Castle Expert's top ten MEDIEVAL CASTLES

[Music] the shadow vest [Music] greetings I'm shad and I'm a massive Castle Enthusiast having made many videos on the topic from the names of the parts of a castle what are the types of Castle to more specific videos like what are matriculations and why do some Castle Towers have different angles to their roof lines but I've never made a video going through what I feel are the top 10 castles that I have come across in all my research so let's get into it the first castle is coff castle that's absolutely one of my favorite because it's one of the best examples of a multi-wared castle so a multi-war castle is a castle that has multiple Wards or Baileys so the ward or bayley is the section of Castle that is enclosed by the castle wall it can sometimes be connected to the keep or enclose they keep entirely and a multi-war castle is one that has multiple Wards or Baileys that you need to travel through to get to the primary fortified section of the castle or primary fortified residence to keep kwarf Castle in and on its later and final Renovations had four Wards or bay leaves you needed to travel through four to get to the primary keep it has a beautiful location situated on a very high prominent Hill which nullifies the effectiveness of many Siege weapons it is a basic Square keep but it is also buttressed and the buttresses add additional stability but also visual Flair and there are kind of smaller attachments to the primary Square keep giving more room and also visual style I also love that it has more prominent Windows On Us Upper stories showing that you can have larger windows in Castle design so long as they are high enough up making it more difficult for any enemies to get access to or if the windows are facing the internal sections of a ward or Bailey that means that they're also protected enough to Warrant or Justify them being present quaff Castle is such a beautiful castle and I wish I could have seen it in its Heyday it was truly an impressive Beast of a castle although the second castle on this list might give it a run for its money and that is built by Richard the lionheart to maintain control over his Holdings in Normandy Chateau guyada such a unique design not only does its primary keep have some of the largest matriculations on any Castle I have seen and you know how much I love matriculations it actually falls into multiple definitions due to its impressive and unique design it is not only a linked Castle meaning that its primary keep is actually linked to the outer wall it is also a concentric castle having an outer wall entirely encircling an inner wall which forms a Bailey around another Bailey it is also a multi-war castle meaning it has multiple Wards and Baileys as well this Castle is amazing and also a bit insane in its design not only do you have to go through multiple Wards or Bailey's to get to the primary inner section that being three the First Ward or Bailey could be considered a separate Castle entirely because it's fully separated from the rest of the castle and you need to access the rest of Castle via a bridge this first Bailey can actually be classified as a towerwood castle it keeps an internal structures being formed by towers that are connected via a wall but this first Bailey isn't a castle on its own it is a primary access point to the larger one making it an additional Ward or Bailey to the overall Castle design Chateau goyard really is one of the most unique and impressive Castle designs I've ever seen next is the cracked Chevalier the most epic Crusader Castle it is truly immense one of the largest castles on this list it's technically a concentric castle meaning a castle within a castle where it has a wall entirely encircling a inner wall and the inner walls or castle of the cracker Chevrolet is large enough this thing is massive it's also very distinctive of Crusader castles which were all built more flat and squats to the type of castles that you find in Europe primarily due to the fact that wood was a resource that was much harder to find to have additional levels in their towers and keeps meant that they had to have fully vaulted ceilings to have additional floors going up which is a difficult process it results in a very sturdy Castle but it takes a lot of time to build these types of structures and so Crusader castles usually had two at most levels in their towers and keeps they might have gotten away with a third here and there of course in its Heyday the cracker Chevrolet was riddled with matriculations and battlements the primary access to the castle is via a bridge it's on a very prominent Hill outlooking this area and by the way fortifications were built in this location for a very long time going back they were just added to and renovated over the years resulting in the final state of the cracked Chevalier which was this epic and amazing Crusader Castle next we have hostovitz sorry about the pronunciation I'm not good with the German pronunciation but host of its Castle is amazing it has 14 Gates or gate houses that you need to travel through up this incredible location to each the primary keep what's really unique about hot ostervids is that the keep itself isn't necessarily such a unique castle if you were to take away the walls it would actually look like a type of fortified Manor House the keep doesn't actually have many battlements but it doesn't necessarily need them because it's surrounded by battlements and fortified Towers it would be so difficult to reach the central keep of this Castle also look at the height of this hill it is so defensible and would be insanely difficult to besiege because it would basically be impossible to get Siege engines close enough especially through all the layers of Defense horosovitz really demonstrates in one of the most extreme ways the philosophy behind Castle Defense and that is layering the Defense Force the enemy to go through defensive barrier after defensive barrier it is probably the most warded multi-watered Castle I have ever seen next we have the Chateau de Pierre funds this is probably the most iconic representation of late French style Castle design this style of Castle was one of the more primary Inspirations of the classic fairy tale style castles that we see often depicted in Disney films or indeed just the Disney Castle it wasn't the only primary inspiration Castle Neuschwanstein being another primary inspiration but Neuschwanstein isn't actually a true fortified Castle Pierre Fons most certainly is because don't be fooled by its fairy tale kind of design this is a very dangerous Castle when it comes to defenses you might be thinking it has fewer crenellations but that's only because the first line of crenellations actually has a roofline attached to them see the matriculated battlements on the walls and the towers those squares you see are functionally identical to the crownells on classic crenellations but instead of being exposed they have a roof line which actually leads to a second Battlement line on the towers and walls this Castle literally has double battlements on its walls and Towers but just designed in such a visually amazing and beautiful way Chateau de pierrefons represents almost the Pinnacle of fortified functional Castle design reaching its climax in both its defensive capacity and its visual Grandeur the next Castle I have a lot of trouble pronouncing it is Castle elbow I think but although I have a lot of trouble pronouncing this Castle I have admired it for a very long time and you might be wondering why I'm including it there's not much left in regards to its ruin but when you see what this Castle was like when it stood strong there's actually a lot to love about this Castle first it is vastly more representative of castles of their period these larger imposing castles that I've shown on the list so far are actually more the exception in terms of Castle size then representing the norm they're certainly on the list because of how impressive and incredible they are being so large and fortified but only the richest of the rich usually Kings themselves are able to build such castles for the castles of the more common Lord Castle hello again bad pronunciation as I said is vastly more representative the primary keep usually having enough space inside for a single room may be two but even with how small it is it is still an enclosed Castle meaning the keepers enclosed by a full wall as well as being a multi-war castle on top of it it's also rather unique for having a very distinct fortified tower that is separate to the primary fortified living quarters this being a fortified donjon fortified Tower and a fortified keep this is more commonly found in Germanic style castles yet we have a perfect example in this Welsh Castle I just love it for its Simplicity but also how it is more representative of Castle sizes of the period but yet still unique for its design and its layout next is Chateau de polarons and if you thought my a German pronunciation was bad well here's my French but what I love about Paula rodins is location one of the first and primary things to consider when you're building a castle is location the greatest defensive Advantage you can give a castle is where you put it and just look at polaron's location it is incredible it is epic it would almost be impossible to besiege just by virtue of its location let alone it's having battlements and defensive Towers on top of it I am just in awe of this location but that is also representative of this philosophy it's not the only type of Castle that has such an insane and amazing location like this indeed if you look up The Carter castles many of them have similarly impressive locations like this Paul Laurence is just my favorite among them and it's on the list because of its representation of such an important philosophy in Castle design location next we have Hermitage Castle a semi-ruent castle on the borders of Scotland and one of the reasons why it's on this list is it is such a beautiful example of the unworld castle there's been a misconception that I've worked hard to debunk and it's the idea that a castle has to have a wall around it this is so historically inaccurate not at all there were many Castle throughout history that did not have a wall around them and they were just a single fortified building and Hermitage Castle is a perfect example of this as well as being an example of a type of tower house also instead of just having a kind of single Square footprint it is more diverse and unique in the shape of its footprint giving it a more distinct look it also has a very interesting aspect to it where historically we presume that it had an attached hoarding built around it giving at higher defensive functional ability this would give Defenders a platform to be able to shoot down on anyone that is hugging the line of the wall beneath usually castles of this period would just have stone-built matriculations which would achieve the same purpose but instead it actually has functionally useless but visual types of smaller matriculations that are just there for Aesthetics that are running along the top line of the castle the designers choosing to go with classic hoardings instead of stone matriculations but still liking their visual style of those matriculations and adding in smaller aesthetic ones it's that's just a very interesting element that makes me like the castle even more next is karlstein and oh my goodness I love this Castle located in the Czech Republic it is very representative of the Germanic kind of style of castles that were very prominent within the entire Germanic regions one of the more distinctive features of this style is that its uppermost floor of the towers are actually made out of wood with a very high angled brief but not only High angled it actually has two angles on the roof line why are they built like that well I have a dedicated video explaining but it gives such a unique look that I personally Love In addition to its unique visual Flair look at its size it is incredible imposing impressive it actually has two keeps and of course a defensive fortified wall around it with buildings and Towers attached to that outer wall the medieval Germanic architectural style is often overlooked in a kind of Castle designs in modern media such as fantasy and things like that which I feel is a true shame because I love this design style and Castle karlstein is one of the most impressive and beautiful representations of it and finally last on the list we have bodium castle one of my all-time favorite it is a beautiful representation of a towered castle meaning a castle that is formed by its outer wall all and all buildings and rooms are actually built as sections or attachments to that wall it's basically a castle that is a wall and Towers hence the towered castle but Podium is particularly beautiful when you look at the Silhouettes from the approach of its front entrance it has Variety in its Towers the primary Gatehouse also functions as the most prominent Tower as well meaning that the tower that you would most clearly Define as they keep is also the Gatehouse it is surrounded by such an amazing water-filled moat giving prominence to the castle and making it very distinctive it also represents a bit of a transitional period in castles where they started to focus more on the livability and comfort on Castle but not wanting to throw away or give less emphasis on the importance of its defensive ability as a military structure and so we see a kind of combination between those two philosophies in bodium one of the signs of this is the sheer amount of internal fireplaces it has to try and give greater warm and comfort to as many rooms as possible inside of it I love the variety and creativity with the matriculations of battlements on the primary Gatehouse and as I mentioned this silhouette is one of the most beautiful of any Castle I have seen and there we go these are my top 10 castles and this is actually a very difficult list to make because there are so many castles that I love and are particularly unique so if you like this video perhaps I'll be able to make another one for you thank you very much for watching I hope you've enjoyed and of course I hope to see you here on the next video on shadowversity until that time [Music] foreign [Music]

Channel: Shadiversity

Views: 372,937

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Id: mNcMtZxpSSI

Length: 15min 1sec (901 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 03 2023