(relaxed music)
Miraculously preserved, restored,
or in ruins, castles always fascinate the public.
The Middle Ages is an era of builders.
They left us extraordinary monuments
which are important to our identity.
Centuries after their appearance
on the landscape, they remain with cathedrals symbols
of the Middle Ages, of the power of those
who built them, their lords or sovereigns.
For Philip II, the construction
of castles was a tool with which to restore
the authority of the king of France.
Their construction accompanied the political
and cultural evolution of the medieval period.
Hundreds were built in Europe
and up to the gates of the Middle East.
But their shape, layout, and characteristics
evolved considerably over time.
There's innovation,
but there's also competition to build the best,
most perfect, most original, newest castle.
From the first stone towers
erected in a few months to the colossal sites
of Carcassone and Chambord, for five centuries
between 1000 and 1500 A.D., these constructions
shaped the landscape of a nation in the making.
From then on, numerous powers
are centered around the castle.
Border fortresses like Salses
or royal castles like Vincennes,
these buildings will have three functions,
accommodation, defense, and a statement of prestige.
They're the markers of a world in constant mutation.
Together, they tell the tale
of 500 years of the Middle Ages.
The appearance of castles in Europe owes nothing to chance.
During the long period of Roman peace in the first centuries
of our era, a few castra, or fortified villas,
had been built at the empire's border, nothing more.
In Latin texts, we see the term castrum.
So castrum, or castellum, gradually becomes castle.
Castellum simply means village.
It's a very generic term.
And during the ninth and 10th century,
we gradually see the meaning changing from a stronghold,
which can be a very large fortified city,
to gradually become what we understand as a place
that is indeed fortified, but is also a residence.
And not just anyone's residence,
but the residence of a person with power.
(dramatic music)
In the ninth century, the partition
of Charlemagne's empire plunged western Europe into chaos.
The authority of the king, but also that of his vassals,
the counts, in considerably weakened.
The fortified villas have to make way
for new types of constructions,
especially since from the eighth and ninth century,
this vast region, which isn't yet France,
is beset by numerous invasions.
Hungarians to the east.
Vikings to the north and west.
Saracens to the south.
To impede their progress, Europe covers itself with castles.
First in the west and south of France,
then in Normandy, Germany, and England.
Feudalism is on the rise.
The lords, emancipated from a weakened monarchy,
set out to conquer territory.
But they then need to protect it.
They create fortifications that can be built
in record time, around three months.
Motte-and-bailey castles, set on artificial mounds.
To symbolize and concrete entrench
their castle, they had to artificially create an elevation
in order to see far away and be seen from far away.
The average size of these cone-shaped mounds is
about 30 meters in diameter at the bass and 10 at the top.
The height varies from six to 12 meters,
creating a slope of 35 to 55 degrees.
Upon this stands a keep, between 15 and 25 meters tall.
Below it is a courtyard, which is usually circular or oval.
It's surrounded by a ditch
and a rampart surmounted by a wooden fence.
A wooden gatehouse defends the entrance.
This is where the service buildings, stables,
ovens, wine presses, and forges are located.
It's something simple
that's technically very easy to build.
It could be made from materials taken from the ditch,
using the workforce that you have at your beck and call.
So you don't need real technicians to build this structure.
Motte-and-bailey castles
will multiply over the 10th and 12th centuries.
Their defense rests on a succession of obstacles,
ditches, embankments, wooden fences,
and the ability to withstand a siege.
The keep, often accessible by a simple ladder,
is a sign of the lord's prestige and authority.
This is where he lives with his family.
Aude, in the Pas-de-Calais,
built about 1120, has four levels,
a partially buried ground floor, acting as a cellar
and granary, topped with an upper floor,
consisting of a hall and the lord's bedchamber.
Above this was the room reserved for the lord's children,
and that assigned to the guards.
Finally, at the very top was the lord's private chapel.
Once again, this is a symbol
to show the rest of the population
and the rest of the aristocracy
that you've made your mark on the landscape.
(mysterious music)
At this time, the lords are clashing
in private wars in order to expand and assert their power.
Motte-and-bailey castles spread
in western Europe and into England.
They represent authority and power,
and allow the domain to be protected from enemy raids.
These first wooden structures, effective
against small troops of infantrymen and horsemen,
nonetheless have a weak point, fire.
During the 10th and 11th centuries, defensive installations
will be reinforced by the use of stone,
some stone defenses being built
in place of the old wooden fortifications.
Like Restormel Castle in southern England.
In France, the architecture of the first fortifications
is influenced by the Normans, firmly implanted
over a vast area they now see as a kind of nation
they have to protect from their neighbors' appetites.
It's a constant risk in the feudal system,
losing one's legitimacy by being
swallowed up by someone stronger.
So they defend themselves by keeping others out.
In this constant quest for protection,
masonry will strengthen the defense system of castles
from the start of the 11th century.
The most powerful and wealthy lords
replace the wooden keeps with large stone towers.
The most famous of these lords, Fulk Nerra,
who became count of Anjou at only 17,
will have 30 or so fortresses built,
including Loches, in Indre-et-Noire,
one of the oldest and most imposing stone keeps.
With this construction, Fulk Nerra establishes himself
in everyone's eyes as the king's equal.
He has a choice
between two kinds of construction.
It can be strategic, but it can also be
a kind of ostentatious castle palace that's the expression
of both his power and his taste for pomp as a great lord.
So, for example, a keep like Loche isn't a tool of war.
It's built entirely of stone and dressed stone, what's more.
Set back from the more recent fortifications,
the rectangular keep at Loche
measures about 25 by 15 meters.
It is 37 meters tall.
There is a door on the least vulnerable side.
The windows are splayed a narrow on the outside.
On the third floor, wider openings probably
gave access to an overhanging wooden gallery,
making it possible to change aim or to drop stones
on attackers reaching the base of the walls.
(stone rumbles)
We see signs of residential keeps
from around 900 in France,
generally with one lower room or two levels of lower rooms.
And a great hall, which often also led to the tower, which
is a multifunctional reception room on the first floor.
Above that is a space called the camera,
the bedchamber, for example, which is more private.
And then often a defensive floor in the upper part,
which is a guard's room and also serves as a watchtower.
The defense of such a fortress
is purely passive.
The wider and deeper the castles' ditches,
the higher its walls,
the better its defense from incursions.
That's passive defense.
(driving music)
This passive defense
is combined with deep defense.
Most fortresses from the Roman period
are located in particularly inaccessible places,
at the crossroads of strategic communication routes.
Numerous obstacles prevent the attacker
from approaching the keep,
ditches, ramparts, or wooden fences.
The castle is built in a naturally
well-defended place, on a hill, surrounded by a river,
forming natural obstacles to a potential enemy's advance.
They slow down the enemy's advance.
They isolate and protect themselves,
and design a castle as a refuge.
That doesn't mean they do nothing at all,
because we know that at the top of the castle walls,
there were wall walks from which
they could shoot and keep watch.
But it's still relatively passive.
Obstacles, walls, ditches, natural defenses.
Many keeps built during the 11th century
adopted the old square design that was easy to construct.
The Anglo-Norman model of this type of building
is the Tower of London, built around 1070
by William the Conqueror.
Or the large keep of Chateau de Falaise in Normandy, built
at the start of the 12th century.
But square keeps soon show their defense limits.
Their badly defended corners, creating blind spots,
are easily accessible to attackers.
They can dig saps, tunnels underneath the foundations
of the keeps or walls, which are then stuffed
with flammable material to bring down the wall
and allow access to the keep.
These square keeps will soon disappear in favor
of round ones, better suited to the art of war.
This will be the great widespread innovation
of the 12th and 13th centuries, but it won't happen
until the reign of the builder king, Philip II.
(relaxed music)
From the early 12th century, the castle represents
much more than just a fortification.
It is also a place for everyday life.
The peasants come there to work,
maintaining the walls, clearing the ditches,
or farming the lord's land, his domain.
The master of the house lives there with his large family,
brothers, sisters, cousins.
The knights move into the fiefs granted them by their lord,
where they build fortified homes.
But this sudden independence has an effect
on their relationship with the lord to whom they're bound.
There are two great rituals,
the oath of fealty and the act of homage.
You swear an oath, something spiritual and mysterious,
which is over your head,
and you promise not to harm your lord.
You are a part of his court.
It's a society where a man's worth is measured
by the number of people he has around him, serving him.
From there, there are numerous
powers centered around the castle.
When the prince is away, homage is paid to the castle.
In the same way, the king of France
now demands that the great lords pay him homage
and swear to give him military support and advice.
This organization of the relationships
between vassals sums up the feudal system.
The pyramid of power rebuilds itself.
Medieval society evolves.
If the king, who had lost everything,
gradually recovers his rights, recovers the ban,
the power to command and punish, and from now on his courts
are the only ones that can dispense justice,
this process involves new castles, or in any case,
conquering lords' castles
and adapting them with new techniques.
Castles are more beautiful, most sophisticated
in military terms, even more impregnable,
marking the recovery of the territory by the monarchy.
Especially since in the 12th
and 13th centuries, a period known
as the golden age of castles,
France and England are fighting a merciless war,
a conflict in which castles play a vital part.
We have political entities
that are becoming more powerful,
entering into open war in the 1180s and 1190s.
And this inevitably leads
to the construction of new castles,
and as a result, to strongholds.
There's innovation,
but there's also competition to build the best,
most perfect, most original, newest castle.
When Philip II ascends the throne in 1180,
the kingdom of France is hardly bigger
than the current Ile-de-France.
Normandy, Anjou, Maine, and even Touraine
are under the thumb of King John of England.
Philip II extends his kingdom at the expense
of the Anglo-Norman rulers, the Plantagenets.
He restores his influence in all
the provinces held by the great vassals.
He sets up an administration to run the kingdom.
Benefiting from the growth of the cities he rallied to him
and the weakening of the lords
impoverished by the first crusades,
Philip II, like his Capetian predecessors,
embarks on a vast initiative to restore royal power.
But he won't stop at territorial gains.
He covers the kingdom with military infrastructures,
at the forefront of which are castles.
For Philip II,
the construction of castles was obviously as a tool of war
and confrontation, a stronghold.
But it was also a special tool in the service of his power,
his authority, his image.
For him, it was a tool with which
to restore the authority of the king of France.
In all, about 30 buildings
bear the king's mark throughout the kingdom.
When he hadn't built them himself,
he gave them a round tower, a symbol of his authority.
In June, 1204, Philip II was made king of France,
and no longer king of the Franks.
In order to defend his kingdom and keep it
from the ferocious appetites of the Plantagenet sovereigns,
the new king builds fortresses with standardized plans.
A square enclosure, ramparts flanked by circular towers
at the corners, and semicircular towers in the middle.
A keep in the center,
but which soon moves to the corner.
Walls with crenellations.
A walkway around the tops of the walls,
running from one tower to another.
And finally, a gatehouse and guard room,
solidly built at the entrance.
The show castle and model for all others is in Paris.
The Louvre, which wasn't
the French king's residence, that was the Palais de la Cite.
The Louvre was built in the 1190s.
And it's the ultimate castle that introduces a new model
which will be called the Philippine Castle
in reference to constructions by Philip II,
and which is the result of a great deal
of thought around a standard plan.
The Louvre occupied the southwest corner
of the current square courtyard.
After 12 years of work, the great tower,
the keep, is completed.
31 meters tall, it is surrounded by a circular moat
around 7.5 meters in width and depth.
The fortress walls, forming a square measuring
78 by 72 meters, are reinforced by 10 towers.
A ditch filled with water completes the defenses.
The main door is to the south,
while a smaller door faces the city.
The west wall is reinforced,
being more vulnerable to attack.
Against the west and south walls,
two buildings house the soldiers, animals,
and equipment necessary to withstand a siege.
The other two walls are simply crenelated.
A deep well and a cistern provide the water supply.
Castles built to Philip II's plan
employed concepts that have existed since ancient times.
That's to say, quadrangular plans, segments of walls
built fairly high, and crowned with walkways
and regularly flanked, so protected by defensive towers,
the whole thing being surrounded and isolated by ditches.
That's an old idea, but one that's evolving.
Because we now have towers with increasing numbers
of active defense elements, that's to say arrow loops.
These standards, typical
of Philip II's architecture, can be found in Dourdan,
in Essonne, the most accomplished
and best-preserved fortress of its kind.
Curtain walls with battlements,
walkways running around the walls.
A door equipped with a portcullis and other iron
and wood grilles, a solidly built gatehouse
defending the main entrance.
Arrow slits in the towers and walls.
Towers at the corners of the ramparts,
and a keep that gradually supplants the massive
square towers and then disappears in the 13th century,
the lord willingly moving into a building
in the inner courtyard.
Although this standardization of castle architecture lasts
nearly two centuries, it comes up against the development
of devastating catapults and then artillery.
The architecture will have to adapt once again
and adopt even more defensive forms.
By that time, the towers standardized by the king
will feature in all new fortifications.
(dramatic music)
During the 12th century, following the model
initiated by Philip II, medieval architectures
would favor round, rather than square, towers,
because the siege engine projectiles brought back
by the crusaders ricochet more easily off their surfaces.
The Crusades, and more generally,
exchanges with the East, had a considerable influence
on the construction of castles at the end
of the 12th and the beginning of the 13th century.
Because military engineers were vying with each other
to find new techniques for attack and for defense.
They went back to the large Greco-Roman siege engines,
such as the giant crossbow and trebuchets.
So, counterweight devices.
Capable of firing blocks of stone
weighing over 100 kilos against castle walls and towers,
this impressive siege engine was still let down
by its lack of maneuverability and slow rate of fire.
The trebuchet is also an example
of medieval biological warfare.
While the defenders dropped foul waste and excrement
onto the attackers from the wooden hoardings,
trebuchets were used to project animal entrails
and infected corpses into the besieged castle
in the hope of contaminating its garrison.
Whatever their size, counterweight, or firing system,
these machines required a large number
of men to operate them.
They also required the knowledge to make them,
and above all, the money to buy them.
The largest siege engines were therefore beyond
the reach of lesser lords, often impoverished
upon their return from various crusades.
So, there's an effort to attack the castles,
the strongholds, and in return, of course,
an effort to defend them.
The walls are made thicker.
New defenses are created.
Walkways with machicolations.
Systems to drop projectiles on the attackers' heads,
which are found in some 12th-century castles in the West,
such as Chateau-Gaillard, but that we only see developing
at the end of the 14th century.
Chateau-Gaillard, in Normandy,
considered impregnable, was the pride
of Richard the Lionheart.
The English king accomplished the feat
of having it built in only two years.
It was the last obstacle,
destined to stop Philip II in his advance upon Eure.
It is only after a very long siege in the spring of 1204
that he manages to capture it,
because Chateau-Gaillard is equipped from very early on
with the most effective form of active defenses.
It has to resist attack.
So replacing the wooden hoardings
with stone machicolations in Chateau-Gaillard
was a very novel thing to do in the West.
There were stone machicolations on arches
at the top of the tower, and the walls were thicker.
The walls of Chateau-Gaillard are very thick.
There's great mechanical resistance to ballistic impact.
The spur was there in case of ballistic fire
to deflect projectiles and stop them from landing,
while the scalloped edge is also to repel ballistic fire
to make the projectiles ricochet off
and minimize the impact.
The thicker walls and the shape are a real solution.
In the 12th and 13th centuries,
simple entrenchment is no longer enough.
With the architecture of Philip II, defense becomes active.
The castle can now protect all of the lands surrounding it.
Because men posted on its wall walks or hiding
in its guard house can actively defend the building
thanks to new defensive mechanisms in the towers and walls
and their ability to move along the curtain walls.
Advances in the art of construction have made
the fortifications even stronger and harder to approach.
During the 13th century, the wooden hoardings,
vulnerable to fire, gradually disappear to be replaced
by cobalt constructions, brattices, small rectangular
structures with openings, and machicolations,
stone galleries running along the tops of the walls.
To better protect the outer wall,
from the middle of the 12th century,
the towers are used as firing positions.
The key element
of active defense is the archer tower.
In a semicircular tower, you make arrow loops
on the sides and front, but on the floor above,
they're in a different place.
That way, all the firing angles
are covered, leaving no blind spots.
Because staggering the arrow loops at different levels
in a fan shape allows the archer to defend
almost every angle actively from the tower.
This is really implemented from the late 12th century.
And Philip II will do this systematically.
Progress is such that fortresses
can now be built on plains, on flat, open ground.
The architecture of Philip II
will influence English rulers for several centuries.
Dover Castle, on the English coast,
defends the port closest to France.
Henry Plantagenet made it considerably larger
between 1179 and 1188 by adding a splendid palace keep.
In southeast England, Bodiam Castle, built in 1385
in the middle of the 100 Years' War,
is an archetypal French fortress.
It's built on a square base, but doesn't have a keep.
(mysterious music)
Additions, improvements, or real creations,
the principles of the fortification of architecture
initiated by Philip II evolved further with his successors,
his son, Louis VIII, and his grandson, Louis IX,
who ceaselessly expand the royal domain.
Louis IX, or Saint Louis,
who had to fight especially in the south of France
against the count of Toulouse,
had castles, strongholds built.
These eventually became places
from which to exercise royal power.
In 1248, the Treaty of Corbeil
fixed the border between France and Aragon.
A few years earlier, several fortresses perched
at the top of impressive cliffs had been bought
by Louis IX to mark the kingdom's new borders.
Their names were Aguilar, Queribus,
Peyrepertuse, and Puilaurens.
Among these vertiginous citadels,
Peyrepertuse in the Aude is the most impressive.
The fortress, dating from the late 13th century, runs along
a 300-meter ridge and stands 500 meters above the valley.
The complex is in three parts,
two castles and a vast central esplanade.
The old keep includes a dwelling and a Romanesque church,
while a second fortress, erected further up in 1242,
allows total autonomy in case of siege.
Although impressive, these citadels
only have very small garrisons.
This is particularly the case with Puilaurens.
Perched on its limestone spur, the fortress is defended
by 20 infantrymen and a pack of dogs.
What could so few men have done in case of invasion?
Would they only have had time
to go down into the valley they overlooked?
In fact, these vertiginous citadels aren't just fortresses.
They're mainly political construction,
weapons in a psychological war.
They symbolize the war of the Capetian kings
to make their mark on the kingdom they govern.
The Albigensian Crusade is an opportunity
for Capetian power to establish a strong foothold
in territories far from the royal seat.
It's true that these castles,
known as border castles because they're coveted territories,
are very often the synthesis of old fortifications,
old places of power, which are taken,
retaken, and strengthened by various people.
Carcassonne is the prime example.
It dates back to the late Roman Empire.
On top of this infrastructure is a double wall built
to Philip II's standards with new forms, for example
the use of bossage, stones given a rough, rustic appearance.
The towers are a little bit bigger, but it's built
on Philip's model with circular towers and arrow loops.
And it has to be very beautiful,
so therefore very expensive.
But what counts is that the beauty and the final form
of the architecture are proof of the power,
the authority of the Capetian king over these areas.
Carcassonne Castle,
bristling with nine towers,
is an architectural gem.
The city's fortifications are a monumental complex,
with three kilometers of ramparts interspersed
with 40 towers equipped with two large doors.
This huge acropolis towers 50 meters
above the right bank of the River Aude.
The loveliest fortified city in Europe,
Carcassonne has two walls crowned by a wall walk.
The first inner wall sits on the ancient foundations.
The second is protected by 14 towers.
It's a considerable financial investment,
because it's built in dressed stone
and designed for active defense.
There are archer towers, immense towers
with arrow loops up to two to three meters long.
We know very well that arrow loops don't actually need
to be two to three meters long to be more effective.
So there's an ostentatious element.
And also an element of demonstrating royal authority
through these constructions,
which are also obviously strong constructions.
The criteria for choosing the site of a castle
was strategic, political, and also environmental.
The site had to be close to a quarry and a forest,
which had to provide the materials for the site.
After the forest has been cleared, the land is surveyed.
Using a rope with 13 knots divided
into 50 centimeters cubits,
the master mason marks out the future building.
Stakes are planted at the center of the towers,
then connected by ropes, determining the lines
on which the curtain walls will stand.
The building work is done by specialists
with specific functions and skills.
Stonecutters, masons, carpenters,
and blacksmiths, divided into guilds.
The cost of this work is high.
The amount of dressed stone used to build a castle
will therefore depend on the budget allocated by the lord.
The size of the castle depends
on the wealth of the person building it, the land he has,
the revenues he can collect, and above all,
the peasants he can make work on the site.
The Middle Ages is an era of builders.
It's a time when a lot of wealth, a lot of capital,
went into building cathedrals and into building castles.
It may have been detrimental to living standards.
It may have been detrimental to the quality
of people's health and education.
But it left us with extraordinary monuments
that are important to our identity and what we are today.
It takes eight to 12 years
to build the castles of the early 13th century.
During the whole process, the masons will keep watch over
the quality of the assembly and the accuracy of the angles.
They use hoisting gear, such as treadwheels,
some of which can lift a weight of 600 kilograms.
Rib vaulting, beams interlocking
thanks to mortise and tenon joints,
dressed stone windows, each element of a castle
shows incredible craftsmanship.
The site is therefore colossal, a conjunction
of several skills coordinated by the master mason.
We often wonder about the architects,
especially when we're impressed
by the quality of the buildings.
There are cross-ribbed vaults and an elaborate idea
of construction that echoes that of churches.
Of course there are architects,
but we don't have their names.
Unfortunately, apart from a rare few,
they're mostly unknown.
Although the medieval architects' names
have gone, their work, whose beauty and complexity remains
uncontested today, has come down through the centuries.
With the reign of Philip II and his successors,
the kingdom enjoys a period of pacification and stability.
But castles continue to spread over the royal territory.
And although they still meet military standards,
their residential function is growing.
The quest for comfort becomes
a major concern for their builders.
The keep is eventually abandoned in favor
of a specific building, a dwelling built in the courtyard,
where the lord lives with his servants.
Here we see the emergence of spaces that are
much more suitable as a residence.
And not just anyone's residence,
but the person with the power and his inner circle.
His extended family, his mesnie.
Throughout the Middle Ages,
we have what's called the trilogy, which appears
from the Carolingian era in Latin texts.
Aula, camera, capella.
The reception room, the aula in Latin,
the hall, is a large room on the first floor,
on the noble floor where the lord has his throne.
Where meals are eaten and banquets take place.
It's a place for conviviality.
The tables are set up on trestles and removed after meals.
There's a part which is more private,
the camera in Latin, the chamber.
And then a third place, which is the chapel.
The chapel is not only a place for prayer and worship,
but it's also a cultural place where people write.
Some books are kept there.
The library is in the chapel.
So the castle is a residence and also a place
of culture, which we too often forget.
Light is an element of comfort
that is essential to the lord's daily life.
But the first rudimentary castles have few openings.
They're essentially arrow loops.
In the 13th century, large arched gemel windows
are common on the less vulnerable facades.
There are dwellings in the courtyard,
like the 12th century houses
that we still see in some cities,
with beautiful gemel windows, which are quite large.
And people like to take advantage of the natural light,
even if there were no big windows like we have today.
From early on, there were stained glass windows
as well as wooden shutters and oilcloth.
And people also took advantage
of the fireplace, torches, et cetera.
Openings are made in large niches
within the thickness of the walls, and provided
on the two side walls with stone benches, window seats.
Fireplaces are undoubtedly the elements
of comfort that appear earliest.
Relatively modest in the early 12th century fortresses,
they become highly sophisticated in later constructions,
the fireplace being synonymous with prestige.
The hood is often decorated with ornaments,
the lord's coat of arms, his motto, moldings,
and richly carved decorations, sometimes painted and gilded.
What is surprising is that we find
in some rare texts, as in archeology,
evidence of a certain luxury in castles very early on,
particularly in everything concerning hygiene.
There're examples in castles of private baths.
There are always latrines in castles.
Then there's the preparation of meals, kitchens,
living spaces, so a whole organization
and layout which becomes more complex.
Water is a vital necessity,
and one of the lord's concerns.
Indispensable to everyday life,
it is even more so in the event of a siege.
The fortress must be autonomous.
Perched on a rocky spur, it has systems
where rainwater is stored after being filtered
through a layer of pebbles and sand.
On the plain, every good castle has a well,
which is another element of ornamentation and prestige.
The wealthiest lords' homes have a water supply
in the kitchen or pipes bringing in springwater,
sometimes from several kilometers.
(driving music)
Such is the case in Vincennes,
the ultimate royal castle.
The water is piped directly from springs
on the heights of Montreuil, three kilometers to the north.
Arriving under pressure thanks to the difference in level,
the precious liquid is stored in a water tower
before being distributed to the kitchens
and baths of the fortress.
The 50-meter keep, surrounded by a wall
with a castellum consisting of twin towers and a moat,
is surrounded by a vast outer wall, 1,200 meters long.
Typical of early 15th-century military architecture,
the moat is 11 meters deep and 25 meters wide.
The walls are crowned with machicolations
on a series of cornices overhanging the moat.
Built during the 100 Years' War, from 1361,
these fortifications are typical of the late Middle Ages,
during which the conflict between the kingdoms of France
and England went through several
successive phases of high tension.
During this interminable conflict,
one invention would radically change the art of war
and military architecture, gunpowder.
(explosion rumbling)
(dramatic music)
At the end of the 14th century, numerous pieces of artillery
appear on the battlefield and inside citadels.
The spread of artillery does considerable
damage to the curtain walls and the outer walls of castles.
By firing stone cannonballs from a tube
which are smaller than the balls from big catapults,
you can breach a wall just as effectively.
And the cannon is more transportable.
So, the castle wall also has to adapt
to the emerging cannons.
At first, they just enlarge the arrow loops
a bit and designed openings for cannons
with embrasures and cannon ports and then gun ports.
Then they gradually start to design towers
in which cannons can be installed.
If the first stone cannonballs aren't
very effective at demolishing walls, the appearance
of cast-iron balls in the mid 15th century changes things,
because their destructive power is devastating.
These are balls that breach walls.
Instead of smashing on the walls, they smash the walls.
The strongest, most powerful cannons
force a change in castle architecture.
Throughout the 15th century, the fortifications
start to become much more resistant.
The fortresses become more squat,
with walls sometimes more than 10 meters thick
to withstand the impact of the new artillery.
Castles will now be built or adapted
to withstand siege artillery that's increasingly powerful,
increasingly maneuverable, using balls weighing
up to 200 pounds, about 90 kilograms,
and 42 centimeters in diameter, sometimes surrounded
with an iron band or made entirely of cast iron.
Adjusting the dosage of gunpowder
makes the shots more consistent.
From now on, the artillery can focus its fire
on any point of the ramparts, and thus,
(cannon rumbles)
create breaches.
That's really the end
of medieval stone castles as we know them.
At the end of the 15th century,
no wall can withstand the cannons.
(dramatic music)
In new Occitanie, Bonaguil Castle,
built between 1445 and 1482 by a megalomaniac lord
on the site of a 13th century castle,
will benefit from improvements made
to resists the development of artillery.
A massive outer wall called
a barbican protects the entrance.
And almond-shaped keep with a streamlined profile.
More than 100 cannon ports in the walls,
encircled by a boulevard, and protected by firing positions
in the moats and the base of the ramparts.
Castles adopting these architectural forms,
adapted for the impact of artillery with these very big
artillery towers, are the work of very great lords or kings.
Faith in castles remained strong.
But those built from they 15th century
are very different from their predecessors.
They're increasingly buried
to stop artillery fire breaching their outer walls.
The Fortress of Salses, at the foot
of the Pyrenees-Orientales, is an example.
Built at the end of the 15th century by order
of the king of Spain, it defends the border with France.
Its general design is highly innovative and heralds
the modern fortifications of which Vousbons
is one of the undisputed masters.
Salses is an example of a caesura.
It's the end of the castle.
We can no longer speak of a medieval castle,
even if it retains some of the features.
It's already a citadel.
It has big artillery towers,
very thick walls, and is defended by cannons
inside vaulted rooms which are bunkers
with ventilation systems so that the gunners
aren't poisoned by the fumes from their guns.
It's very solid.
We're evolving towards forms
that are stockier, more resistant.
The wall walk has also
been designed to accommodate cannons.
And the horseshoe-shaped towers are detached
from the fortress, like advanced defense posts.
The walls, widened at their base, are 14 meters thick
and sunk into the moat in order to protect them
from direct hits by attackers, with only the part needed
by the artillery emerging from the sloping banks.
The moats are protected by gun ports
in the base of the curtain walls.
In elevation,
it's nothing like a medieval castle.
There are no tall towers.
The towers are buried.
There are very thick walls against which the cannonballs
will die rather than shatter the masonry.
So we have buried fortifications,
the beginning of what will be called
bastion architecture, so earth constructions,
a staggering of the defenses.
There are several lines of defense.
The cannons are pushed back a long way,
but its architecture and function
is no longer that of a medieval castle.
The Fortress of Salses
embodies the end of an era.
Castles will disappear from the landscape
of increasingly centralized nations.
Their decline also symbolizes
the death throes of the feudal system.
The castle's demise is due to peace.
Peace within the kingdom of France.
Once the 100 Years' War is over in the 16th century,
there are still religious wars, but there would be
gradually less need for defended castles.
So, the emergence of royalty, the birth
of the feudal monarchy, gradually pacifies the territory.
And the castles and their most
military aspect die their death.
Once more the doing
of the prince who orders its construction,
the castle is transformed into a palace, a royal residence,
its architectural splendors symbolizing
the prestige of its royal owner.
Chambord, built under the supervision of Francis I,
from 1519, is a perfect example.
When you visit Chambord,
what you're seeing is the ultimate castle.
One of the greatest castles of the Renaissance.
It's not a fortified medieval castle at all.
It's a castle in its own right.
Some defensive attributes have been kept,
such as the keep, battlements, machicolations,
but they become decorative, a symbol of political power.
Yes, Chambord is a royal residence,
like all the castles in the Loire.
Superb castles to which the king
also brings craftsmen from Italy.
Leonardo da Vinci stayed in these castles
at the request of the great lords and the French royalty.
It's a completely different context.
These are areas that are completely peaceful for centuries.
At the same time, the kings
continue to demolish the fortresses.
Henry IV has several demolished to avoid, as he says,
their being used by the enemies of royalty authority.
This says it all.
The castles and all-powerful lords are gone from their land.
Much of the life of nobles will now take place
close to their sovereign, at court.
And Louis XIII, then Louis XIV,
will continue their work of demolition.
Louis XIII, Louis XIV, Richelieu,
are all great destroyers of castles, because they want
to end the religious wars and to restore monarchical order.
There's a desire to bring down all these symbols
which are also the symbols of a bygone time.
Often, it was enough to dismantle
the battlements, the symbols of defense.
In other cases, the castles were completely demolished
and the stones used elsewhere.
During the revolution, all the symbols
of seniorial authority are destroyed.
The castles were abandoned, some were used as quarries,
feeding the 19th-century fashion for romantic ruins.
(light music)
In the 19th century,
the castle becomes mysterious or lugubrious.
Under the pen of the Romantic writers,
a whole fantasy develops around the moss-covered ruins
overrun by vegetation, the vision of an idealized
and fictional Middle Ages, the fairy tale castle projects
its Gothic silhouette onto lithographs and paintings.
In the 19th century,
many scholars with an interest in history discover
not only castles, but churches, their heritage,
and have a very romantic and idealized view of them.
The Middle Ages becomes fashionable in a cliche form,
because some well-to-do families build themselves
neo-Roman and then neo-Gothic castles.
From 1837, the year in which
the Historical Monument Commission was created in France,
a conservation movement developed,
castles restored in the national interest.
Just like Pierrefonds in the Olse, which illustrates
the poetic fervor of the romantic fashion.
Dismantled by order of Louis XIII, it would be completely
rebuilt by the architect Viollet-le-Duc from 1857.
It's a royal construction
that has marked the history of royal castle architecture.
But at the same time, you have to look
for the original castle and take into account
the restorations, reconstructions of the 19th century,
including its reinterpretation by Viollet-le-Duc.
It has to be read in two ways.
Viollet-le-Duc was a real genius.
On the outside, he did a very faithful reconstruction
of the superstructure and the top of the towers.
And inside he showed a great deal of creative freedom.
It's a perfect balance between a faithful reconstruction
and a creation that's well researched by a cultivated man
who was also an art and architecture historian.
These imposing ruins,
which became a tourist destination for the aristocracy,
are restored by order of Napoleon III,
who wants to turn it into an imperial residence.
The architect Viollet-le-Duc will apply
his fantasy vision of the Middle Ages to it.
This building is a fusion of architectural styles,
freely inspired by the medieval period.
Double ramparts, watchtowers, arrow loops,
covering the wall walk, the keep, and the castle's
eight towers rub shoulders with strangely-shaped gargoyles,
extravagant porticos, and labyrinthine corridors.
It has a Gothic side
in the savage sense of the term.
It's very gory, very Dracula.
It's part of our contemporary imagination,
which comes from romanticism around castles.
At the same time, Viollet-le-Duc
and the great restorers of the 19th century
had a very positive view of the middle ages.
A bit like Chateau Bianc, it was our roots.
It was a glorious period.
A sense of honor, a sense of nation, the spirit of chivalry,
all of this is part of the same fantasy.
And there's this desire to rebuild the neo-Gothic churches,
but also castles like Pierrefonds, which remind us
that the Middle Ages is also an era of builders,
which has probably produced the greatest constructions
we've ever had in the West, at least since Roman times.
There are 500 years
of medieval architecture here, condensed into a building
owing more to myth than historical reality.
Pierrefonds is a neo-Gothic decor of a fairy tale.
For half a millennium, sovereigns and lords
have built fortresses whose beauty, complexity,
and incredible longevity fascinate us still.
They are witnesses of an era
of technological progress and creativity.
These buildings will remain forever
the symbol of the Middle Ages.
Their architectural majesty and the testimony
they provide about an era still full of mystery
still arouses the public's curiosity,
proof that castles still fuel our imaginations.
(dramatic music)