Medieval castles were characterized by their unique architecture and the use of various rooms, chambers, and parts. The Great Hall was the main room of a royal palace or nobleman’s castle, serving as the social and administrative hub. The interior of a medieval castle typically contained a complex of rooms such as gates, bed chambers, solars, bathrooms, lavatories, kitchens, pantries, larders, and butteries.
The Great Hall was the architectural centerpiece of a medieval castle, serving as the social and administrative hub for the castle and its estates. Bed chambers were initially attached to the great hall, but later castles built in the later middle ages had them on a higher floor. White walls were covered with paints made from powdered and boiled minerals mixed with egg white, resin, or oil.
Interiors of medieval castles were usually spartan around the X-XII century, with cellars where provisions were kept. Kitchens are still kitchens, pantries, larders, and cellars, while bed chambers have become bedrooms. Latrines have become lavatories and bathrooms.
Inside a medieval castle is the main residence of the ruling lord, along with a great hall, storage, kitchen, chapel, dungeon, and stables. Many medieval castles shared features like defensive barbicans, deep moats, a kitchen, a great hall, and a Keep (or donjon) at their heart. Both interior and exterior stonework were often whitewashed, and interiors were also plastered, paneled, or ornamented with paintings or other decorative elements.
📹 The forgotten Castle interior and what I got WRONG | MEDIEVAL MISCONCEPTIONS
Let’s look at the most common ways medieval castles looked like on the inside, and the common misconceptions, even some …
What would castles have looked like?
The castle, as we know it today, was introduced into England in 1066 during the Norman invasion led by William the Conqueror. The Normans built castles to control their newly-won territory and pacify the Anglo-Saxon population. Early castles were mainly of motte and bailey type, with the motte being a large mound of earth with a wooden tower on top and the bailey being a large ditch and bank enclosure. These timber castles were cheap and quick to build, but they were vulnerable to fire attacks and eventually rotted.
King William ordered that castles be built in stone, and many of the original timber castles were replaced with stone castles. Over time, stone castles were built in different architectural styles as builders experimented with castle-building techniques.
Castles served as military fortifications, serving as a center for local government, administration, and justice. They were also used by powerful lords to display their wealth and power through lavish architectural styles and decoration. Most castles were granted by the king to his loyal lords and nobles along with large areas of land, in return for which the king expected his nobles to control and administer these lands on his behalf. The castle itself represented a group of people who contributed to its function, including constables, masons, blacksmiths, and servants.
Why were castles white?
It is possible to plaster and whitewash castle walls in order to protect them and mortar. This is exemplified by the White Tower in the Tower of London. The hue of a castle’s walls is contingent upon the plaster utilized and may exhibit variation across counties and periods of construction.
How did people stay warm in castles?
The reign of Elizabeth I saw the introduction of fireplaces in English castles, which remained a crucial feature until the late 19th century. In Norman castles, the provision of warmth was achieved through the implementation of a straightforward innovation: the reduction in the number of windows.
What did castle rooms look like?
A great hall was a rectangular room that was between one and a half and three times as long as it was wide and higher than it was wide. It was entered through a screens passage and had windows on one side, often including a large bay window. The hall was often a multifunction room, used for receiving guests, dining together, and sleeping at night. In the Middle Ages, royal and noble residences had few living rooms, and a great hall was a place for the lord, his gentleman attendants, and servants to dine together.
The great hall often had one of the larger fireplaces of the palace, manor house, or castle, used for warmth and cooking. For larger structures, a medieval kitchen would typically lie on a lower level for the bulk of cooking. The fireplace often had an elaborate overmantle with stone or wood carvings or plasterwork, which might contain coats of arms, heraldic mottoes, caryatids, or other adornment.
What was the interior of castles like?
In the early period of castle construction, the great hall served a dual purpose: it was both a space for dining and sleeping, as well as a venue for social gatherings and judicial proceedings. The rooms were distinguished by high ceilings and large fireplaces, with stone or dirt floors. The lower levels were utilized for the storage of sustenance, beverages, and gold, whereas the upper levels were designated for defensive purposes, including the installation of arrow loops, the establishment of an armory, and the construction of battlements.
What did 12th century castles look like?
After the Norman conquest, castles in England and Wales varied greatly in size and shape. The motte and bailey pattern, where earth was piled into a mound to support a wooden tower, was a popular design. Stafford Castle is an example of a post-invasion motte castle. Ringwork, another popular design, involved earth being built in a circular or oval shape and topped with a wooden rampart. Around 80 of Norman castles followed this pattern, with ringworks being particularly popular in areas like south-west England and south Wales.
The White Tower in London and the keep of Colchester Castle were the only stone castles built in England immediately after the conquest, both with a square Norman keep. These castles were built in the Romanesque style and intended to impress and provide military protection. In Wales, the first wave of Norman castles were made of wood, in a mixture of motte-and-bailey and ringwork designs, with the exception of the stone-built Chepstow Castle.
The size of these castles varied depending on the site’s geography, the builder’s decisions, and available resources. East Anglia saw much larger mottes being built than the Midlands or London. Motte-and-bailey and ringwork castles required skilled craftsmen and forced labor from local estates, making them attractive immediately after the conquest. Larger earthworks, particularly mottes, required more manpower and were often owned by powerful barons.
What would be in a castle keep?
Shell keeps, either circular or polygonal, were stone walls that could be 3-3. 5 meters thick and 4. 5-9 meters high. They contained buildings such as a hall, barracks, chapel, accommodation, and storehouses. Some surviving shell keeps include Cardiff Castle in Wales and Restormel Castle in Cornwall, England. Most shell keeps were expanded or abandoned for larger stone castles on other sites.
Hall keeps, also known as lower keeps with only one or two floors, follow architectural principles of tower keeps with massive walls, small windows, and access restricted by a moat or drawbridge. Colchester Castle in Essex, England, has one of the largest hall keep ground plans, measuring 46 x 33. 5 meters. Norwich Castle and Castle Rising in Norfolk, England, also have examples of hall keeps.
Hall keeps did not evolve into larger tower keeps, but they could be contemporary designs. Some castle owners preferred these designs due to their lower expense or because defense was not their primary purpose.
What is usually inside a castle?
Castle owners typically had private apartments, including bedrooms with en-suite loos and chambers, where they welcomed visitors. Private chapels were often located in the safest parts of the castle, only accessible to trusted servants or honoured guests. Some castles had separate lordly living rooms, such as the Earls of Northumberland’s Great Tower within Warkworth Castle. For a glimpse into lordly life in a castle, visit Henry II’s royal palace in Dover Castle, which was colorfully recreated in about 1185.
Did medieval castles smell?
Castles and manor houses often lacked moisture, so they used herbs and rushes to counteract this. Popular herbs included lavender, thyme, meadowsweet, marjoram, germander, hyssop, and the Sweet Flag stems and leaves, grown only in the Fenlands of Norfolk and Cambridge and low-lying European countries. King Stephen’s court used rushes and flowers to prevent knights from sitting on bare flags, while Thomas à Becket covered hall floors with May blossom and sweet scented rushes in summer.
Churches also benefitted from fragrant strewing, but churchmen often avoided personal perfuming, which could be seen as hypocritical given Roman worship was a multi-sensory experience. Eyes fed on icons, ears soothed by Latin liturgy, tongues tasted wine and wafer, and hands stroked the velvet or coarse wool of clothing before straying to touch the herbs and rushes spread about wooden pews.
Did peasants live inside castle walls?
It was customary to construct defensive castles in response to perceived threats. However, integrating farmers within these structures was not a viable option.
Were castles dark inside?
Castles were often depicted as dark and cold, but they actually had large open hearths and wall fireplaces to provide heat and light. Tapestries insulated rooms against cold. Private rooms had curtains and fireplaces, and when no fireplace was available, rooms were heated with moveable fire stands. Castles had lamp rests in the walls for placing candles or lamps, and higher up in the social hierarchy had clean-burning candles that smelled more like beeswax than animal fat. These features contributed to the warmth and comfort of the castle.
📹 Life Inside a Medieval Castle (Cross Section)
Medieval Castles needed to be multiple things at once. They needed to be reflections of the leaders they represented – large and …
I love that you acknowledge your mistakes and publicly correct your statements. Too many people refuse to learn, double down on their “information” or pretend it didn’t happen. It’s not wrong to be incorrect, it’s what you do when you’re informed you’re mistaken that I judge people on. It’s why I watch you and why I trust what you say. That’s a long way to say – Thanks Shad!
One thing I notice in the pictures you chose, it’s possible that all these options may have been in one castle too, used in different parts. In that one picture with bare walls they seem to be at entrance, same with kitchen, there there are white washed or painted walls in living quarters and hallways, and then brocades used in main hall, bedrooms and heavily in ladies chambers. So even if it’s likely that different castles and lords preferred one style, it’s also possible that interiors weren’t uniform, to avoid that pendulum swing too.
Your discussion around the brocade work makes me wonder if wallpapering was a development from that work. If I google “Renaissance Era Wallpaper” I see similar patterns, and the same if you fast forward to say, “Regency Era Wallpaper”. This makes me wonder what other more modern home design or style elements have their roots in the Medieval Period, at least from an influence perspective. Good food for thought.
Couple of other uses to the same practice: chronicling and heraldry. Wall-hanging tapestries were often made to depict symbols and coats of arms of the house to whom the building belonged to, as well as to show important historical and mythological events from the house’s history. Also about their prevalence – making such things on a loom was a typical work for the women of the house (often depicted even in legends and fairy-tales) as a communal pastime, and as such was something that could be produced internally by the household, with no need to hire any external help or invest in unusual resources, unlike painting.
Tapestries and brocades were also given in dowries and as presents because good fabric was not (and has never really been) inexpensive. Some were even made with actual gold that was formed into thread. And the resulting weight of the tapestry and brocades was astronomical. So anything they were attached to had to be of hearty construction most of the time.
I think that you underestimate the utility of fabric wall hangings in environmental control. Stone absorbs heat but may never feel warm to the touch, fabric, on the other hand, can feel warm and the air space between fabric and stone is an effective insulation space. Castles, or for that matter, any stone building, collect damp; condensation forms on the walls during cold, or English weather; fabric covering could be both decorative and functional. Curious if fabric wall hangings are more prevalent in northern European countries as opposed to say southern Spain or Italy. You do good, Shad of Diversity.
This is why I really appreciate your articles. You put in a ton of time and research into the topic based on a thesis, formulate all of that, and come to a conclusion. When new evidence comes up that is additional or conflicting you take the time to actually investigate. It really adds credit and validity to your content.
So, the tl;dr is a medieval castle interior can have: Bare Stone/Masonry Plain Paint/Whitewash Pattern Paintings Murals Wood Pannels Wall Carpets/Wall Curtains(?) Hey Shad! The wall carpet interior reminded me of tapestries! Are there medieval art that interiors are also decorated with tapestries? Also canvas paintings too?
Ah, someone already pointed out the acoustics. Let me add one more thing to it though, since in Finland we still use some of those, they’re called “ryijy” up here and are both decorations, meant to muffle the echo in larger buildings like halls where people eat of gather, but also in colder climates thick wall cloth can also act as a insulation making walls leak less warmth outside. So there’s at least three purposes on those wall-cloths and since building anything from 100% stone or brick, or heck even wood means it’s not very well insulated in winter months, there’s a added benefit of having thick cloth on the wall to insulate inner walls.
After I watched the original article, I didn’t leave that thinking that wood panneling was super common; just that it was done. So I’m not so sure that you overstated it as much as you feel you did. That being said, it’s awesome to see a correction article for points you felt were incorrect in some way! One of the few youtubers that don’t just try to rush by it. Loving the new article so far!
Hey Shad. I actually have heard these mentioned, and they formed a pretty important part of my mental image of the interior of a castle, but because of their removable nature I never associated them with your descriptions of the interior of castles. My source of knowledge is primarily from historical novels in reference to their thermal insulation properties. The most obvious reference that jumps to mind is in “Ivanhoe” (published 1819 by Sir Walter Scot where he describes the castles of the female lead Rowena as needing the brocade for insulation because her poor Saxon castle was drafty. There are many more examples of course but they are most commonly mentioned in passing in the context of providing concealments for secret passages and so something like- “She/he caught a movement of the hangings out of the corner of her/his eye and his/her heart pounded. Was someone perusal?” The other reference is generally to the state of repair as an indicator of the current wealth of the castle owner. “tattered and moldering brocade” vs “the brocade on the walls was faded but clean” kind of thing. I suspect your ignorance of these might be a result of you failing to read enough classic medieval romance novels.
Shad I want to but you know I recognize how careful you are being in your articles. I understand that not always right, and you do a good job of explaining that. And people still make articles about not liking your technique or how you explain something, especially out of context. Keep up the hard work! I love your articles and your brothers articles.😄
Hi Shad, another great article from you. I would only add to the insulation of the brocades. I was working 4 seasons as castle guide and by standing near a wall for longer time you start to feel the cold from it. It is really bad on your back, brocades are good to prevent this cold flow. When you imagine they were sitting for hours at a feast something insulating behind them would really help. Also another point to wooden insulation in Czech region for some rooms they were using half-timbering (not sure if correct term). There is one room i know about that is preserved from middle ages until today.
It’s important to note that almost every castle that isn’t in ruins has been lived in even after the medieval period ended and thus were redecorated from time to time to suit the tastes of the era. Warwick Castle for example, has a Baroque style dining room and very few of its rooms retain their medieval style.
Thanks for the article. This has opened a new thought in my mind. In a previous article you mentioned repurposed Roman watchtowers as medieval castles. And here you talked about how a lot of castles were changed during the renaissance to fit the new interests of the people. So I ask, what sort of changes would a medieval lord make to a Roman or other ancient building they got ownership of and lived in?
I won’t say I ever thought this was the case, but I do kind of feel like I just kind of realized it in the back of my mind intuitively. I don’t know, it’s kind of cool to have someone do the leg work and confirm it, but it’s just an obvious thing when you really think about it I just don’t find it as amazing as you do. Still, thanks for putting in the leg work on it, that’s the amazing part to me. That someone would care enough to research it in whatever why they can to confirm it.
Another advantage of brocade covered walls is the reduction of echo arising in huge, high ceilinged stone rooms. This would give a room a nice, homey ambience, making it more suitable for receiving guests and having conversations. Perhaps in certain settings that may have been a disadvantage, like if you wanted to convey power and dominance by the echoes resounding in a throne hall.
Once again, one of the best ways to learn new things is to cofidently state the wrong thing online. Someone will correct you before you even finished typing your comment. Even if there was no intent or knowledge of the wrongness here with Shad. And I appreciate the correction and humbleness to admit being wrong.
Hey Shad, not really fully related to the article but I’ve been meaning to bring this up for quite a while. Maybe you’d be interested to check out the Belgrade Fortress. It is a monstrosity 2000 years in the making with elements ranging from a bared piece of the wall of a Roman castrum to WW1 earthworks. You’d also maybe be interested in the castles of Golubac on the Danube, which is pretty well preserved from what I’ve seen, and the castle at the city of Uzice which was recently restored but always held a special place in my heart for its positioning and overall feel. Another interesting tidbit of trivia about that one is that it is a medieval fortress without many later improvements that was blown up in the 19th when the Ottomans were leaving the area as they considered it unassailable and thus too dangerous to leave in rival hands… allegedly
Shad, what if it was for events? With the more permanent fixtures being for living quarters and the like, and the wall carpets were like when your parents bring out the good table cloth? I mean, one issue with having that up year round would be mold, especially in an area as humid as coastal Europe. So its either save it in a dry place for celebration, or taking it out almost bi weekly to air out. Its like your rug or towels in your bathroom
It’s funny because in the manga “Bride Stories/Otoyomegatari” the hanging brocade/tapestry is exactly how interior wall decoration is depicted. In one of the early chapters a carpenter describes a house being built to a child and the interior is bare wood with carpet on the floor and hanging tapestry/brocade that can be changed and cleaned whenever desired. so when you started to describe how bare stone could be decorated in a historical setting my first thought was “Well hanging tapestries probably that would be the easiest to cover stone with…”
The hanging cloth (drapery) makes sense for several reasons. Royalty could have a family pattern up behind them. The majority of Medieval artwork Shad is showing are wedding portraits, where new family patterns (or existing) could be showcased. This would also allow royals to move the pattern with them while traveling to mark their horses, rooms, tables, and more. Since royals often had huge egos, they wanted everyone to recognize their pattern every time they would visit and would obviously have a lively party following them.
Can you do a article on the staff of the castle, how kings or lords lived their day to day life, who they talked to, people that worked closely with the kings, advisors stewards and others and what their role was. also if anyone knows if there is a place I can get info on this can you link or guide me to it, thanks.
Your castle content is why I first started perusal your website. I can’t get enough and love that there is more castle content! I would love to see more specifics about historical construction techniques. How the heck did they attach their wooden roofs to the tops of their stone walls? Machicolatiooooooooooooooooons!!!!!!
Since I renovated my kitchen recently, I want to point out another benefit of this kind of tapestry. Better sound quality. Plain flat walls with not much else, will make for a very echoy room. hey even with all the cupboards in there it is still a bit echoy, so they would have probably appreciated a bit of sound muffling on their walls.
I love your articles and all the great information you give us! Thanks, Shad! On another note, and maybe you are well aware of this, one of the beautiful pictures you’ve shown of wood paneling in a bedroom is from Neuschwanstein castle in Bavaria. This castle, however, is not a medieval one that got redecorated with more modern furniture. Rather, it is the love-child of a slightly mad Bavarian king from the end of the 1800s and is a representation of his vision of a fairytale castle. Sorry if I’ve pointed out something obvious that you already know, but for the small chance that it has slipped through your meticulous search… yea, be careful when referencing Neuschwanstein.
Hey Shad great article. There are some points I would like to add. The practice of using brocades actually might be where the notion of secret passage ways comes from. A door behind a brocade would not be visible. To have a secret door would be a lot harder with any type of “naked” wall. One other type of decorations, similarly used to brocades would have been tapestries. Especially when you have artwork showing big pictures on the wall. Those might have been tapestries.
When we are talking about corrections. A while back I listened to ‘Toulky českou minulostí’ which is a podcast about Czech history that is very well researched. In one episode they were talking about a minor uprising in Prague that was faulted to the fact that the peasants weren’t able to do certain things in the city including carry of a sword. I am pointing towards the ‘sword permit’ article. I tried to look for the episode but I wasn’t able to.
I’m surprised you’re surprised. As far back as I can remember I always knew castles were adorned with tapestry. Wondering where the knowledge came from, I traced it back. As a french kid who grew up in the 90’s in the suburb of Paris, the Middle Age was an obvious part of primary school, and quite a few time we have been brought to museums to see medieval stuff. And in the museum of Cluny, we have an extremely famous serie of tapestry called La Dame à la Licorne. I’m certain it was the museum guide who taught us about medieval tapestry, to explain the context of why what we were looking at was even existing.
Hi Shad… Quite weird you weren’t aware of that… There is actually something extra to that, some of the castles walls are painted to look like brocade, with folds and everything, and on some castles you can actually hang brocades on top of the paintings. And something you should have a look at is the paintings of Karlštejn castle, where you have semi precious stones in the walls, stucco covered in gold leaf, globes of glass covered in gold, paintings “hung” on the walls, and painted walls, looking like paintings, looking like imitation brocade. And I bet at the time, the walls could also have been covered in brocade on top
Hey Shad. You know when people talk about time-travel into the Medieval times, and they think about what skills or tools they need, and EVERYONE FORGETS TO LEARN LATIN AND GREEK? It would be nice to have insight on this matter – not being able to communicate with either nobility or clergymen should set you in a pretty dire situation.
I actually came up with the wall hanging idea on my own. My stepdaughter wanted to paint the walls of her room…of our apartment! Rather than paying hundreds of dollars from our deposit, I made a wood frame the size of the wall and covered it with bed sheet material that I painted with a white base. She was then able to decorate that any way she desired. When we moved, I didn’t think about keeping it. She had graduated high school and was on her own. We tore the painting down and tossed it in the garbage. We should have kept it, because it would be worth a LOT now. It would have also been a great memoir for her mom.
Another thing about using tapestries and brocade is it would allow for seasonal or event based decoration. Far far easier to pull down a brocade with hooks and loops than to re-paint whole walls. Another thought would be cleaning. Dust builds up you take down the brocade take it outside hang it up and give it a smacking with a dust beater.
Another aspect of the brocade is that a mural painted on a rendered wall is harder to repair. A crack forms, something smashes into the wall, the wall settles and the rendering chips or flakes, and you have to shell out a ton for an artist to touch it up after a repair. But if you have only a white or single color wall with a brocade? You have an easier fix. Plus the brocade probably padded the wall and reduced scuffs and chips of the rendering material from modest things like moving chairs and tables.
18:43 tapestry and cloth wall covers are pretty integral to my perception of middle-ages interiors but that might be from a German perspective with high interest in needle works to begin with. Some European cities are famous for their brocades while the inventorys of traveling monachs had even more samples
Modern Misconceptions: Lizardmen don’t make for an interesting Fantasy Rearmed. Actually, being ectothermic (need less oxygen e.g. under water and may have explosive power but can’t do much endurance) and having a tail, perhaps a string bite, etc. make for a fascinating contemplation. A related misconception is that it’s not worthwhile to come to the conclusion that different species fight with similar weapons because apparent differences don’t matter as much as perhaps perceived.
You are 100% right about the brocart. In fact, they were considered to be part of the “mobilier” in French, which means household items that can be moved around, as opposed to “immobilier (real estate), which is stuff that you can’t move around (i.e. a house or a castle). This term of mobilier came around when nobles had many residences, but not necessarily enough furnitures and various household items to leave permamently in all of them, so they had one set and moved around with it, bringing the mobilier with them to their different residence
Awesome article Shad, I think there is proper name for “brocades” and it’s tapestry or arrases (from city of Arras in France, leading manufacture center of those in Europe since XIV century if I remember correctly) this form of decoration continued in to renaissance and even baroque (perhaps due to small ice age in the begining of XVII century), but obviously style of decoration evolved. So if you want reaserch more on that you can search those two keywords.
The thumbnail for this one is pure gold 😂🤣. Personally, I always find it very difficult to tell the difference between “(probably expensive) smooth, regular, bare stone walls” and “we plastered the walls and painted the pattern of a smooth stone wall on top to make it look nice” from paintings. Would you be interested in making a article about how to look at (or how you look at) a medieval painting/illustration in order to “get the most” out of it? Also, the ever delightful “hanging brocade vs. tapestry vs. embroidered tapestry vs. painted (stained) cloth” rabbithole 😀, and the question what was used when, by whom, and why. Interesting, that, as far as I can tell, most of your examples seem to feature actual brocade as wall hangings (as opposed to tapestry). Did you use paintings from a specific time and/or location? Tapestry (woven or embroidered) seems to have been in and out of fashion pretty much during the whole medieval era (again, as far as I know, and I know next to nothing about this). Curioser and curioser 🙃
Fascinating topic, Shad. I can easily hear the lady of the castle say, “The King is visiting tomorrow; hang the fancy brocaid.” You must get frustrated in Australia, living so far from all the castles you’d like to visit. On a different note, when can I read the sequel to your novel? I’ll look it over for editing suggestions for the low price of the privilege of getting to read it 📚. 🤣😂.
Thanks for the article, Shad! Super cool that they used wall hangings to decorate! I’ve only ever heard of them in terms of big tapestries (like in Wheel of Time, Emberverse, etc.), but never as a fancier wallpaper. Also thanks for being awesome and admitting a misconception! That’s what learning is all about. ^_^
@Shadiversity it’s a bit uncommon but there was another kind of wall decoration, leather wallpaper, also called Cuir de Cordoue, golden leather, or cordwain or cordovan. In Italy is known as corame. I do not remember where it originated, possibly north Africa, and the first production hubs in Europe were in Spain (Cordoba, hence the name). It became common in the rest of Europe from the 14 hundreds and boomed in the 15th century onwards for all kinds of stuff made of leather. Very few examples survive today. There was an exhibition in Mantova not too long ago, some short articles are available about it on youtube only in italian if you want to check it out, all examples are from the 15th century onwards and are part of the Gonzaga collections
If I remember my history studies rightly wood panelling become hugely popular in the Tudor era, but that was even for higher working classes, not just castles. And it also depended largely on the room of the house or castle, as bedrooms, for example, were very different decor that a courtroom or dining room. Would love to travel back and see how much we have right or wrong about the way people lived.
Dear Shad, I am quite surprised that this is not common knowledge. Not only have I known this since I was a wee lad, our dynasty has been living this technique as far back as we know. Even to this day, my house is decorated with hanging brocade and cloth. As I have hands-on experience with this, I want to provide some insights into what I and my ancestors have noticed and kept in mind. First, this is indeed used to further insulate rooms, especially toward exterior walls. The cloth forms a gap between it and the wall. The air in between cannot as easily escape as if there was no cloth, slowing down convection and therefore the rate of heat exchange with the outside. Modern insulating sure does most of the heavy lifing nowadays but this can provide some extra insulation to shave off a tad from the heating bill. In order for this to work, the cloth has to be hanged a bit from the wall away. This is why the nails on the artwork seem to stick out a lot or the cloth seems to produce folds. You will also notice that the cloth sometimes does not reach the top but always seems to cover the bottom. The reason is that by letting the cloth go all the way down, cold air cannot flow out easily at the bottom, keeping it trapped and reducing the heat exchange rate between the air and wall. The top is less important but insulative properties surely improve when it goes all the way up, as it covers more of the wall. This has its own issues though. If the cloth would cover windows, you would have no light in the room, so for those walls you need to balance the insulation with the light.
Two things. First, as I understand it, a Throne includes not only the chair that the person sits on, but can also include the canopy over the chair, among other things. And second, another advantage to using brocades is in the case of remarriage and/or divorce. I might like a particular brocade, as did my first wife, but my second wife might not, and so we can remove the brocade and replace it with something else. But when she leaves the picture (either through death, divorce or annulment), we can take the brocade she preferred off and replace it with the earlier one.
I had an idea for world building fantasy settings based on this. There’s a sort of language/symbolism in certain patterns and colours, so hanging up brocades with these patterns and colours is making a political statement of some sort. Hanging up a certain colour could indicate mourning, for example.
I visited a few castles in Ireland, including Blarney Castle. At Blarney I was introduced to remaining sculptured (ornamental) plaster sticking to the interior of the upper halls. In reading up on the subject I learned that apparently this was not uncommon for the late Middle Ages. It was news to me. I have learned a lot about castles over the years and I have multiple books on castles. There are no universal rules for castles aside from the existence of castle walls and a keep (I refuse to refer to a standalone keep as a “castle”). The basic concept was understood throughout the West and was relatively popular and effective. But the execution of the concept into reality was as varied as the perspectives of the people who built them. Improvisation for terrain also lent its hand to the uniqueness of each castle. Although many examples were destroyed in the World Wars, thankfully there are still many examples left. I hope the world stabilizes and regains some sanity again within our lifetime. It would definitely make visiting castles more viable for foreign travelers again.
The cloths were not decorations at first, it was mainly for sound barrier and warmth….making them decorative was a sign of wealth, but all castles had hung cloths for the main two points. It was definitely near prominent figures because if they were to whisper against stone, then it would echo and everyone would hear their secrets.
Okay, I have to ask this question. I love what a (mythical creature) would use as a weapon series, but have you ever thought about doing the same with castles? It could go over the materials each race would prefer to use, how the design of the castle would differ for both the inhabitants of it and their defenses from being invaded by both humans and other rivals of the same race, etc. I don’t what to overstep but I keep having “But what kind of castle would they build?” when I watch the series.
Sources are crazy some times. I am from germany and i know someone who bought an old “Country Castle” You know, these smaller constructions without any defence on it. Its more like a big mansion build from rocks and stone. This thing is several hundred years old. IDK exactly. BUT i know, that every single owner has changed something. He found blueprints (they aren’t blue), paintings, pictures, and many more. At some places you see different stones, changes in walls, windows etc. Many walls are plasterd, colored white, in some rooms are different wood floors, and many more. Simply to say, this was build like this 400 years ago is brave. Often you can’t tell what happened 200 years ago to the building. The owners don’t had to apply for a building permit. They had an idea and changed it to their likings.
Ah, the beauty of medieval tapestry. yeah, that wall hangers were very useful and versatile: insulation, acoustic dampeners, eye catcher and bearer of the coat of arms and pictures of a houses family tree and history. Murals were only made for permanent seats and mostly only for the reception hall and the chapel. you would have to be a stupidly rich house to decorate every room in your castle with murals and paintings. but with all the wool and linnen of that time period, making tapestry was stil pricey but much cheaper.
What should be pointed out, is that wall covering changed over time. Very early in stone castle times it was furs hanging from the wall. Later wooden panels were added. With the crusades people started to copy the “arabic” style of whitewashing their walls and painting them with flowery motivs. Later it was tapestry, wooden paneling or painted walls again. And of course both romanesque and gothic architecture had their visible masonry.
I’m confused – I thought it was common knowledge that castles were hung with tapestries and brocades for warmth and decoration, yet you say it is not discussed online? I can’t say I’ve looked recently, but I’m sure it has been discussed here in England for a long time. Well done on having the integrity to admit your mistakes mate, and well done on having found something that you didn’t know when double-checking.
Hanging blankets isn’t so much to make the room warmer as much as it is to cut down or control the draft. Winter with cold stone walls makes for a constant chill coming down the walls. Wrap the bottom 1/3 or 1/2 of the room with a drapery and the room is still cold, but not blowing that cold air on you all the time. So you won’t only find it to be common, but typically around the person who is important, and along the exterior walls. Another big deal is the removability. For cleaning, or to change up the scenery, or whatnot. Also, if you have an artist painting your best chambers for a year… there is a lack of privacy. But if you can have someone making these huge quilts in a dedicated area, you can actually use the space while the design is being made… it will still take years, but not as problematic. Yet another, which goes along with the wood paneled ceilings and later walls, is noise control. Castles with huge flat parallel walls carry voices and noise all over. Having something to deaden that sound can make the place feel more comfortable, and easier to hold a private conversation in.
I thought this was fairly common knowledge. I do recall it being pointed out by …every English teacher explaining the word “arras” in that crucial scene in Hamlet. I never realized the standard checked diapering of the backgrounds was intended to be tapestries, though. But you showed one illustration where that’s clearly what’s intended.
I wonder if there is any evidence of the brocades being used as a means of hiding something built into the wall. A servant entrances into the main hall for example (or the ever elusive secret passages). Or to hide shelving built into the wall to cover the items on the shelf. Looking at your backdrop shelf is what led to this train of thought.
Hanging rugs were/are common all over the world. They trap radiant heat that would go straight into the stone/concrete wall. I had to hang one next to my bed when I lived in Russia because the wall was shared with a vacant apartment. The lack of one made it feel like the life was being sucked out of me even though the air temperature was normal. That’s why you see them (and wood paneling) at the height of a human. Same idea as headboards. And if you’re wrapping your house in wool, why not make it pretty?
Brocades could also be used as curtains for interior doors. (Perhaps even hide doors.) Today, people use cloth as a cheap alternative to doors, but it would have been far easier to “install” a brocade over a doorway than to frame a door into a hole in stone. If the door jams, you’ve got to throw your weight into it to “break it down”. A brocade wouldn’t have this limitation. Also, consider insects – to let someone in a door must be 100% open or could even have holes. A brocade can, near perfectly, match the person’s size so it only has to be 70% or so “open”. Also, a door would scrape the floor, but a brocade would just brush it.
It’s nuts to me that someone like yourself who delves deep into this sort of thing didn’t know this for longer! It’s a tidbit of information I think I first heard a decade ago or more, possibly while still a teenager – but I think I may have heard it on an actual castle tour in the UK – one of the benefits of living in the north east where there are a lot of intact, less renovated castles (something something…Scots invading and vice versa…something something 😂) Have you been to the UK or Europe often for castle visits? I think I’d go nuts being as into castles as you are and living in Australia!
The majority of the castle interior would be plain bare stone, mainly in high traffic areas that wont be hung out for long periods of time like in hallways and storerooms. Rendering is done is areas where people tend to be gathered for work or for short periods of time so it wouldn’t be decorated, like the kitchens or the toilet area. Painting the walls would be in the public gathering areas to show off the castles lords/ladies wealth and influence with depictions of their families history and accomplishments, areas like the throne room and dinning hall are good areas for this. Brocades would be used in the personal living areas of the lord/lady of the caste and areas they tend to spend most of their personal time in and they’ll change it seasonally. The bed chamber, living quarters, and library would be prime areas for this.
I don’t know, but. About castle outsides, wouldn’t they try to hide the wall height by making it hard to count stones or something? If was told to make a ladder which I will put up against enemy wall and it depends if I die or live, I’d like to count the brick layers to know the approximate height, then add a bit to that height and make ladders that long? If they’re too long, then ure easier to push away, harder to carry, harder to make, if they’re too short, you die, so yeah.
I often visit castles only to look at their tapestries. And by the way the blue fleur-de-lis is not a tapestry that is a rug covered room. I can see that for two reasons one they’re holding Court in the Royal colors, hands to nobody is wearing shoes this is the king’s courtesan court. In order to enter this room you are either family, a visiting Royal who has taken up lodging, or you’re taking courtesan class. As this would also be the children’s classroom for oral and mineral studies. That is lectures private dance personal presentation poetry needlepoint hand quilting and music lesson. No shoes no inkwell’s no food or drink unless you want a close up to you of the mote thrue the window.
It never occurred to me that such a big enthusiast as you can be unaware of the real/practical use of tapisseries, like the bayeux one. What i find very interesting in your display of artworks is the appareance of decorated floor tiles; it will be interesting to find a time frame. By the way, the squares on the ceiling are the frame of the next/uppermost floor whithout the masking we use in modern time.
About those brocades (gobelins, curtains etc)- dont underestimate just how cold and drafty a castle is! You need insulation, not just on the walls or at the windows, but to make rooms smaller. And another point- castles often stood almost empty for years, until the lord came travelling through and stayed for a few days. You would then hang up your brocades to show, that the boss had arrived. But you wouldnt paint the walls, because- well lords changed! Look at medieval beds. They have curtains too, for the same reasons. BUT you would use different wall decoration in different rooms. You dont put curtains up in the servants room, because its expensive, but the servants may themselves paint the walls. You dont put brocades up in the church, because they interfere with sound, and you have all those lovely pictures form the scripture on the walls. You dont put wood on the walls if you are expecting a siege, because of the fire hazard. You DO whitewash the kitchen, because its easy to do once a year, when the soot has made the walls dirty etc etc.
@Shadiversity: So you may not be aware, but in higher-class circles, it’s a thing to “sell a room”. This is literally what it sounds like. The fixtures, the paneling, floors, all of the items which are not structural can be removed and installed somewhere else. I call this out, because outside of high-end home construction, many people are not aware that there is a whole market for selling formal rooms when a house is refreshed and this has been going to my knowledge for several hundreds of years. You may often see a fireplace surround in a museum which was removed during some structural renovation, but they do the same with wood paneled rooms, libraries, etc… A structural renovation or maintenance of a building was an opportunity for a large estate building owner to change the style of a room that was in place. And to save some of the cost of the project, they might find a buyer for the existing room who would pay to have it taken out and moved. These rooms often get re-worked to fit the new space, and this can muddy the history of a building. This practice is still alive and well – one anecdote that sticks out in my mind: a very wealthy customer I worked with about 15 years ago moved an entire entryway from a winery in France to his home in the S.F. Bay Area. Bush-hammer hand-finished stone wall surrounding a dressed limestone pointed archway, and two 15′ tall cast iron decorative doors gilded in polished brass. The winery made about $1 million USD on the deal while saving an amazing piece of artistic workmanship from the scrap heap – and the customer got a unique entry to his wine collection room, and a story with pedigree to go with it.
I love these deeper dives into castles. You should start your own series where you travel to individual castles and discuss their history and design elements. Learning history, architecture, design functions, secret elements, etc from you would be great. Your excitement makes the content interesting. Start with Malbork castle. Not the oldest, but one of my favorites.
I wonder though, were these things hanging on the walls year round? Or did they hang them in the winter months as added insulation, or to take some of the bite out of the cold, it being a stone building? Edit: In a lot of the artwork you can clearly see that it’s spring or summer in the background or outside windows, so prolly hung year round.
Love the update and correction! I’ve been informed of brocades in the past, but I’ve totally ignored them over the years, so this was a good reminder for sure. But didn’t the original article contain more information about castle interiors other than simply the wall decorating? Kind of a shame to take down a broadly informative article covering multiple topics over one less-than-expected represented topic
A painted wall would be much more susceptible to wear&tear from people leaning/brushing up against it, furniture hitting it, etc. Especially in a time when people are wearing weapons and armor with metal bits everywhere. And then what do you do, track down the artist and bring him back to touch it up? He’s probably dead by now. Easier to replace the worn/damaged cloth sheet (or just take that piece and swap it with one that’s mostly hidden behind furniture).
One thing to remember about anything that’s meant to display wealth: If it’s meant to display wealth, it means that it’s expensive, and therefore not everyone can afford it. So it’s natural to not see it everywhere. If you see it everywhere, it doesn’t display wealth. It’s just common, everyday decorations. So, if not everyone can afford it, there are cheaper alternatives, that may or may not be popular due to aesthetic appeal. By the way, on the paintings shown here, I’m not sure I saw any single-coloured walls that weren’t grey, white, red, or blue. Any reasons for those colours in particular? I mean, white and grey can easily be whitewash and some kind of mortar, but red and blue are clearly (well, probably) paint.
Makes one wonder how many of those “brick walls” were actually rendered walls which were whitewashed and had a brick pattern painted on, similar to how some buildings nowadays are with perfectly-flat cement/concrete walls but painted to look like brickwork. Especially if the walls were made from mud bricks which were rendered and painted to resemble brick-work, optionally with shallow websites to imitate the brick-and-mortar walls, with the websites painted a slightly different color. So what we see depicted as a brick wall or stone wall could be: actual brick/stone wall, mud brick painted to look like stone, anything (mud brick, stone, terracotta/fired brick, wood, wattle-and-daub, cement, even rendered hay (especially for cheap ineffective castle walls), etc.) rendered and the render painted to look like stone and grooves optionally cut in/from the render to make it more 3D or with the grooves filled to look neater and not catch clothes (and rip the clothes, break a bit of the wall, or both), or an actual firebrick-brick/stone wall which is painted to hide the type firebrick or stone used and/or to better protect it from the elements.
Pierrefonds castle, it was in ruins untill 19th century when Napoleon rebuilt it, a lot of the internal renovation was made up to look medieval, but they invented a lot, but as it looks medieval adjacent, and is in good condition, they use it for film sets like merlin. But as it was invented in 19th, it cant really be used to show medival stonework accurately. looks a lot more like renaisance palace…..
Ya man those tapestries ARE WORTH MONEY rich people were obsessed with hanging expensive decorative cloths on walls. They had whole town center washing centers where ladies beat cloths and rugs for many hours a day. Although you probably dont wash your rich people tapestries at the town wash there is probably castle maids for that.
One thing I find frustrating about this article is that you treat the Medieval period as one thing. When in fact it several periods of history covering over a thousand or so years. I can imagine that fashion and decorating trends came and went, so some styles would have been popular during one period but considered out of date the next. You also don’t address any cultural differences across countries. In short you treat Medieval castle interior decoration as if it were all taking place in one spot and during one time frame. The truth is that it’s dozens of cultures over a long protracted time frame. You could at least acknowledge that.
Personally I prefer brocades over painted walls. Sure, the art on painted walls look beautiful… but, I also feel cold and loney when I see those bare stone walls. I’ve visited stone buildings before, and I’ve never liked those cold walls, I’m fine visiting them, but I wouldn’t want to live there. The clothed walls feel more inviting, homey. Looks comfortable to live in.
This makes me wonder what the peasants houses looked like inside. I imagine alot of them might have had cloths over there walls too just with cheeper cloth or less elaborate designs. Im also wondering about the types of things that would be around a castle. Was there always a village or town outside the castle? How common was it to build a second wall around this town? And what about specific types of workers? Like the blacksmith, did he live above or next to the forge like fantasy often depicts or did they have more separate homes or even a place in the castle? What about the stablemaster? Did he live at the stables or somewhere in the town? If they lived at there jobs then what might the homes have looked like compared to others in the town? Maybe the blacksmith has more stonework?
As someone many and varied interests, I always like to say that I know a little bit about a lot things. Usually that’s just enough to get myself into trouble when someone who actually knows what they’re talking about walks into the room. That’s when it becomes a learning opportunity! I’ve wondered in the past if white washed interiors some places were about lighting?
I’m afraid you need to redo the article again! XD You missed the DOSSALS! These were found in architecture (specially in gothic “dossallettes” over saint’s statues, I’m translatin from Spanish) and were also made of cloth. These were originally used in Churches and Cathedrals, because the Bishops and Priests were usually the longest living people in those times and they got cold praying and during mass, so those were suspended over the altar and their persons. These contraptions eventually were used by Kings and Dukes, Counts and so on, on their palaces and castles and portable ones were used to cover the ladies skins on trips and hunts. I’m surprised you did’nt notice it because it’s pretty common in stories about the medieval age (or fantasy in ancient times) to have characters hiding items or even themselves behind tapestries and brocades. It also reduced the echo in the stone walls, making them more cozy and comfortable. I think as a rule you have different uses and dress interiors according to them: – Halls, Council/Throne Rooms: painted with coats of arms to impress your visitors and have your voice be carried by the walls. Gives it a dignified look. – Chancellery/Secretary rooms: wood paneling to dignify the room, make it more comfortable for the long hours of writing and reading, specially next to a fire. – Private Rooms/Alcobes: tapestry and brocade to heat it easily, make it more homey and impress the family or visitors. – Working/Service rooms: plastered white or colored, you don’t need anything else to make them habitable.
Having seen first hand the remains of original wood panelled interior walls in several castles here in the UK – Kenilworth castle to name but one – yes, it was def. a thing. RE Brocaded fabrics: again, many examples still survive in castles in the UK today. They were extremely thick and heavy and acted as some level of insulation; castles are cold – very cold (esp. in the UK).
I very much appreciate your humility. My motto is: I love being wrong because then I get to learn something new. Thanks, Shad! 8:15 I get the feeling that the wooden object in this room may be a wardrobe rather than an alcove. 17:46 Lemme just get my fabric guru hat on real quick… Brocades we’re historically made of silk. Silk is very good at keeping you warm, whether on your body or on the walls, since it has great insulating properties. This is likely why these brocades were hung above the bottom of the window. I can’t imagine that those windows were 100% air tight, so the brocade would have been an excellent solution to blocking a draft.
Congrats you figured out the secret of castle interiors. In one sense there weren’t any, at least permanently. Outside of that there is NO general rule about how castles were decorated, while there ARE general rules for their functional architecture. Any sort of personal decoration was temporary and went with the person, as you figured out. My only big complaint is these are not brocades, which is a kind of fabric, they are Tapestries. Brocade didn’t really exist, except as a rare trade good, in Medieval Europe. A good place to start on what they were might be the Google book “Medieval Tapestries in The Metropolitan Museum of Art”. It has sources and further reading. Just put the title in a google search and it will pop up. I go into more detail below. This is all well documented history you have rediscovered. The entire point of castle decorations was that they were portable – labor was cheap so no one cared about easy. Until well past the Tudor period there were large processions of entire castle interiors crawling through Europe. As for the decoration of Castles, I think you’re wrong there too. Castles weren’t decorated extensively. Decorations, as you figured out, not only could, but exclusively did, go with the people. English Heritage UK gives an example: “There was great excitement (and a rapid clean-up) in 1296 when Countess Joan de Valence, arrived at Goodrich Castle with a long procession of carts and waggons, over 50 horses and 194 followers.” She traveled between 4 different castles carrying almost of of the Tapestries with her along with all of the furniture.
FIRST: living in on other side of 60s from equator, i say for sure, that this type of decorating helps with insulation A LOT. Even if it is just one layer of cloth. That is common type in stone houses and even in relatively close past (70s-80s) in USSR people used rugs to cover walls in panel buildings to help them be warmer (and helped with sound isolation aswell, as panel buildings let you hear people from 2 stores up or down, not to mention next room), cause said panel building were designed originally for much warmer climate (france, to be precise). I dunno how hanging cloth on lower side of wall would affect acoustics, but my speculation would be, that it would lower disctance travaled by sound of just noral speech, or may make it irrecognisable on some distance, but would actually amplify sound and enrich it during singing or string insruments playing. SECOND, and that is more of speculation, mind you, but there are some documented instances from history, that could support this speculation: This type of decoration could serve as marking of “house” person beliongs to, or his personal colors. Could be really useful, when noble travels and housed in some castle as a guest, aswell as extra helpful during some big events. i would not be surprised, if it turns out to be practice so common, that most of guest room had hooks for those decoration by default. COuld be interesting to dive deeper into it
I wonder if you noticed any trends in location or ethnic groups (or even within dynasties) in terms of dressed stone, whitewashing, brocades, painting, wood paneling, etc? I could imagine either wanting to gain notice by setting oneself apart or alternatively trying to show that you have the taste and wealth to keep up with your rivals.
I really like the idea of using fabric to decorate the walls! You can swap it out whenever you want as long as you have the fabric. You could have seasonal or festive themes. It would muffle sound, not as good as carpet but in a similar way. Its insulating. AND it helps with cleaning dust as new fabric would help grab passing dust from the air, and when it’s changed it can be cleaned or (most probably) just beaten out again outside.
Thanks! Another thing to consider is that we have very very few pictorial sources for castle interiors for most of the medieval period. Most the interiors that we can see that show any amount of detail, are from the 15th century, at the very tail end of the medieval period. Even illuminations showing 14th century interiors are often done retrospectively in the 15th century. Prior to the mid 14th century the images we do have are highly stylized and are open to much interpretation. The most famous painted room in England would have been the hall known in it’s day as The Painted Chamber in Westminster. However that was destroyed so we have all we have to go on are descriptions of the room from that period.
In addition to insulation against cold, the hanging brocades also prevent ecoing, which may or may not be rather nasty. Even today, wall curtains are often used for acustic purposes that way. But I’d be inclined to think the heat insulation was more important, since I don’t recall much clothing on the walls in e.g. the Mediterranean castles, where cold winters are not common. In fact, I could imagine (though only imagine) someone preferring the eco as it underlines the great size of the room (as a sign of wealth and power), in which case the wood panels would be a better insulation method since they don’t muffle the eco so much. But this is just a thought without much backing.
I’m surprised the advantage of cleaning these brocades didn’t come up. Someone spills on a fancy mural on your giant stone wall, you might need to send out for a painter to restore it, someone spills on a brocade, just take it out with the rest of the laundry and put up a spare in the meantime. And for general upkeep these brocades could just be beaten to get the dust out like you would beat a rug if they weren’t particularly dirty. Lastly, a King could carry his official royal coat of arms brocades with him as he traveled his kingdom, basically telling everyone, “the King is in residence.” I don’t know if this was done, but it would be much easier than carrying painting for an itinerant royal, his family, or just a very wealthy lord.
I think the brocade would be more common than either stone or whitewash it artwork as that also affords the artist to imagine something there in any other castle. I also am not surprised this was a common practice bc in my house I have nearly floor to ceiling windows and the best way to create privacy and an great sense of atmosphere is to block the bottom first since you still have sun or moonlight.
I’m Drawing and Making a Complete Castle based on Rochester Castle in Kent in England 🏴! In 1/64 Scale = 28mm Figures! In Extreme detail of each floor! Rochester Castle is classified as a Royal Castle and as such in Royal Castles they had Lime wash mixed with Animal Fat! This made the Castle not only white but waterproof as well! I’m Australian 😊🇦🇺 Regards Glenn