everything related to bodily pleasures in the spiritual-knightly orders was considered sinful and was prohibited. The living quarters of the knight brothers were also not distinguished by great luxury, as, incidentally, were the separate chambers of the commander of the castle garrison. It was assumed that knights should spend all their free time from war in military exercises, as well as fast and pray.
Southeast tower of the castle Krak des Chevaliers.
A covered combat passage with embrasures for firing at the enemy usually passed along the entire top of the wall. Very often it was made so that it protruded slightly outward, and then holes were also made in the floor in order to throw stones down through them and pour boiling water or hot tar. The spiral staircases in the castle towers were also defensive. They tried to twist them so that the attackers had a wall on the right, which made it impossible to swing with a sword.
Western Tower.
West Tower and Aqueduct.
West side of the inner wall.
The crusaders in the Holy Land used a variety of objects as fortifications, including ancient Roman amphitheaters, basilicas and even cave monasteries! One of them was the monastery of Ain-Khabis, which was a few caves dug by Byzantine monks right in the middle of a steep cliff in the valley of the Yarmuk River. For a long time no one knew where these monks set up their secluded refuge until the crusaders came to the valley. They did not have time to build a strong fortress here, and they turned a cave monastery into it, connecting all its halls with wooden stairs and balustrades. Relying on him, they began to control the route from Damascus to Egypt and Arabia, which, of course, did not like the ruler of Damascus. In 1152, the Muslims attacked this mountain fortress, but could not take it and retreated, after which the king of Jerusalem sent a large garrison here.
In 1182, Saladin decided to capture Ain Habis at any cost, for which he sent a select detachment of soldiers to his assault, with whom there were specialists in undermining, who had proven themselves during the sieges of other castles built by the crusaders. The warriors seized the lower gallery of the monastery, after which a secret passage was dug up from one of its inner rooms, through which they burst inside, and where the Europeans did not expect them at all. As a result, the fortress fell only five days after the start of the siege!
But the crusaders decided to regain the monastery and began to besiege it not only from below, but also from above. To deprive the defenders of water, they began to throw large stones, which destroyed the drainage basin that fed the monastery with water, after which the Muslims surrendered.
Plan of assault on the cave monastery of Ain Khabis.
That is, the crusaders were not only good warriors in terms of sword and spear skills, but they also understood a lot about architecture and hired intelligent engineers to build their castles. In a word, trusting in Christ, they did not shy away from the achievements of the then military science and technology!
