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Building a Medieval Castle From Scratch

Since 1997, using only Middle Ages tools & technology, a group has been building a medieval castle in a French forest.

In the heart of Guédelon forest, in an abandoned quarry, a team of master-builders is building a 13th-century castle from scratch. Quarrymen, stonemasons, carpenter-joiners, woodcutters, blacksmiths, tilers, carters and rope makers…are working together to revive heritage craft skills and to shed light on the world of medieval construction.

Here’s a quick, 2-minute video on the effort:

And here’s a longer look:

And from the Absolute History channel, a five-part series on how medieval castles are built, using Guédelon as an example; here’s the first video in the series:

If you find yourself in Burgundy, you can visit the castle — the construction is funded in part by visitors’ fees.

Comments  3

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Ben Kelley Edited

Edit: this is the same as the series posted above.

There's a whole BBC series from 2014 about Guédelon, too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Secrets_of_the_Castle

Would love to visit sometime.

Sylla McClellan

I’ve been and it’s worth it! Fun for the whole family too.

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