Saturday, July 24, 2010

Medieval History In The Making

The year? 1241. The site is the Chateau de Guedelon, which is under construction in the department of Yvonne, France.
The picture is a computer simulation of the finished structure. It was begun 11 years ago and will not be finished until the present time year, 2024, or in the daing of the reality of the world of the Chateau, 1255 ad.
The Chateau has been constructed with volunteer labor, using medieval methods. I have been watching updates of the construction for a few years now, but if you are planning a trip to France, this is a place whrer you can truly leave the 21st century and exist in a time before the Black Plague, When the king was Louis XI and it was a relatively prosperous period.....More here from the Independant.

2 comments:

Laci the Chinese Crested said...

I've been wanting to buy, or build, a castle for a while. I was looking into buying and fixing up Baltersan in Scotland (this project would set me back about £4mil--of course, there would be matching grants to do this, but...).

The person who owns Baltersan mentioned the Guedelon project to me since we were on the same page about having Baltersan be something along the similar lines.

The more realistic alternative is to create a Scottish Castle in a similar manner to this. Of course, that would probably mean the castle would be built somewhere such as the Adirondacks rather than Scotland. Also, it would be a more realistic castle than something such as Bannerman or Singer Castles (both in NY).

microdot said...

I have a few skills that might be useful in such a project. Another plus is that I really have a sort of long term medieval imagination and out look.
Not to mention the brawn, babe....
If you need skilled labourers, serfs and slaves, look me up.