Castles

The Mont Saint-Michel is a small, rocky tidal island in France located in a large bay at the mouth of the Couesnon.
The granite massif of Mont Saint-Michel is crowned with a medieval abbey. It's a table moutain; a remaining of a prehistoric petrified treetop.
Since 1898, the spire of the abbey church has a statue of Saint Michael that protrudes a hundred and seventy meters above the bay. The island is located about 1 kilometer from the coast near the town of Avranches in Normandy . It was originally a tidal island : it was accessible by land at low tidebut at high tide it was surrounded by water. Today a narrow bridge, with shuttle service, runs to the island. Mont Saint-Michel, with its pedestrian streets, is only accessible to pedestrians.

The first text about an abbey is the 9th-century Latin text Revelatio ecclesiae sancti Michaelis in monte Tumba written by a chanoine living at Mont Saint Michel or at the Cathédrale Saint-André d'Avranches. This text was written at a time of power struggle between Brittany and the County of Normandy against Francia as well as during canon law reforms by Roman emperors.

When Christianity expanded to the area, around the 4th century, Mont Tombe, the original name of Mont Saint Michel, was part of the Diocese of Avranches. By the middle of the 6th century, Christianity had a stronger presence in the bay. By this time, Mont Tombe was populated by religious devotees, hermits (probably some Celtic monks) supplied by the curé of Astériac, (Asterix) who took care of the site and led a contemplative life around some oratories. The hermits Saint Pair and Saint Seubilion dedicated one of the oratories to Saint Étienne, midway through the mont and one to Saint Symphorien, at the foot of the rock.

Saint Aubert
In 710, Mont Tombe was renamed Mont Saint Michel au péril de la Mer ("Mount Saint Michael at the peril of the sea) after erecting an oratory to Saint Michael by bishop Saint Aubert of Avranches in 708. According to the legend, Aubert received, during his sleep, three times the order from Saint Michael to erect an oratory on the Mont Tombe. The archangel was reputed to have left his finger mark on Aubert's skull. This skull is displayed at the Saint-Gervais d'Avranches basilica with such a scar on it.

This sanctuary should be, according to the archangel, a replica of the Gargano in Italy (from the 5th century). Aubert had a local religious artifact removed and instead a circular sanctuary built, made of dry stones. Around 708, Aubert sent two monks to get some artifacts from the Italian sanctuary Gargano (a rock with his foot print and a piece of tissue from the altar). During this mission, the March 709 tsunami is supposed to have destroyed the Scissy forest and turned the Mont into an island. On October 16 709, the bishop dedicated the church and put twelve chanoine there. The Mont-Saint-Michel was born.

The remains of the oratory were found in the chapel Notre-Dame-Sous-Terre. This sanctuary contained the tomb of Aubert and most likely the artifacts brought from Gargano. The chapel Notre-Dame-Sous-Terre is today under the nave of the abbey-church.

The first buildings became too small and under the Western Roman Empire multiple buildings were added. Charlemagne chose saint Michel as a protector of his empire during the 9th century and tried to have the place renamed Mont-Saint-Michel, but during the Middle Ages it was usually called Saint-Michel-aux-Deux-Tombes (Saint Michel with two tombs) (Mons Sancti Michaelis in periculo maris, in reference to Tombelaine).

History of the abbey
Church of Saint Michel during 9th and 10th centuries
The Mont-Saint-Michel monks, during the first century of their institution, venerated the archangel Michael. The Mont became a place of prayer and study, but the stability period, known as the Neustria, during the reign of Charlemagne ended when he died. As the rest of Gaule was fighting invasions, religion and science found some welcoming in the diocese of Avranches and at the Mont-Saint-Michel.

At first, pilgrims kept coming to the Mont. After the Vikings captured the Mont in 847, the monks departed. But, as an island, it offered some protection for the local population and thus never stayed empty.

After the signature of the treaty of Saint-Clair-sur-Epte, Rollo (Gange-Hrólfr "Rollo" Ragnvaldsson de Normandie) started repairing the damages inflicted to the religious buildings. He generously financed the Mont and called back the monks displaced by the war, returning the Mont to its previous condition.

The wealth and support that the Mont suddenly obtained from Rollo started to fundamentally affect its inhabitants, taking them away from their solitary, religious life. After William I of Normandy took over his father's title as Duke of Normandy in 927, he expanded his support toward monasteries until his assassination in 932; but his wealth, from which they benefited, further exacerbated their mundane life style. Because of their generous contributions to the Mont, the Dukes of Brittany Conan 1st, who died in 992, and Geoffrey 1st, who died in 1008, were buried in the Mont as benefactors.

Το Κάστρο Κιμώλου (Χωριό), αποτελεί έναν από τους σπουδαιότερους, αλλά και πιο παραμελημένους οχυρωμένους οικισμούς των Κυκλάδων. Η παρούσα εργασία περιλαμβάνει πληροφορίες για την ίδρυση και τη μορφή του Κάστρου. Στην εργασία αυτή γίνεται επίσης μια προσπάθεια σύγκρισης του Κάστρου Κιμώλου με άλλες οχυρώσεις, καθώς και με διάφορα άλλα αρχιτεκτονικά σύνολα. Επιπλέον, αναφέρονται  οι επεμβάσεις και οι προσπάθειες ανάδειξης που έχουν γίνει μέχρι στιγμής στο μνημείο, αναδεικνύονται οι κύριες αξίες του και γίνεται μια πρόταση  ανάδειξης και διαχείρισης του. Η πρόταση περιλαμβάνει την αποκατάσταση μιας οικίας του Κάστρου, καθώς και τη δημιουργία διαδρομών. Αναλύονται θέματα, όπως αυτό του προϋπολογισμού του προτεινόμενου αρχαιολογικού έργου, καθώς και του χρόνου που απαιτείται για να έρθει εις πέρας. Αναφέρονται οι παράγοντες που θα ασχοληθούν με αυτό, οι πιθανοί κίνδυνοι που ίσως προκύψουν  κατά τη διεξαγωγή του και οι τρόποι αντιμετώπισής τους.

Résumé
Les fouilles menées sur des résidences élitaires et des fortifications du haut Moyen Âge se sont multipliées depuis quelques
décennies en France comme en Belgique. Elles ont mis en lumière une grande variété typologique, des choix architecturaux
simples mais souvent efficaces et des influences diverses. Malgré ces avancées, une vision très négative de la fortification du
haut Moyen Âge semble toujours prévaloir et les données réunies sur les résidences aristocratiques précoces n'ont pas toujours
été mises en oeuvre pour évaluer la genèse du château des Xe -XIe s.
Ce bilan bibliographique limité aux cinquante dernières années aborde successivement l'évolution des méthodes d'approche, la
défense des chefs-lieux de cités et des castra, l'état de la poliorcétique, quelques grands types de résidences élitaires et l'intérêt
d'étudier la culture matérielle pour mieux cerner les fonctions et la hiérarchie de ces sites.

Abstract
For some decades, excavations on elitarian residences and fortifications from the early Middle Ages have multiplied in France as
well as in Belgium. They highlighted a great typological variety, simple but often effective architectural choices, and various
influences. Despite this step forward, there still exists a very negative vision of early Middle Age defence works, and the data
collected on early aristocratic dwellings has seldom been used to assess the genesis of the castle in the l0th and 11th centuries.
This bibliographical assessment limited to the previous fifty years successively tackles the evolution of the methodological
approaches, the defense of chief towns and castra, the art of siege, some major types of elitarian residences, and the need for a
study of material culture in order to better comprehend the functions and hierarchy of these sites.

The foundation dates of three castles in Maelienydd, traditionally built by the Mortimers.  However the contemporary evidence suggests that Prince Llywelyn ab Iorwerth (d.1240) was far more likely the builder of Cefnllys and Knucklas castles.
The evidence for the foundation of Timboeth by Roger Mortimer in late 1267 and Dolforwyn by Dafydd ap Llywelyn (d.1246) is also put forward.

Eine große Zahl herausragender Denkmäler der mittelalterlichen Baukunst befindet sich auf dem Gebiet des heutigen Polen. Zwischen Oder und Weichsel liegen sowohl Kernlandschaften Polens als auch Territorien, die vormals dem deutschen Kulturraum angehörten. Es zeigen sich im gesamten Raum vielfältige und einander durchdringende Phänomene der deutsch-polnischen Kulturbeziehungen. Kunsthistoriker aus Deutschland und Polen haben in einem gemeinsamen Projekt, angesiedelt am kunsthistorischen Institut der Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz (Prof. Matthias Müller), erstmals in deutscher Sprache eine umfassende Gesamtdarstellung der mittelalterlichen Architektur in den historischen Landschaften von Großpolen, Kleinpolen, Masowien, Schlesien, Hinterpommern/Neumark sowie des Deutschordenslands Preußen verfasst. Die Ergebnisse dieser Arbeit liegen nun, unter der Herausgeberschaft von Prof. Dethard von Winterfeld (Mainz) und Prof. Christofer Herrmann (Danzig), in einer zweibändigen und reich bebilderten Publikation vor. Das Buch richtet sich an ein deutschsprachiges Publikum, dem heute die großartigen Denkmäler östlich der Oder – in denen sich deutsche und polnische Geschichte widerspiegelt – kaum mehr bekannt sind. Für die Wissenschaft wird zugleich eine breite Materialgrundlage für weiterführende Studien geschaffen.

Studie byla publikována roku 2011 v knize ,,Slánské rozhovory 2010 : Česká husitská reformace historie, osobnosti, teologie, umění" / The study was published in 2011 in books ,,Slánské rozhovory 2010: The Czech Hussite Reformation of History, Personalities, Theology, Art."

Castalla Castle (Alicante, Spain), built between the 11 th and 16 th centuries, is one of the most outstanding fortifications in the province of Alicante, as part of al-Andalus, first, and the Kingdom of Valencia, after. The present work aims to deepen the knowledge of its landscape on a medium scale for a large part of the Middle Ages. In this way, analysing some material (archaeological) and cultural (written) sources, it has been possible to better draw the Castalla Castle landscape in the Foia de Castalla district, a geographic territory located in the north of the province of Alicante, between the 11 th and 15 th centuries and during two different chronocultural periods: Andalusian (11 th century-1244) and Christian (1244-1499).

Eugene Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc
Historia de una forta leza
La Ergástula, Madrid, 2014
270 páginas; 25 euros

Ediciones La Ergástula publica la primera
traducción al castellano del 1 ibro
Histoired'unefortresse, aparecido originalmente
en París en 1874, y que es,
en rigor, una original novela histórica
con fines didácticos. En ella, Violletle-
Duc aprovecha su erudición para
componer un magistral viaje a lo largo
de la imaginaria historia de una también
imaginaria población fortificada

Until now unpublished book review on Tim de Ridder & Epko Bult (red.) 2014. 'Graven in Holland. De hoven van de Hollandse graven tot
het einde van de 13 e eeuw in vergelijkend perspectief '. In: Westerheem, het tijdschrift voor de Nederlandse archeologie, Special nr. 3, september 2014. ISSN 016 6 4301.

In this article was made historic, cultural and touristical descriptive analysis of little-known Rakovets castle, which is located in Ivano-Frankivsk region, on the base of using of four groups of characteristics: natural and geographical (morphological features of the monument’s construction, hydrological characteristics of the territory,  location near from objects of the natural reserve fund, presence in the castle complex handmade recreational forests, landscaped parks, gardens and landscaped gardens, aggregate indicators of the natural and geographical location), historical and cultural (degree of the physical preservation, level of the historical significance, degree of the cultural value, indicator of the architectural and stylistic value, availability of saved elements of historic defense systems), infrastructural (transport accessibility, availability of accommodation facilities, food establishments, museum institutions, specialized souvenir shops and stalls), informational (integration to the tourist routes, organization of tourist promotional campaigns, exhibitions and fairs, availability of informational and advertising data, rank of the coverage in scientific tourism profiles and degree of the saturation of the Internet with tourist information). It was identified main positive and negative points of the potential adaptation of monument for tourism and recreation.
Keywords: castle, Rakovets castle, monument, castle complex, fortification.

Dunnottar Castle and church are set upon a rocky headland on the NE coast of Aberdeenshire, about 2 miles S of Stonehaven. It has been thought that the medieval castle has disappeared, while the surviving buildings are largely of the 14 th to 17 th C. However a close inspection of the ruins that cover an area of 3½ acres suggest reality could be very different.
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De  las  casas-torre  defensivas  (s. XIV-XV)  a  los  primeros  palacios  gótico-renacentistas  de  principios  del  XVI, las Residencias Señoriales fueron evolucionando durante el periodo bajomedieval,  adaptándose  a  las  necesidades  de  cada  momento. La casa-torre de Nograro es un buen ejemplo de esta evolución hacia un nuevo modelo más residencial. Junto a la torre, de reducidas dimensiones en planta, se construyó un palacio anexo, buscando cierto confort. Tanto la torre como el palacio fueron construidas a finales del siglo XIV por Diego López de Salazar, sobre las ruinas de una construcción anterior.
Este  trabajo  ha  tenido  como  objetivo  analizar  el sistema  constructivo de una Residencia Señorial Bajomedieval defensiva. La  labor  desarrollada  se  ha  llevado  a  cabo  en  tres  apartados  complementarios:  la  labor  de  campo,  la  investigación documental y el análisis histórico-constructivo del edificio.
Se ha podido determinar el sistema constructivo original de la torre y, parcialmente, el del palacio.  Los muros están realizados en mampostería bien trabajada, sobre todo en el Palacio, con sillares en vanos y esquinales. El material empleado en estos paramentos es heterogéneo, aunque destaca el uso caliza en la parte baja de la torre y en el interior de la misma, posiblemente elementos reaprovechados de la construcción anterior. Estos muros tienen un rebaje o retallo en su interior a la altura del primer piso, donde se apoyan directamente los solivos. Los pisos superiores, en cambio, disponen de unas vigas centrales de gran escuadría que van empotradas directamente en los muros, ya que no existe rebaje alguno del muro del el primer al último piso. Es muy probable que la cubierta se rematase mediante una cubierta a cuatro aguas, que volaba hasta la línea de los matacanes.
La labor realizada se inscribe dentro de una tesis doctoral que  pretende estudiar la evolución del sistema constructivo de las Residencias Señoriales Bajomedievales en el País Vasco.

The Mamluk siege of Montfort castle provides a rare opportunity to examine one of the most celebrated but also misrepresented technologies of the Middle Ages: mechanical artillery. The castle was inhabited for only about forty-five years before it was taken and then destroyed by the Mamluks, creating a time capsule for archaeologists to peer into life in a mid-thirteenth-century stronghold and carefully examine evidence of the siege that ultimately led to its abandonment. Among the finds are a number of artillery projectiles that date to the final siege of the castle. An investigation of the surrounding topography has revealed that there are only a couple of places from which these stones could have been thrown. This rare combination of clearly datable projectiles and a topographical environment that provides a good indication of range allows for a unique quantitative assessment of the development of trebuchet technology.

This paper presents the results of two different campaigns of archaeological excavations (August 2015 and August 2016) in the medieval castle of Castel Pizigolo (Toano, RE) conducted by Alma Mater Studiorum, University of Bologna, Department of History and Cultures. This research brought to light a tower, a church and a building, and helped us to define and understand the topography of the settlement. Moreover, the archaeological excavations have highlighted the chronology of the castle, from XII to XV century, with former phases of IX-X century

""This article explores the royal castle at Cashel, Co. Tipperary: the history of the castle and the constables who worked there. The article begins with a discussion on the relationship between the English government in London and Dublin with the Archbishop of Cashel in the southern Ireland province of Munster. This relationship had many highs and lows.

The second part of the article explores the castle built by the Dublin administration. Proposals to build a castle began before April 1217 but objections and counter-objections from both sides stopped any stone work until about 1330. The type and size of castle built is unknown as the site of the castle has not yet being found.

Without this structural data the article moves to part three where a brief biographical account is given on the eight people who served as constable of the castle between 1339 and 1365. After 1365 the castle disappears from the financial records of the Dublin administration which records are the primary source for the existence of the castle.

No pictures or maps are included in the article because we have to find the castle first. A happy job for some budding archaeologist!

As the article is for a future journal it would not be right to upload the article to this site until after the journal has been published. I could send a email attachment to individuals but as I do not yet know the page numbers of the article in the journal such attachment would be difficult to use as a reference. Thanks."

The Archaeological Site of Veliki Zdenci – Crni Lug, called also "Gradina" (which in Croatian means the place or the ruins of a fort/castle), is located between the southern part of the village of Veliki Zdenci and the Ilova River. The fort is located in the forest called Crni Lug (Black Hirst), south of the hillside where the cemetery is located. This lowland fortification is actually shaped from the southern slope of that hill. The central elevation of the circular ground is about 30 m in diameter and overhangs the surrounding terrain by about 3.5 m. It is surrounded by the three embankments and ditches on the south side, while on the north an elevated “semi-moon-shaped” plateau is situated. The earthen ramparts are preserved at a height of 2.5 to 1.5 m. The width of the defensive ditches is 4-5 m. The system of ditches and ramparts makes the defensive zone of the central elevation from its southern side, while in the north mentioned elevated plate of irregular shape is situated.
In the professional literature, this position is linked to the Zdench castle, which is first mentioned in historical sources in 1272. In Zdenci, in 1474 the Croatian Parliament was held, where important decisions were made about the nobility's obligation to participate in the defense of the country from the Ottomans.
An archaeological trench was opened on the southern part of the central plateau of the fortification. The excavation provided evidences on the ways of building the rampart in the time of the first fortress in the 13th century, and later on the ways of remodelling the small fortification to a larger one in the 15th century. Numerous finds have been found. Finds of luxury tableware from the 15th century suggest that the owner of the fort was a person who kept close watch on the fashion trends of the Central European contemporary nobility.

The castle of Mur is part of the fortification process of the border lands between
al-Andalus and the Catalan counties. This process was made in parallel to the
repopulation effort produced during the 9th-11th centuries in this zone of
Catalonia. Therefore this castle would work not only as a political element to
structure the territory, but also as a defensive point of the population.

The grand houses and gardens of William of Orange (1650–1702) and his courtiers in Britain and the Netherlands are strongly influenced by the French style, itself associated with Louis XIV, who was actually William's arch-rival. This paper explores that paradox by probing ideas of power and friendship in 17th-century court culture.

Slovenian Castles and Mansions and the Year 1945. The Destiny of Their Architecture and Furnishings after the »Defining Moment«

The article discusses destiny of Slovenian castles and mansions after 1945, when due to the change of the political system the attitude of politics and public towards the castles and mansions changed radically. The result was a systematic detriment and neglecting of the castles and mansions, an important factor for their bad condition was also the new, unsuitable use of the buildings. In addition to the attempts of some art historians (especially France Stele) to protect at least some of the castles and mansions, the article also presents the destiny of the furnishings of the castes and mansions (artworks, furniture, books), especially the work of Federal Collecting Centre, which was established with the purpose of collecting and transfer of cultural goods from the confiscated buildings.

In the article was analyzed theoretical aspects of problems of the tourism valuation of castle constructions. It was developed the special method for the tourism ranking of castles, which includes scientific methods on empirical and theoretical levels. The implementation of the tourism valuation of castle complexes should have next methodological principles - objectivity, historicism, comprehensiveness, integrity and complexity. Criteria of the tourism valuation of the tourist potential of castle complexes should be built on an integrated approach that includes four groups of indicators: the natural and geographical location (morphological features of the monument’s construction, hydrological characteristics of the territory, the location near from objects of the natural reserve fund, the presence in the castle complex handmade recreational forests, landscaped parks, gardens and landscaped gardens, aggregate indicators of the natural and geographical location of the monument), historical and cultural features (the degree of the physical preservation, the level of the historical significance, the degree of the cultural value, the indicator of the architectural and stylistic value, the availability of saved elements of the historic defense systems), the infrastructure (the transport accessibility, the availability of accommodation facilities, food establishments, museum institutions, specialized souvenir shops and stalls) and advertising criteria (the integration in tourist routes, the organization of tourist promotional campaigns, exhibitions and fairs, the availability of informational and advertising data, the rank of the coverage in scientific tourism profiles and the degree of the saturation of the Internet with tourist information).
Keywords: tourism valuation, castle complex, method, principle, criterion.

De Veluwezoom, die strekt van Wageningen tot Spankeren (gemeente Rheden), wordt geken­merkt door zijn vele landgoederen en buitenplaat­sen. Langs de flank van de Veluwse stuwwal, op de overgang naar de rivieren de Rijn en de IJssel, is sinds de zeventiende eeuw een unieke landgoede­renzone ontstaan met grote reliëfrijke landschaps­parken, formeel aangelegde lanenstelsels, weidse panorama’s, gegraven sprengenbeken en bijzondere waterwerken als cascades en fonteinen. Deze land­goederenzone wordt aangeduid als Gelders Arcadië
en omvat de gemeenten Wageningen, Renkum,  Arnhem, Rozendaal en Rheden.  Dit boek is bedoeld als inspiratie en stimulans voor ruimtelijke ontwikkelingsmogelijkheden op de historische landgoederen en buitenplaatsen en voor de landschappelijke versterking van de grensoverschrijdende landgoederenzone.

Houska Castle is an early Gothic castle, 47 kilometres north of Prague, in the Czech Republic. It is one of the best preserved castles of the period. Some notable features of the castle include a predominantly Gothic chapel, green chamber with late-Gothic paintings, and a knight's drawing room.

Houska Castle, and most specifically the chapel, was constructed over a large hole in the ground that is allegedly a "gateway to Hell", which was allegedly so deep no one could see the bottom of it.[6] Animal-human hybrids were reported to have crawled out of it, and dark-winged, otherworldly creatures flew in its vicinity. Legend has it that when construction began in the castle, all of the prisoners that were sentenced to death were offered a pardon if they consented to be lowered by rope into the hole, and report back on what they saw. When the first person was lowered, he began screaming after a few seconds, and when pulled back to the surface he looked as if he had aged 30 years. He had grown wrinkles and his hair had turned white.

According to the Prague Tourism web site, the castle is reputed to have various types of ghosts, "a bullfrog/human creature, a headless horse, and an old woman" as well as the remains of "demonic beasts who escaped the pit".

The castle was not built as a residence or as a protective sanctuary, but was instead built because the hole was thought to be a gateway to hell. Thus, by constructing the Gothic building's defensive walls facing inward, they were able to keep the demons trapped in the lower level's thickest walls closest to the hole of the castle.

Folklore considers this castle to cover one of the gateways to Hell, built to prevent demons (trapped in lower levels) from reaching the rest of the world