From Building a Castle on the Radio Netherlands site:
Few people can boast that they helped build a 13th-century castle. But in a clearing in the woods of northern Burgundy some 40 enthusiasts are rediscovering medieval skills to do just that. Eschewing modern-day methods, they use natural, local building materials - earth, water, stone, clay, sand and wood - together with 13th- century tools and techniques.
"It was a mad idea that used to haunt me," says Michel Guyot, the visionary who created the Guédelon project in 1997. In some places the walls are between two and three metres high, but when the castle is finished in 2025 it will stand tall and proud, complete with five towers, a dungeon and a drawbridge.
"This project is crazy, this is lunatic," says Dr Athanassios Migos, a specialist in military architecture and editor of the journal Fort. "But it's an exciting project because it is challenging our knowledge of a medieval construction site." Guédelon provides much-needed work in an isolated part of Burgundy, far from the prestigious vineyards. "There are lots of unemployed people with skills which need to be cultivated and maintained,' adds Dr Migos. 'Guédelon is built on top of a stone quarry in the middle of a forest. What better place to have such an ambitious project?" [continue]
Here's the Guédelon site, where you can read about techniques, tools and materials, castle architecture, and a so forth. The visitor's guide even offers a 360° view, although that image loads quite slowly.
Posted on December 30, 2002 10:06 AM. Filed under: history & archaeology.