Building a castle

Construction of Chateau Guédelon was started in 1997 and there is no end in sight. The project is using only Middle Ages techniques and tools; no electricity or hydraulic or steel.

Blacksmiths make all the tools for the project by hand. It takes all day to make an axe.

Carpenters split wood to make boards and trim with axes.

Bowls and eating utensils are made of wood

The walls are 5 meters thick at the base and 3 meters at the top

The well was the first thing made. It is inside the castle walls

Two hundred loaves of bread was made daily. We were not able to see the mill because the creek was flooding. The bread oven is huge and outside of the kitchen.

This is enormously time consuming, by hand with chisels made by the blacksmith

The geese were talking about Kira the dog when we went by, I’m sure.

I was interested to see in the film how they make concrete. They first start by burning limestone to get lime, and then mix it with the aggregate in exactly the same way that I saw it done in Mexico.

I was on a mision de candelilla construction trip once- we hired some local men to make the concrete floor of the covered porch we were building. They shoveled sand and gravel out of a dry creek bed into a pick up truck, then shoveled it out on site . They measured the aggregate, cement, and water the same way it was done in the Middle Ages. They also had no electricity.

I hope to go back in a few years and see the progress. It is an enormously successful project They have hundreds of thousands of visitors a year at €16 each. Ancient skills have been rediscovered, and a workforce of traditional craftsmen trained.

I first heard about this from a documentary. The English stonemason in the interview is still there, I spoke to him. https://youtu.be/Uy4uEZV4jpo?si=UDdzimF0M8Dh54xS