Building a Medieval Castle from Scratch
25 comments
·January 23, 2025bmelton
atombender
Big fan of the British farm series, which is fantastic, and I love Ruth Goodman and the rest of the gang. I've seen all the farm ones, but somehow I missed this show. Thanks for the tip, this looks exciting!
Syonyk
The entire "BBC Farm series" is worth watching: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BBC_historic_farm_series
Ruth Goodman's shows are fun to watch, because regardless of what she's doing, how covered in grime she is, what era she's living and working in, she exudes such a sense of joy, and a general giddy, "I cannot believe that I get to do this as my job!" attitude.
It's like watching the last couple seasons of Mythbusters. There's no doubt that they are having a grand time of it.
0cf8612b2e1e
Could you expand on the last point? Was there a change from the initial seasons? I have only casually watched the show, but everyone seemed to be having a great time, just doing weird engineering things with someone else footing the bill.
wiredfool
This is well worth a visit if you're remotely near the area. We visited a few years back, and the kids thought it might be worth going back for a second day.
One bit of interest -- if constructed back in the 1300s, it would have probably taken 4 years or so. Funding is the biggest difference, historically it would have been built from a rich patron's pockets with no desire to wait 25 years for the protection and image it would provide.
wongarsu
Another important difference is that in the 1300s the overwhelming majority of Europe's population were farmers. Sure, they did a lot of things besides farming, but you could get a lot of workers for cheap during summer and winter when they weren't needed on the fields.
mkaic
This reminded me of Bishop's Castle in Colorado, USA — an incredible project built almost entirely by one man (who sadly died last year) working on it nonstop for 40 years:
bwb
I visited this site once with some friends on a road trip... the guy building it (Bishop) started screaming the N-word at some black bikers and then calmly told them he wasn't racist and made some long rant about the government. We split very quickly as the dude was racist and crazy.
slipperybeluga
[dead]
kergonath
Interesting, I did not know about this one!
It does sound a bit like the Cheval’s Ideal Palace, well worth a visit as well (and also in France like Guédelon, though not in the same area): https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ferdinand_Cheval
ThinkingGuy
Reminds me of Coral Castle in Miami-Dade, Florida, US, also built by one man.
jccooper
They used to keep copies of their really detailed newsletter on the website. Seems to have disappeared. But the last time archive.org saw it is here: https://web.archive.org/web/20201030183911/https://www.guede...
Dunno if they still keep up the newsletter (there's a signup form) in the same manner.
ortusdux
Tom Scott visited the site to try out their treadmill crane system:
fsagx
Anyone who's been there -- How would you recommend getting there from Paris without a car? the closest train station I saw was 25km.
frutiger
In keeping with the theme - on horse or foot.
emarthinsen
This is great. We need to keep these building techniques alive - or, at least, documented. There is always going to be a need for restoration reasons, but I'd like to see some of the old techniques become mainstream again. There are century-old structures that we can tour, but in another century, there will be no modern buildings still standing.
Swizec
> but in another century, there will be no modern buildings still standing
You sure? Many modern buildings are already 100 years old and in active use.
Empire State Building, for example, was built in 1930. Chrysler Building is from 1928. White House is from 1800.
I think we’ll be fine. Percentage wise we might end up keeping more modern buildings than we did of the very old ones.
My mom’s socialist style block of flats (in Slovenia) is from 1962 – 63 years old – and people keep living here and maintaining the structure just fine. Can easily imagine it sticking around for a long while yet.
Suppafly
> There are century-old structures that we can tour, but in another century, there will be no modern buildings still standing.
That's ridiculous.
davio
They tried making a castle inspired by this near Branson, Missouri that failed:
bwb
I got to visit this a few years ago, and it was amazing. I can't wait to go back and take my son :)
u-Squared
the more you learn about cybersecurity, the more you would want to live there
surfingdino
Wow. I love this! Not least because this is so incomprehensible to the British property developers on so many levels...
mobymoney
Who is paying forty master builders? Some billionaire probably.
number6
Interestingly not:
https://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Guyot
The son of a small business owner developed a passion for history, historic preservation, and horses from a young age. Trained in the military as a competition rider, he opened a riding stable at the Château de Valençay in the Indre department in 1972. In 1975, Guyot and his brother Jacques, who was four years younger, purchased the Château de La Roche in the Sologne region, and in 1979, they acquired the dilapidated Château de Saint-Fargeau in the Yonne department for a minimal amount. After failing with a "high culture" festival, Guyot succeeded in financing the castle's restoration through large historical spectacles involving the local population. The castle grounds also house a collection of old steam locomotives.
In the mid-1990s, he conceived the Guédelon project: since 1997, about 60 employees and 200-300 annual volunteers have been building a small fortress in 13th-century style, located 40 kilometers southwest of Auxerre - using exclusively medieval techniques. The planned construction time is 25 years. This project has also become financially self-sustaining.
nestorD
France is not big on billionaires pet project... Also, a lot of the hard work is done by volunteers!
Ruth Goodman has a phenomenal series about living in historic times on BBC. She's "lived" in several eras as early as back to the 1620s, and I've enjoyed literally all of them including the one she did from Guedelon, entitled Secrets of the Castle.
Some of them are available for streaming, some appear lost to time (no pun intended) but this one appears to be available on YouTube
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL72jhKwankOiwI5zt6lC3...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secrets_of_the_Castle