I like your approach of defining castles according to their architecture. I am from Germany, where we have the "Deutsche Burgenvereinigung" (German Castles Organization) which is the foremost authority on castles and research related to castles in Germany. I am unsure if the English speaking world has any similar organizations. The "Burgenvereinigung " has published a series of books in 1999 which collects all the existing knowledge about castles in central Europe to that date. The books include a list of classifications of castles, but rather than taking a primarily architectural approach, they went with topography first. This is the usual approach of classifying castles in Germany. They make two primary distinctions: - "Höhenburgen" (High Castles), which are castles located on an elevation and - "Niederungsburgen" (Low Castles) which are castles located on one elevation with the ground. Within these categories are several subcategories, for example: - "Gipfelburgen" (Peak Castles), a type of Höhenburg located on the peak of a mountain or hill (e.g. Marksburg), - "Spornburgen" (Spur Castles), a type of Höhenburg located on a spur of a mountain (e.g. Kriebstein Castle) - "Wasserburgen (Water Castles), a type of Niederungsburg surrounded by a body of water, usually an all sides (e.g. Bodiam Castle) I feel like these subcategories are the three most common ones, but that is just my personal judgement. There are, of course, other approaches to classifying castles, namely by function and architectural design. Functional types include, but are not limited to: - Pfalzen (Palatinates), which is a residence of the Holy Roman Emperor (e.g. Kaiserpfalz Goslar), usually not that defendable, more like a Schloss, which you mentioned - Ordensburgen (Order Castles), castles built by military orders, primarily the Teutoniic Order (e.g. Marienburg Castle) - Ganerbenburgen (no clear translation here, sorry), which were castles owned by multiple parties, and can often be separated into smaller castles inside the main castle (e.g. Eltz Castle) and more. Architectural types are not that fleshed out, which is why I especially appreciate the effort you put into classifying them. Architectural types include: - Turmburgen (Tower Castles), which are castles usually only consisting of a single tower - Hausburgen (House Castles), which are castles usually only consisting of a single fortified house and variations of these. These are just some of the types of castles I know of. There are obviously many more that I might have missed, but are equally deserving to be on this list. I myself am still standing at the beginning of my quest for knowledge about castles and will probably learn a lot more about certain types of castles in the future. But I still hope I could be of help!
Interestingly, in German castle typology, it is all about the location of a castle. Whether it is on a hill, a ridge, a slope, a plain, etc. And there is always a major emphasis on a building, that Shad rarely, rarely mentions, the well or the cistern, and how much of a burden it is to construct in such a location.
Probably because even an Arabic 11th century slave can understand how difficult it is to erect a cictern, let alone a sewage system on the side of a canyon or Mountain.
I agree, i like his videos but his idea of how to determine the type is more confusing than helpful. It is far better to use the location. I also know beside that there are special types of castle like scottish towers or russian kreml. You have simply a building set which is used for castles, the location determines the rest. Personally, i am interested in any type of fortified buildings!
It is not all about the location. There are also names for different functions (like Trutzburg = counter-castle, Fliehburg = refuge castle or Zollburg = toll castle), construction types (like Motte = motte-and-bailey-castle, Schildmauerburg = type of castle with a shield wall [uncommon in UK or Ireland] or Ringburg = concentric castle) or who built/used it (like Deutschordensburg = castle of the Teutonic Order or Kreuzfahrerburg = crusader castle). German castles can usually be referred to by a number of names, whichever definition you use.
Yes, you are right. I forgot that. I meant when i see a castle surrounded with water i don't think about it as " walled castle or linked castle". It's a Wasserburg for me. Maybe that's the difference between scientific and more "obvious" definitions. BTW, the "polywarded castle" sounds very made up to me. The castle simply had several baileys.
@@sleepyfork5250 Castles don't have dragons. Dragons have castles. Therefore dragons are not a part of castles and are not a feature that determines the type of castle.
In Minecraft, l tend to try and build enclosed castles. But now, I think I’m going to expand my repertoire. Thanks for the inspiration Shad! This has earned you a sub
@@cdxlvi I had like 2 weeks of German with a strong East Texas vernacular and I would say "Wievel costet das fur dieser thinger der?", and most Germans would invariably say "Please speak English", lol.
Video I'd like to see: Castles and tunneling. Dealing with all things tunnels. Both tunneling done dueing sieges in order to break through castle walls or bring them down, and secret tunnels built for the purposes of allowing a secret escape during sieges or to bring in supplies to the castle when it is surrounded.
Sometimes a counter-tunnel was dug when the garrison suspected the besieging party was tunnelling under their walls. Water defenses made tunnelling much gnarlier
Great content. As a german i like your distinction between "Burg" (fortified castle) and "Schloss" (unfortified castle), since i always wondered, why they are the same in english.
we do a similar thing in swedish with fästning (literal translation: fortress) being the fortified castle (my favourite local example is bohus fästning/fortress) and slott generally being the unfortified, there are a few exceptions to the unfortified slott rule, like kalmar slott and läckö slott
As this Texan hears it: Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul English folks don't appear to have the "aah" sound (as in "cat"), and exclusively use the "aw" sound (as in "saw").
I would use the terms “serial” “parallel” and “nested” for arrangements of multiple wards, since the term “poly-warded” gives no indication that concentric castles wouldn’t count as a sub-type under your system. Bailies are thus “nested” if the inner ward is fully enclosed by and detatched from the outer ward; “arranged in series” or “serial” when you must go through one to get to the other, but aren’t nested, and in parallel if there are multiple on the same “level” of penetration into the castle’s defense just to make things more manageable if a section of wall gets breached. You could actually make a simple diagram that uses symbolic operators for these three to fully describe a castle’s overall defensive scheme, since the keep of “enclosed castle” can be thought of the same way as the next bailey inward on a nested arrangement, and a “linked” castle can be thought of the same way as the next bailey inward on a serial arrangement.
Bud then he completely butchers Będzin castle name. I find that for Polish words it's ok to use Google translate just copy-paste said word and hit speaker button it's sort of accurate.
@@WolfKenneth I also dont know why people dont at least do that. I dont expect perfection, but even such a low amount of effort improves the impression that we viewers get a lot.
Predjama castle is pronounced predyama, and it means In-front-of-a-cave castle :) literally built in front of a cave entrance, through which they smuggled food in when under siege. Wish you could do an episode on it, it has a great story. It's my favourite castle in Slovenia.
I was kinda expecting to see the Malbork Castle (Marienburg) here. Especially when you started to talk about the "poly-warded" castles. However, Będzin Castle being featured so prominently as the best-preserved example of a "germanic castle" (and being shown multiple times in the video) might be even better. Unlike Malbork, it was actually built as a Polish castle, part of a defensive system created by Casimir the Great that later became known as Orle Gniazda (Eagles' Nests). Considering that, and that your other examples of this type are the reconstruction of Bohemian (Czech) castles maybe calling it "germanic" isn't the best choice? Something like "Central European" would probably make us West Slavic viewers happier. ;) Although it's fair to assume that this style of the castle was developed specifically in the German lands and then spread to the rest of the region. Great video anyway!
Medieval Czechs were part of Holy Roman Empire and had been under German influence, so it's no wonder that their castle design is similar to German. Poland too was influenced, especially in the 13th century when there was a huge influx of German settlers
In Czech, we have four words for castles. "Hradiště" (an early medieval type of castle with several walls and usually a small "town" within the outer wall), "tvrz" (also an early medieval castle, but small with one wall), "hrad" (medieval castle), and "zámek" (a castle-like unfortified building).
Considered that we have about 1600 castles, forts, and castle like structures... We needed to tell them apart. :-D My favorite Is Cornštejn - not the largest, but definitelly the most complex system I ever saw. Using Shads definitions it would ve polywarded concentric castle. It's incredible - and incredible complex. No matter how far you get, there Is always defenders shooting you from multiple Angeles. The defenses Are a maze. To get to the first elevated (like 6 meters) bastion overseeing the main gate and the ward behind it, you have to go through all the consecutive wards rolled around the castle like a snail Shell... and then cross a 10 meter long wooden bridge that can be broken Down. It's like multiple castles built in one place to enhance each other. And it contains clever engineering solutions like a "slanted" gate - the gate to the inner ward with keep. It's built to be at an angle as to make the use of a battering ram impossible.
I think that "tvrz" is better decribed as fortified residence of lower noble (gentry). They were built during whole middle ages, not only early. But they are usually small. Also "zámek" is better described as unfortified residence of noble, usually built during renaissance or later. They don't always look like castles.
@@lukasprazak7362 Oh yes, for some reason I keep mixing it up with "hradiště". Thanks for correcting me. Edit: I guess my brain automatically goes to hradiště being a small castle.
@@ashwynnnewkirk This is making me play Kingdom Come, yet again. I've just checked some photos and videos of Cornštejn castle and it's just beautiful. What I also loved about it is that landscapes and weather, alongside towns are the closest any game has ever come to my country, Serbia.
This truly is one of the most anticipated videos from Shad. This was teased long ago in another video... I believe it was when he was showing off Honorguard. Love to see it my friend!
I live in Llandudno in North Wales which is about 4 miles from Conwy and get to see that magnificent castle at least once a week. Also visit Caernarfon once every month or two as it's only 28 miles away. Really lucky to live in the vicinity of two amazing castles.
Shad, You are an awesome creator. I wish to thank you for a huge amount of inspiration. I am working on my own fantasy novel and your journey has inspired me to not give up. Thank you and keep up all the awesome work, mate! Edit: Also! I love that you used a castle from my home country! The rectangular castle, "Glimmingehus" is actually located not far from were I grew up. It's a great example of beatuy in simplicity.
You've got me into casltes so much, I'm currently working in the design for "my own" castle, based on one of my D&D characters. Got some pretty cool inspiration for it in this video. Thank you so much for teaching us all about medieval history!
I like the terms you've developed here, Shad, particularly "polywarded castle." (Or would it be poly-ward?) That really nails the concept you're trying to convey. If it's all right with you, I think I might use these terms in my writing, because I think they will be something that readers will be able to grasp rather effectively. I'm presently working on a flintlock fantasy, however, while a lot of fortified structures are star fortresses, like those used in the 18th century, castle-style fortifications are still in use because of the way offensive and defensive magic works. Spells used against oncoming armies are generally line-of-sight, so you need elevation to increase their effective range, thus towers and donjons are still necessary. I'm still working out the details, but I do know that the style of fortifications will be a blending of medieval and 18th century, not strictly one period or the other. There are also plenty of old castles that are still around, too, which is why your videos are so helpful. It's not like these things exist in a vacuum, after all. My protagonist, a Half-Orc woman, is descended from a line of Human aristocrats who still live in a castle, one that's been regularly renovated and updated. (That one is going to be fun to design!)
Unwalled Castle Linked Castle Enclosed Castle Concentric Castle Poly-Ward Castle Composite Castle (using more than one of the above types) Schloss (non-castle, psudo-castle) Sorted and listed, with the addition of the composite castle type. I won't be able to look at my castle calender the same way now. 🙂👍
@@racoonlittle1679 A quick internet search shows a castle built in the 19th century in Bavaria, is that the one you're talking about? I would say by Shad's definitions, it isn't because it was built as a residence and not for defense. At least that's what I see from the wiki article. It is an incredible looking structure however!
"J" in Predjama castle is pronounced more like "y" in yoyo. "Pred" means in front of, and "jama" means cave. It is called so, because it was build at the entrance to a cabe system, which they used for bringing in food during a siege.
Well...... Slovene *is* a difficult language x) he did a bit better pronouncing it the second time, but English-speaking people definitely have a hard time with the hard J and the hard G (the soft one for both being jail/gaol, the hard one... a Y instead of J, and e.g. 'glass' for G). It *is* a known sound in the language, but people tend to just go with the soft version..
As a German speaker, I really like that you could pick up on the difference between, "Burg" and "Schloss". Burg typically refers to a castle made for actual defense. While Schloss is more so a Palace, or Chateau. Exactly a like Schloss Neuschwanstein. Great vid like always!
Awesome video! So helpful in designing my own castles (well actually castle-turned-palace but I need the castle first in order to turn it into a palace). Thank you so much! Clarification: polygamy is multiple spouses, typically taking the form of polygyny (multiple wives) but more rarely taking the form of polyandry (multiple husbands).
Hey Shad, Castle Archaeologist here, great video as always! Glad to see castles represented from my homeland, (Spøtrup Castle and Glimmingehus) I just want to throw in a subtype of the "Tower-House", namely the Gotland Kastal (Plural kastaler) these are freestanding stone towers from the early medieval period, found on Gotland. They were presumably erected by local chieftains to serve as refuges for the local community. They are all multistoryed towers with a single room per level (At least those still preserved are) and are always built very close to a church. It is unknown if they also served as habitation. Also Gaillard is pronounced Ga-yarr :)
This video came in the totally right moment, we are currently writing our new LARP campaign. And this time we want to sorta replaicate true castle layouts for our map. So this vid is REALLY handy!
I was just at Nizwa Fort in the Sultinate of Oman. You will be happy to know there were murder holes and trap doors at each reinforced door into the main fort.
It's obvious that there is so much work and research that went into this video, and you present them in such a "followable" manner. Shad you are truly a gift to youtube medieval community..
8:26 Disconnected living quaters in ''germanic castles'' are very rare because you'd need a lot of space to fit long horizontal building (palas/palace) inside the wall. It was better to integrate it with the outer wall to save money and have a bigger courtyard. Btw your pronunciation of ''Będzin'' was kind of funny but pretty accurate.
Another example of a once properly fortified castle turned into a ceremonial one is the castle of Buda, Hungary. In Hungarian, we use 'castle' the same confusing and conflating (is this a word?) way, except we tend to use 'palace' too, for the non-military purpose 'castles.' Great video, man, keep up the good work!
It's so interesting and informative to learn of the changes in the different languages. In Italian there is a great variety of words, but only 5 big categories.
Random interesting Knight trivia: The term "white knight" and "black knight" come from the Templar's and Hospitaller's respectively (from the colours of their surcoat's). Interestingly the "white knight" in fiction is the good guy and the "black knight" is a bad guy. Yet the Templar's were the ones accused of heresy, blasphemy and sexual misconduct (also depicted as the villains in Assassins Creed). Whilst the Hospitaller's are still around today and are known helping the sick and the poor and for their charity work.
The templars were accused falsely though, right? A Philip IV of france owed them money so he accused them of heresy so he wouldnt have to pay. Philip IV pressed the pope to abolish the order, and the pope reluctantly did so under pressure from Philip IV. Interestingly, the pope was convinced that the templars were innocent.
False accusations weren't proven until much later when people were allowed to discuss the topic. The other examples is Teutons with their white coats. Known for crusading into polish and lithuanian lands to kill and rob christians in the name of Jesus. Until they've got a usual treatment of all invaders here:D
@@viggofick9693 Indeed but as TheArklyte said, that was proven later. Its still an interesting bit of info that the "heroic white knight" comes from a group accused of "evil" and that the "villainous black knight" comes from one of the most noble and charitable of all the crusading orders.
Currently in the process of designing my own Pathfinder campaign setting and using your content for inspiration! Thank you very much for uploading! Keep up the superb work!-Gaming Cat😁.
Wow, wow, wow! 15:05 is pure human achievement and utter aesthetically pleasing to my eye! This whole video made my heart breath, such wonderful, interesting & insightful things to see and learn. You're doing God's work here, enjoyed to a great extend, thank you very much!
I cannot explain why seeing all these types of medieval castles, and later period castles, fills me with such wonder and imagination. Thank you Shad for another outstanding video! CASTLES ARE AWESOME! Especially when they have MACHICOLATIONS!!!! Indeed they only get even better when we ask the big question, WHAT ABOUT DRAGONS? Picture this! Dragon-guarded giant castle with extra large battlements for the Dragons to use cover, breathing fire, ice, lightning and who knows what else through the machicolations and other battlements. Dare we say add knights, archers, anti-siege trebuchets and ballistae, lords of leadership, and spell casters of all kinds to assist the Dragon-fortified castle. Good lord... What have we done? RIP adventurers, invading armies, and anyone insane enough to attack this Castle of Castles!
"Schloss" is in the Scandinavian languages called "Slott". These kinds of structures are in english more similar to the term "palace". The "Schloss = Castle"-thing comes in due to architectural choises.
The Dutch version of the word is "Slot", but it means either a keep or castle or it means a part of a monastery that is sanctioned off for non-christians.
Today Schlo§ means palace or residence castle. Festung means fortress. Burg means fortified medieval castle. But before about 1600 these words had not been used in this way, the words had been used for all kind of fortifications.
TheRezro : In Germany, we call them Schloss together with palaces like Versailles or Buckingham Palace. A real fortified medieval castle is a Burg. But often a Burg was after after 1550 changed into a palace, with more or fewer relicts of the former fortifications. In case of neccessarity this palaces sometimes had been used as auxillary forts, using the relicts of the fortifications, natural protections (rivers, lakes on top of a hill), fences, park walls and strengthen this with wood/earth field fortifications.
@@brittakriep2938 In Norwegian "Sloss" is "Slott", "Burg" is "Borg", and "Festung" is "Festning", and we seem to completely agree on all the definitions !!
As an archaeology student with an entire semester on medieval castles just behind me, I found this way of classification quite interesting. There has certainly been attempts at making categories of different types of castles, but due to the intense diversity (both in architecture and time period) it's near impossible to make a comprehensive list of castle types - because researchers like to attach time periods to certain types of castles and naturally that never works. This distinctly architectural approach is a pretty good attempt at making something universal, so good job Shad! Also, personally, I think that the confusion about this topic mostly comes from language. What do we mean when we say castle and is that the same as what someone in the medieval time period would think of? What I mean is that original medieval sources (written in Latin) mention certain words that today we all classify under the term 'castle' (or 'Burg' in German and 'vár' in Hungarian, which would be my first language). These words are (amongst others) 'castrum' 'castellum' 'arx' 'propugnaculum' 'fortalicium' 'palatium' 'curia' and 'curtis', and in some cases, 'civitas' . Now, these could be all used to describe castles, sort of. But there is a distinct difference in what they actually mean, for example 'arx' 'propugnaculum' 'fortalicium' largely would have meant military buildings, forts, built predominantly from the 17th century onwards. Meanwhile, a 'castrum' is most similar to what we think of when we hear 'castle' (fortified building (or building complex), meant to act as a safe military base, permanent or temporary residence and storage place of wealth). The line gets blurry with 'castellum', because it's a less fortified 'castrum', but could still fit our definition of castle. 'Palatium' could be most easily described as the earlier precursor of a 'Schloss', mostly built to look pretty (which is not me insulting them, because one of the major functionalities of castles in general is to be a representation of wealth/status/power) , but not really, or minimally, fortified. And there's 'curia' and 'curtis' which refer to the medieval equivalents of manors, they aren't really supposed to be fortified but they still often had for example palisade around them or some wooden watchtowers. And the really special case, 'civitas', which means city by the way, could mean a type of early medieval castle that could be found (as far as I know) mostly in eastern Europe, and was to our best knowledge an internal building complex surrounded with ramparts (which are the only parts of them that can be observed today, in their overgrown state), they were basically well fortified towns. I think this subject is quite fascinating and definitely worth thinking about, but in any case, this was just some additional info for anyone interested.
Really helpful, your videos on this topic have really inspired me to design the castles in my D&D in more details; I've been trying to keep a relatively realistic tone and this has actually proven so useful.
Thank you so much for separating "Schloss" and "Castle". You can't imagine how often I'm disappointed when visiting a 'castle' in the UK just to see that they have no military value whatsoever.
This was super interesting! I didn't realize just how many styles of castles there are! I'd love to see your review on the Katolis castle from The Dragon Prince!
One point might be how fortified an castle was: Some was designed to hold out against major armies for months. Sliding scale down to an fortified manor house. Who would work perfectly well against bandits or your neighbor lord but would be toast against an large army with an siege train. Note that the fortified manor house would be useful as an fortification past the medieval time as the enemy was unlikely to have serious cannons. Should works even today in conflict zones if enemy don't have air power or serious artillery.
Just out of curiosity, what would the Japanese castles fall into? I’ve visited a few, and they do share some aspects with the castle categories you described, just with different styling to them. Best examples I can name are Himeji Castle, Hiroshima Castle, and Iwakuni Castle.
The number of genuinely unwalled Scottish and Irish tower houses was probably miniscule; most had an enclosing wall once, made either of stone or wooden palisading, and this wall has been lost
Always love your videos. This one was very instructive. In french, Château (Castle) have the same large definition that encloses all types of castles, all eras. Always have to define what kind of Château you are talking about. Same for Manoir (Mansion), that the definition is more of a category or a class than a function name, because the meaning evolved througt time. And since we include all forms of castles with regional and cultural differences, it's even harder. This video is a great condensed way of explaining it. Thanks and please continue to feed us.
8:57 That's Caernarfon Castle in North Wales, I went there on vacation last year, it took over 2 hours to explore that whole castle due to its size. It also had wooden buildings along the inside of the castle walls, stables, barracks etc, but those obviously arent there anymore.
Also did u know that berko castle in berkhampstead, England is a motte and bailey, but different to most, it was converted to stone from wood, so there's a stone motte and bailey castle in England.
Well, the modern definition of castles being specifically from the medieval period is anachronistic and not very useful anyway, as you clearlyshow here. I think that: defensive residence of a lord of a land (since a landlord lost its original meaning), fits better. • It _has_ to be the residence of someone. • It cannot be the residence of a commoner or landless noble. • It must be a _defensive_ structure, meaning that it must have some type of actual defence. => This actually makes Japanese castles, as well as unclassified castles, châteaux, and Schloss, fall under the definition again. As they should be, since that's how they were called back then. We could then classify those as their own type: the soft castle, or cannon castle, since its main characteristic is that it is a castle that has been _softened_ because of cannons making wall hardness irrelevant. As for the Japanese castle, hard to tell. Maybe Metatron could help 😁.
So if it belongs to the government's defences, ie it serves the King and has no landlord of its own but merely a commander, is it not called a castle but a fortress?
Great video. I love how you pronounce german words. To me as german a "Schloss" was always the same as a manor or other government/ruler related building, that was more defined by its purpose, size and status of the person or people living in it, than its actual functionality unlike a castle. It is more a status symbol that might have some defensive capabilities, but not neccesarily, similar to a french chateau.
The castle you're showing at 12:00 is Glimmingehus, and while many older swedish castles of that type did not have battlements (due to Queen Margeretas ban on private castles) Glimmingehus is post-ban and originally featured wooden battlements on the third floor (you can still see where the wooden beams holding up the battlements were attached) as well as numerous other defensive features. It was commissioned by Jens Ulfstand, First admiral of the Danish navy and one of the most hated nobles in Scania. The castle was built to be able to repel anyone but the royal army.
Shad is talking about castles. Feels good man.
AdalRoderick Yeah, man, it does..
AdalRoderick I live in Germany...there are some pretty great castles here
It really doesn't get better than this. I'm a castle fanatic.
Tfw Shad discusses castles
LIFE IS GOOD, M8
Castle count:
0:17
0:26
0:28
0:47
0:55
1:28
1:33
1:39
1:41
1:48
1:49
2:11
2:24
2:25
2:34
2:58
2:59
3:01
3:11
3:13
3:15
3:43
3:45
3:52
3:57
4:02
4:19
4:24
4:26
4:27
4:29
4:30
4:37
4:41
4:44
4:51
4:53
5:18
5:19
5:20
5:24
5:25
5:39
5:47
6:03
6:05
6:06
6:16
6:24
6:29
6:42
6:52
6:54
7:23
7:49
8:07
8:10
8:19
8:23
8:33
8:34
8:38
8:46
8:52
9:12
9:15
9:16
9:28
9:29
9:42
9:55
10:01
10:02
10:07
10:08
10:11
10:14
10:15
10:18
10:20
10:30
10:44
10:52
10:57
10:58
11:04
11:05
11:14
11:16
11:27
11:33
11:38
11:45
11:46
11:50
12:21
12:32
12:33
12:39
12:48
13:17
13:24
13:31
13:55
14:00
14:10
14:16
14:28
14:59
15:00
15:04
15:06
15:12
15:13
15:14
15:27
15:37
15:41
15:44
15:45
15:51
15:53
16:10
16:12
16:35
16:36
16:41
16:53
17:17
17:24
17:33
17:34
17:35
17:50
17:52
18:02
18:09
18:18
18:19
18:22
18:28
18:30
18:33
18:35
18:36
18:42
18:44
19:03
19:11
19:27
19:29
19:44
19:45
19:52
20:03
20:08
20:09
20:13
20:14
20:21
20:22
20:24
20:34
20:43
20:51
20:53
20:55
21:05
21:08
21:10
21:20
21:24
21:31
21:32
21:40
21:48
Total castle: 178.
Well done.
And please name them, SVP.
my nibba
HF que de castillitos
"This video is not an exhaustive list"
Shad: How many types of castles are there?
History: Yes.
But what about dragons
@@TheHornedKing_27 I regret to inform you that dragons are not, in fact, a type of castle. Difficult and dangerous to attack? Yes. Castle? No.
Imperial Shocktrooper ... But what about dragons?
Edit: Ah crap. I am beaten to it.
Dragon Gamer SWORDS!!!!!!!
Dragons live in castles but you don't live in dragons. That would be committing an act of parasitia. Punishable by being killed by a doctor.
I like your approach of defining castles according to their architecture. I am from Germany, where we have the "Deutsche Burgenvereinigung" (German Castles Organization) which is the foremost authority on castles and research related to castles in Germany. I am unsure if the English speaking world has any similar organizations. The "Burgenvereinigung " has published a series of books in 1999 which collects all the existing knowledge about castles in central Europe to that date. The books include a list of classifications of castles, but rather than taking a primarily architectural approach, they went with topography first. This is the usual approach of classifying castles in Germany.
They make two primary distinctions:
- "Höhenburgen" (High Castles), which are castles located on an elevation and
- "Niederungsburgen" (Low Castles) which are castles located on one elevation with the ground.
Within these categories are several subcategories, for example:
- "Gipfelburgen" (Peak Castles), a type of Höhenburg located on the peak of a mountain or hill (e.g. Marksburg),
- "Spornburgen" (Spur Castles), a type of Höhenburg located on a spur of a mountain (e.g. Kriebstein Castle)
- "Wasserburgen (Water Castles), a type of Niederungsburg surrounded by a body of water, usually an all sides (e.g. Bodiam Castle)
I feel like these subcategories are the three most common ones, but that is just my personal judgement.
There are, of course, other approaches to classifying castles, namely by function and architectural design. Functional types include, but are not limited to:
- Pfalzen (Palatinates), which is a residence of the Holy Roman Emperor (e.g. Kaiserpfalz Goslar), usually not that defendable, more like a Schloss, which you mentioned
- Ordensburgen (Order Castles), castles built by military orders, primarily the Teutoniic Order (e.g. Marienburg Castle)
- Ganerbenburgen (no clear translation here, sorry), which were castles owned by multiple parties, and can often be separated into smaller castles inside the main castle (e.g. Eltz Castle)
and more.
Architectural types are not that fleshed out, which is why I especially appreciate the effort you put into classifying them. Architectural types include:
- Turmburgen (Tower Castles), which are castles usually only consisting of a single tower
- Hausburgen (House Castles), which are castles usually only consisting of a single fortified house
and variations of these.
These are just some of the types of castles I know of. There are obviously many more that I might have missed, but are equally deserving to be on this list. I myself am still standing at the beginning of my quest for knowledge about castles and will probably learn a lot more about certain types of castles in the future. But I still hope I could be of help!
Burg Eltz is magnificent.
This is very helpful, thank you!
Welche Buchreihe von 1999 meinst du? Ich finde da nichts genaues
@@belasottorf5385 Burgen in Mitteleuropa: www.amazon.de/Burgen-Mitteleuropa-Bde-Deutsche-Burgenvereinigung/dp/3806213550
A German, putting the English's command of the English language to shame once again.
Well done sir.
Interestingly, in German castle typology, it is all about the location of a castle. Whether it is on a hill, a ridge, a slope, a plain, etc. And there is always a major emphasis on a building, that Shad rarely, rarely mentions, the well or the cistern, and how much of a burden it is to construct in such a location.
They use the same system in the Netherlands. Like city castles, moated castle(water castle), hill castle etc.
Probably because even an Arabic 11th century slave can understand how difficult it is to erect a cictern, let alone a sewage system on the side of a canyon or Mountain.
I agree, i like his videos but his idea of how to determine the type is more confusing than helpful. It is far better to use the location. I also know beside that there are special types of castle like scottish towers or russian kreml. You have simply a building set which is used for castles, the location determines the rest. Personally, i am interested in any type of fortified buildings!
It is not all about the location. There are also names for different functions (like Trutzburg = counter-castle, Fliehburg = refuge castle or Zollburg = toll castle), construction types (like Motte = motte-and-bailey-castle, Schildmauerburg = type of castle with a shield wall [uncommon in UK or Ireland] or Ringburg = concentric castle) or who built/used it (like Deutschordensburg = castle of the Teutonic Order or Kreuzfahrerburg = crusader castle). German castles can usually be referred to by a number of names, whichever definition you use.
Yes, you are right. I forgot that. I meant when i see a castle surrounded with water i don't think about it as " walled castle or linked castle". It's a Wasserburg for me. Maybe that's the difference between scientific and more "obvious" definitions.
BTW, the "polywarded castle" sounds very made up to me. The castle simply had several baileys.
I tend to forget that most castles weren't massive. Very few were, but most were made to shelter a smaller army from a bigger army.
We all know there are two main types of castles: those with MACHICOLATIONS and those without :P
But... what about dragons?
Hahaha but what about dragons
@@sleepyfork5250 Castles don't have dragons. Dragons have castles. Therefore dragons are not a part of castles and are not a feature that determines the type of castle.
that is cheating
basically is good vs badly constructed castles
There are castles with MACHICOLATIONS and there are cheap china fakes!
In Minecraft, l tend to try and build enclosed castles. But now, I think I’m going to expand my repertoire. Thanks for the inspiration Shad! This has earned you a sub
In Germany multi-warded castles are called Abschnittsburgen. A castle made out of sections.
In german it's so much easier to create new Words to name something.
No fair man! German has or can make a word for anything. They probably have a word for castles that were only invaded on every third Friday.
@@melodybigelow4374 Drittefreitagsangriffschloss
@@florisroding6157 And there it is, lol.
@@cdxlvi I had like 2 weeks of German with a strong East Texas vernacular and I would say "Wievel costet das fur dieser thinger der?", and most Germans would invariably say "Please speak English", lol.
Video I'd like to see: Castles and tunneling.
Dealing with all things tunnels. Both tunneling done dueing sieges in order to break through castle walls or bring them down, and secret tunnels built for the purposes of allowing a secret escape during sieges or to bring in supplies to the castle when it is surrounded.
Sometimes a counter-tunnel was dug when the garrison suspected the besieging party was tunnelling under their walls. Water defenses made tunnelling much gnarlier
@@visionist7 I can imagine.
Tunneling under a large body of water must've been scary.
Which is why the subject deserves a video!
That’s why in minecraft you always fill your walls with lava, bonus points for mining all underneath and making it lava too
Great content. As a german i like your distinction between "Burg" (fortified castle) and "Schloss" (unfortified castle), since i always wondered, why they are the same in english.
I think it mainly comes down to English just being a mildly funny language 😋
They are not the same in English. An unfortified castle is a palace.
we do a similar thing in swedish with fästning (literal translation: fortress) being the fortified castle (my favourite local example is bohus fästning/fortress) and slott generally being the unfortified, there are a few exceptions to the unfortified slott rule, like kalmar slott and läckö slott
@@somerando1073 "Mansion" works too, though it doesn't sound as stately.
@@madamedent Eh, I see a mansion as looking like a big house, so maybe for an unfortified manor house, but I see a palace as looking castley.
Man, this was so interesting. Loved it!
Man, it feels like ages since you last made a castle video!
Feels like being home again.
Nice to see Caerlaverock at 10:35! A lovely little castle, with an illustrious history.
Shadiversity: Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle Castle
Someone must make a count of how many castles were said in this vid
As this Texan hears it:
Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul Caw-sul
English folks don't appear to have the "aah" sound (as in "cat"), and exclusively use the "aw" sound (as in "saw").
@@CoyoteGuru Except that you can clearly hear Shad say "Castle" correctly throughout the entire presentation. And Shad is an Aussie.
@@ts25679 Lol
@@CoyoteGuru Haha. I hear caaastles.. He really drag on the 'a' .. ;) Cool video!
I would use the terms “serial” “parallel” and “nested” for arrangements of multiple wards, since the term “poly-warded” gives no indication that concentric castles wouldn’t count as a sub-type under your system. Bailies are thus “nested” if the inner ward is fully enclosed by and detatched from the outer ward; “arranged in series” or “serial” when you must go through one to get to the other, but aren’t nested, and in parallel if there are multiple on the same “level” of penetration into the castle’s defense just to make things more manageable if a section of wall gets breached. You could actually make a simple diagram that uses symbolic operators for these three to fully describe a castle’s overall defensive scheme, since the keep of “enclosed castle” can be thought of the same way as the next bailey inward on a nested arrangement, and a “linked” castle can be thought of the same way as the next bailey inward on a serial arrangement.
This guy electricities
Yay. Finally a foreigner who says ' Muiderslot' and doesnt totally butcher the pronunciation. Good job, Shadiversity for the win!
Bud then he completely butchers Będzin castle name. I find that for Polish words it's ok to use Google translate just copy-paste said word and hit speaker button it's sort of accurate.
@@WolfKenneth I also dont know why people dont at least do that. I dont expect perfection, but even such a low amount of effort improves the impression that we viewers get a lot.
The amount of research that was needed for this video is seeping through the screen. Another GREAT video as always.
Predjama castle is pronounced predyama, and it means In-front-of-a-cave castle :) literally built in front of a cave entrance, through which they smuggled food in when under siege. Wish you could do an episode on it, it has a great story. It's my favourite castle in Slovenia.
My favorite story about Predjama Castle is when the knight that lived there sent fresh bread out to his besiegers.
I would have liked him.
I was kinda expecting to see the Malbork Castle (Marienburg) here. Especially when you started to talk about the "poly-warded" castles. However, Będzin Castle being featured so prominently as the best-preserved example of a "germanic castle" (and being shown multiple times in the video) might be even better. Unlike Malbork, it was actually built as a Polish castle, part of a defensive system created by Casimir the Great that later became known as Orle Gniazda (Eagles' Nests). Considering that, and that your other examples of this type are the reconstruction of Bohemian (Czech) castles maybe calling it "germanic" isn't the best choice? Something like "Central European" would probably make us West Slavic viewers happier. ;)
Although it's fair to assume that this style of the castle was developed specifically in the German lands and then spread to the rest of the region.
Great video anyway!
Medieval Czechs were part of Holy Roman Empire and had been under German influence, so it's no wonder that their castle design is similar to German. Poland too was influenced, especially in the 13th century when there was a huge influx of German settlers
@@rzufig961 True.
You should make a video about different styles of castles, like how a Bohemian castle will look different from a castle you'd find in Britain.
In Czech, we have four words for castles. "Hradiště" (an early medieval type of castle with several walls and usually a small "town" within the outer wall), "tvrz" (also an early medieval castle, but small with one wall), "hrad" (medieval castle), and "zámek" (a castle-like unfortified building).
Considered that we have about 1600 castles, forts, and castle like structures... We needed to tell them apart. :-D
My favorite Is Cornštejn - not the largest, but definitelly the most complex system I ever saw. Using Shads definitions it would ve polywarded concentric castle.
It's incredible - and incredible complex. No matter how far you get, there Is always defenders shooting you from multiple Angeles. The defenses Are a maze. To get to the first elevated (like 6 meters) bastion overseeing the main gate and the ward behind it, you have to go through all the consecutive wards rolled around the castle like a snail Shell... and then cross a 10 meter long wooden bridge that can be broken Down. It's like multiple castles built in one place to enhance each other. And it contains clever engineering solutions like a "slanted" gate - the gate to the inner ward with keep. It's built to be at an angle as to make the use of a battering ram impossible.
I think that "tvrz" is better decribed as fortified residence of lower noble (gentry). They were built during whole middle ages, not only early. But they are usually small.
Also "zámek" is better described as unfortified residence of noble, usually built during renaissance or later. They don't always look like castles.
@@lukasprazak7362 Oh yes, for some reason I keep mixing it up with "hradiště". Thanks for correcting me.
Edit: I guess my brain automatically goes to hradiště being a small castle.
@@ashwynnnewkirk This is making me play Kingdom Come, yet again. I've just checked some photos and videos of Cornštejn castle and it's just beautiful. What I also loved about it is that landscapes and weather, alongside towns are the closest any game has ever come to my country, Serbia.
Saw a castle in the thumbnail, saw the Shad logo, then my day got a lot better, and I haven't even started the video!
Wow, Bedzin castle (Poland) - my hometown - featured heavily in this video. Nice one Shad
Almourol Island-castle on the Tagus, Portugal, at 3:19!
😍🇵🇹
1:14 the original Windsor Castle! i love it
This truly is one of the most anticipated videos from Shad. This was teased long ago in another video... I believe it was when he was showing off Honorguard. Love to see it my friend!
I live in Llandudno in North Wales which is about 4 miles from Conwy and get to see that magnificent castle at least once a week. Also visit Caernarfon once every month or two as it's only 28 miles away. Really lucky to live in the vicinity of two amazing castles.
Hey Shad! Thanks for making these kinds of things, I show my friends all the time!
A whole video about castle but Shad doesn't scream "Machiculations"
Me: My disappointment is immeasurable and my day is ruined
how's your day now?
@@NEY-uu3lx Not much better sadly, but I wont loose hope!
edit: Thanks for asking!
@@bizarreworld2510 well, hope it goes well for you
@@NEY-uu3lx Thanks bud!!
My ears have never felt more relieved
Shad, You are an awesome creator. I wish to thank you for a huge amount of inspiration. I am working on my own fantasy novel and your journey has inspired me to not give up. Thank you and keep up all the awesome work, mate!
Edit: Also! I love that you used a castle from my home country! The rectangular castle, "Glimmingehus" is actually located not far from were I grew up. It's a great example of beatuy in simplicity.
You've got me into casltes so much, I'm currently working in the design for "my own" castle, based on one of my D&D characters. Got some pretty cool inspiration for it in this video. Thank you so much for teaching us all about medieval history!
I just love hearing Shad ramble on about castles. 😍
Today I am a happy man. 😌
I see Shad has given up on restraint and decided to invent the scientific field of Castle Taxonomy.
That opening has heavy chad energy
Shad just defining castles as simply as he can because no one else has, what a lad
To bravely go where no man has gone before...
Great control over your narrative Shad! No yelling or frothing. Hats off mate, that's a professional at work! 👍
GIVE ME CASTLES OR GIVE ME DEATH!!! Oh, erm... Yes, fancy that, a new video by Shad.
Watching this, I realized that my favourite type is the linked castle. They just speak to me the most. Nice to have a term for it now!
I like the terms you've developed here, Shad, particularly "polywarded castle." (Or would it be poly-ward?) That really nails the concept you're trying to convey. If it's all right with you, I think I might use these terms in my writing, because I think they will be something that readers will be able to grasp rather effectively. I'm presently working on a flintlock fantasy, however, while a lot of fortified structures are star fortresses, like those used in the 18th century, castle-style fortifications are still in use because of the way offensive and defensive magic works. Spells used against oncoming armies are generally line-of-sight, so you need elevation to increase their effective range, thus towers and donjons are still necessary.
I'm still working out the details, but I do know that the style of fortifications will be a blending of medieval and 18th century, not strictly one period or the other. There are also plenty of old castles that are still around, too, which is why your videos are so helpful. It's not like these things exist in a vacuum, after all. My protagonist, a Half-Orc woman, is descended from a line of Human aristocrats who still live in a castle, one that's been regularly renovated and updated. (That one is going to be fun to design!)
Unwalled Castle
Linked Castle
Enclosed Castle
Concentric Castle
Poly-Ward Castle
Composite Castle (using more than one of the above types)
Schloss (non-castle, psudo-castle)
Sorted and listed, with the addition of the composite castle type. I won't be able to look at my castle calender the same way now. 🙂👍
So... schloss neuschwanstein isn't a castle?
@@racoonlittle1679 A quick internet search shows a castle built in the 19th century in Bavaria, is that the one you're talking about? I would say by Shad's definitions, it isn't because it was built as a residence and not for defense. At least that's what I see from the wiki article. It is an incredible looking structure however!
@@matthewmillar3804 yea i realized schloss meant fake castle from the vid
"J" in Predjama castle is pronounced more like "y" in yoyo. "Pred" means in front of, and "jama" means cave. It is called so, because it was build at the entrance to a cabe system, which they used for bringing in food during a siege.
Well...... Slovene *is* a difficult language x) he did a bit better pronouncing it the second time, but English-speaking people definitely have a hard time with the hard J and the hard G (the soft one for both being jail/gaol, the hard one... a Y instead of J, and e.g. 'glass' for G). It *is* a known sound in the language, but people tend to just go with the soft version..
Shad! I love it! Hanging out on the bleeding edge of castle typology and classification! These are my favorite videos!
My friend and I were watching and after 15 minutes we understood, and then we clapped. Tack!
Shad, you should do a followup video to this ranking how effective each type was defensively.
As a German speaker, I really like that you could pick up on the difference between, "Burg" and "Schloss". Burg typically refers to a castle made for actual defense. While Schloss is more so a Palace, or Chateau. Exactly a like Schloss Neuschwanstein. Great vid like always!
omg it's like borg and slott in norwegian
You're incredibly knowledgeable. But further, You have a calm and relaxing voice.
Thankyou, my friend!
Love this kind of content, keep up the great work shad
I was just about to go looking into this subject, and low and behold, one of my favourite UA-camrs covers the subject.
Awesome video! So helpful in designing my own castles (well actually castle-turned-palace but I need the castle first in order to turn it into a palace). Thank you so much!
Clarification: polygamy is multiple spouses, typically taking the form of polygyny (multiple wives) but more rarely taking the form of polyandry (multiple husbands).
Hey Shad, Castle Archaeologist here, great video as always! Glad to see castles represented from my homeland, (Spøtrup Castle and Glimmingehus) I just want to throw in a subtype of the "Tower-House", namely the Gotland Kastal (Plural kastaler) these are freestanding stone towers from the early medieval period, found on Gotland. They were presumably erected by local chieftains to serve as refuges for the local community. They are all multistoryed towers with a single room per level (At least those still preserved are) and are always built very close to a church. It is unknown if they also served as habitation.
Also Gaillard is pronounced Ga-yarr :)
This video came in the totally right moment, we are currently writing our new LARP campaign. And this time we want to sorta replaicate true castle layouts for our map. So this vid is REALLY handy!
I was just at Nizwa Fort in the Sultinate of Oman. You will be happy to know there were murder holes and trap doors at each reinforced door into the main fort.
It's obvious that there is so much work and research that went into this video, and you present them in such a "followable" manner. Shad you are truly a gift to youtube medieval community..
A fascinating video as usual. I never even noticed the difference between linked and enclosed castles until you pointed it out.
There are 2 types of castles. The one with machicolations and failures.
Now THIS is a Shad video! Excellent content! Well done; very well done indeed.
8:26 Disconnected living quaters in ''germanic castles'' are very rare because you'd need a lot of space to fit long horizontal building (palas/palace) inside the wall. It was better to integrate it with the outer wall to save money and have a bigger courtyard. Btw your pronunciation of ''Będzin'' was kind of funny but pretty accurate.
Another example of a once properly fortified castle turned into a ceremonial one is the castle of Buda, Hungary.
In Hungarian, we use 'castle' the same confusing and conflating (is this a word?) way, except we tend to use 'palace' too, for the non-military purpose 'castles.'
Great video, man, keep up the good work!
Where is the fast castle?
*Age of empires fans will remembers this*
*training longbowmen intensifies*
11
14
Shhh Haw...
wololooh
It's so interesting and informative to learn of the changes in the different languages. In Italian there is a great variety of words, but only 5 big categories.
Thanks for your castle video Shad! Because of them I've been able to make some cool stuff in Conan Exiles. Also your book is bloody brillant
I really love the amount of images you use here.
Random interesting Knight trivia: The term "white knight" and "black knight" come from the Templar's and Hospitaller's respectively (from the colours of their surcoat's). Interestingly the "white knight" in fiction is the good guy and the "black knight" is a bad guy. Yet the Templar's were the ones accused of heresy, blasphemy and sexual misconduct (also depicted as the villains in Assassins Creed). Whilst the Hospitaller's are still around today and are known helping the sick and the poor and for their charity work.
The templars were accused falsely though, right? A Philip IV of france owed them money so he accused them of heresy so he wouldnt have to pay. Philip IV pressed the pope to abolish the order, and the pope reluctantly did so under pressure from Philip IV. Interestingly, the pope was convinced that the templars were innocent.
False accusations weren't proven until much later when people were allowed to discuss the topic.
The other examples is Teutons with their white coats. Known for crusading into polish and lithuanian lands to kill and rob christians in the name of Jesus. Until they've got a usual treatment of all invaders here:D
@@viggofick9693 Indeed but as TheArklyte said, that was proven later. Its still an interesting bit of info that the "heroic white knight" comes from a group accused of "evil" and that the "villainous black knight" comes from one of the most noble and charitable of all the crusading orders.
Good job shad! Best video you have done in a while. Castles are the best
Just a 22 minute video about castles- I love just how shamelessly nerdy Shad is. Keep it up man!
I don't think these definitions count as separate categories but they are certainly useful umbrella terms for features and layout.
Currently in the process of designing my own Pathfinder campaign setting and using your content for inspiration! Thank you very much for uploading! Keep up the superb work!-Gaming Cat😁.
I imagine the poly-warded castle was common because as a community grew its needs for defended infrastructure and housing would also grow.
When you start talking about Germanic castles and my very first thought is Pirkstein, and then you mention KC: D. Awesome!
Shad is talking about castles again, yippie! ❤
Wow, wow, wow! 15:05 is pure human achievement and utter aesthetically pleasing to my eye! This whole video made my heart breath, such wonderful, interesting & insightful things to see and learn. You're doing God's work here, enjoyed to a great extend, thank you very much!
I cannot explain why seeing all these types of medieval castles, and later period castles, fills me with such wonder and imagination. Thank you Shad for another outstanding video!
CASTLES ARE AWESOME! Especially when they have MACHICOLATIONS!!!! Indeed they only get even better when we ask the big question, WHAT ABOUT DRAGONS?
Picture this! Dragon-guarded giant castle with extra large battlements for the Dragons to use cover, breathing fire, ice, lightning and who knows what else through the machicolations and other battlements. Dare we say add knights, archers, anti-siege trebuchets and ballistae, lords of leadership, and spell casters of all kinds to assist the Dragon-fortified castle. Good lord...
What have we done? RIP adventurers, invading armies, and anyone insane enough to attack this Castle of Castles!
"Schloss" is in the Scandinavian languages called "Slott". These kinds of structures are in english more similar to the term "palace". The "Schloss = Castle"-thing comes in due to architectural choises.
The Dutch version of the word is "Slot", but it means either a keep or castle or it means a part of a monastery that is sanctioned off for non-christians.
Today Schlo§ means palace or residence castle. Festung means fortress. Burg means fortified medieval castle. But before about 1600 these words had not been used in this way, the words had been used for all kind of fortifications.
Yes, I also though that "fake castles" are called Palaces.
TheRezro : In Germany, we call them Schloss together with palaces like Versailles or Buckingham Palace. A real fortified medieval castle is a Burg. But often a Burg was after after 1550 changed into a palace, with more or fewer relicts of the former fortifications. In case of neccessarity this palaces sometimes had been used as auxillary forts, using the relicts of the fortifications, natural protections (rivers, lakes on top of a hill), fences, park walls and strengthen this with wood/earth field fortifications.
@@brittakriep2938 In Norwegian "Sloss" is "Slott", "Burg" is "Borg", and "Festung" is "Festning", and we seem to completely agree on all the definitions !!
As an archaeology student with an entire semester on medieval castles just behind me, I found this way of classification quite interesting. There has certainly been attempts at making categories of different types of castles, but due to the intense diversity (both in architecture and time period) it's near impossible to make a comprehensive list of castle types - because researchers like to attach time periods to certain types of castles and naturally that never works. This distinctly architectural approach is a pretty good attempt at making something universal, so good job Shad!
Also, personally, I think that the confusion about this topic mostly comes from language. What do we mean when we say castle and is that the same as what someone in the medieval time period would think of?
What I mean is that original medieval sources (written in Latin) mention certain words that today we all classify under the term 'castle' (or 'Burg' in German and 'vár' in Hungarian, which would be my first language). These words are (amongst others) 'castrum' 'castellum' 'arx' 'propugnaculum' 'fortalicium' 'palatium' 'curia' and 'curtis', and in some cases, 'civitas' . Now, these could be all used to describe castles, sort of.
But there is a distinct difference in what they actually mean, for example 'arx' 'propugnaculum' 'fortalicium' largely would have meant military buildings, forts, built predominantly from the 17th century onwards.
Meanwhile, a 'castrum' is most similar to what we think of when we hear 'castle' (fortified building (or building complex), meant to act as a safe military base, permanent or temporary residence and storage place of wealth).
The line gets blurry with 'castellum', because it's a less fortified 'castrum', but could still fit our definition of castle.
'Palatium' could be most easily described as the earlier precursor of a 'Schloss', mostly built to look pretty (which is not me insulting them, because one of the major functionalities of castles in general is to be a representation of wealth/status/power) , but not really, or minimally, fortified.
And there's 'curia' and 'curtis' which refer to the medieval equivalents of manors, they aren't really supposed to be fortified but they still often had for example palisade around them or some wooden watchtowers.
And the really special case, 'civitas', which means city by the way, could mean a type of early medieval castle that could be found (as far as I know) mostly in eastern Europe, and was to our best knowledge an internal building complex surrounded with ramparts (which are the only parts of them that can be observed today, in their overgrown state), they were basically well fortified towns.
I think this subject is quite fascinating and definitely worth thinking about, but in any case, this was just some additional info for anyone interested.
You have to love Shad. He is outside of academia but way ahead of it
Really helpful, your videos on this topic have really inspired me to design the castles in my D&D in more details; I've been trying to keep a relatively realistic tone and this has actually proven so useful.
Shadiversity's descriptive castle definitions:
2:58 Enclosed
3:52 Linked
5:39 Germanic
8:45 Towered
10:29 Unwalled
15:10 Poly-warded
17:35 Motte and Bailey
18:17 Concentric
20:01 Schloss
Thank you so much for separating "Schloss" and "Castle". You can't imagine how often I'm disappointed when visiting a 'castle' in the UK just to see that they have no military value whatsoever.
Funfact: one of the more chateaux/Schloss-like castles, is one of the few castles that was besieged but never conquered (Eltz Castle)
I am squealing with delight, thank you shad for another quality video.
This was super interesting! I didn't realize just how many styles of castles there are! I'd love to see your review on the Katolis castle from The Dragon Prince!
One point might be how fortified an castle was: Some was designed to hold out against major armies for months.
Sliding scale down to an fortified manor house. Who would work perfectly well against bandits or your neighbor lord but would be toast against an large army with an siege train.
Note that the fortified manor house would be useful as an fortification past the medieval time as the enemy was unlikely to have serious cannons.
Should works even today in conflict zones if enemy don't have air power or serious artillery.
I really enjoyed the video.I'm curious as to what a castle wood look like using modern-day construction techniques steel and concrete.
Love this, thank you so much for sharing this knowledge. Writing a book right now using a medieval setting, and this definitely helps
Just out of curiosity, what would the Japanese castles fall into? I’ve visited a few, and they do share some aspects with the castle categories you described, just with different styling to them. Best examples I can name are Himeji Castle, Hiroshima Castle, and Iwakuni Castle.
The number of genuinely unwalled Scottish and Irish tower houses was probably miniscule; most had an enclosing wall once, made either of stone or wooden palisading, and this wall has been lost
Very informative. Another name idea for the schloss/ fake type castle could be decorative castle.
Always love your videos. This one was very instructive. In french, Château (Castle) have the same large definition that encloses all types of castles, all eras. Always have to define what kind of Château you are talking about. Same for Manoir (Mansion), that the definition is more of a category or a class than a function name, because the meaning evolved througt time. And since we include all forms of castles with regional and cultural differences, it's even harder. This video is a great condensed way of explaining it. Thanks and please continue to feed us.
Shad make a castle that does everything wrong but its the ultimate loot bank in Conan Exiles.
Your videos help so much in my world building! Thank you for that!
5:40 Będzin Castle is the one I have built in my current Minecraft world haha
8:57 That's Caernarfon Castle in North Wales,
I went there on vacation last year, it took over 2 hours to explore that whole castle due to its size.
It also had wooden buildings along the inside of the castle walls, stables, barracks etc, but those obviously arent there anymore.
I'm a simple man. If I se Shad talking about castles, I click.
Also did u know that berko castle in berkhampstead, England is a motte and bailey, but different to most, it was converted to stone from wood, so there's a stone motte and bailey castle in England.
Well, the modern definition of castles being specifically from the medieval period is anachronistic and not very useful anyway, as you clearlyshow here. I think that: defensive residence of a lord of a land (since a landlord lost its original meaning), fits better.
• It _has_ to be the residence of someone.
• It cannot be the residence of a commoner or landless noble.
• It must be a _defensive_ structure, meaning that it must have some type of actual defence.
=> This actually makes Japanese castles, as well as unclassified castles, châteaux, and Schloss, fall under the definition again. As they should be, since that's how they were called back then. We could then classify those as their own type: the soft castle, or cannon castle, since its main characteristic is that it is a castle that has been _softened_ because of cannons making wall hardness irrelevant.
As for the Japanese castle, hard to tell. Maybe Metatron could help 😁.
So if it belongs to the government's defences, ie it serves the King and has no landlord of its own but merely a commander, is it not called a castle but a fortress?
@@visionist7 If it's a purely military structure it depends of what structure it is. War castle. Fort. Fortress. Stronghold.
Great video. I love how you pronounce german words. To me as german a "Schloss" was always the same as a manor or other government/ruler related building, that was more defined by its purpose, size and status of the person or people living in it, than its actual functionality unlike a castle. It is more a status symbol that might have some defensive capabilities, but not neccesarily, similar to a french chateau.
I love those castle videos. :) It would be nice if you displayed the castle names with their pictures.
I agree name and location
Each castle is a custom major project. Sometimes also developed over time with different warfare methods inspiring the later phases.
Question: How many ways can stones be arranged to create a defensive structure?
Shad: Yes.
The castle you're showing at 12:00 is Glimmingehus, and while many older swedish castles of that type did not have battlements (due to Queen Margeretas ban on private castles) Glimmingehus is post-ban and originally featured wooden battlements on the third floor (you can still see where the wooden beams holding up the battlements were attached) as well as numerous other defensive features. It was commissioned by Jens Ulfstand, First admiral of the Danish navy and one of the most hated nobles in Scania. The castle was built to be able to repel anyone but the royal army.