Interior The Great Hall The Great Hall was the main room of the royal palace, castle or a large manor house. A quintessential Great Hall was rectangular in shape, between one and a half and three times higher than it was wide. Entrance through the great hall was through a screening passage at one end and had windows on one of the long sides. There was often a minstrels gallery at the top of the screens passage. At the other end of the hall was the dais where the top table situates. Beyond this entrance were the private rooms of the lords' families. The kitchen, pantry, and buttery was through the screen passage. The Great Hall had many purposes. It functioned for receiving guests and household dining's. Some members of the castle slept in the …show more content…
The solution to the problem was no corners, round towers, such as the ones that furnish the Bodiam Castle. Machicolations and Battlements Machicolations were added on after 1066 when the Normans conquered England. They were openings in the floor between the corbels (stone supports) of the castle's battlements. They were added so that soldiers had space to drop boulders or literally heavy anything upon attackers. Machicolations jutted out from the main castle walls to make this possible. Battlements were built on chest shoulders or head height. It was designed to protect the castles military whilst providing openings for their archers to shoot. Gatehouses and Barbicans Although the entrance to the castle was essential in times of peace, it became a vulnerable point for times of siege. The Barbican was the first line of defence, constructed in the form of a tower over a gate or bridge. By adding a gatehouse not only were the entrances more secure, it resulted in being the most secure part of the castle. The Bodiam Gatehouse was made of thick stone bricks and in addition nasty traps, such as murder holes built around the passage walls. Portcullises were also built within the Gatehouses, like a
room there where many cloaks to sleep on so there was no need for a
A typical feature of a concentric castle is the protective wood work at the top of the walls. We cannot tell whether this was a feature of Portchester Castle because any evidence would have rotted away.
family was they had three-rooms which were placed on a hill facing the "Big House". The
And with good reason! The sheer luxury of the property is overwhelming. The mansion has 34 beautifully decorated rooms that boast 15th through 19th century art and furnishings. While blending together harmoniously, there is nothing subtle about the elaborately carved furniture, voluminous drapes, ornate carvings, and the richly colored tiles. The intent is to convey the excesses of wealth, which it does, albeit with grace and elegance.
CATAPULTS The catapult, was invented by the Romans, and plays a large role in the siege of any castle. Besiegers could fire 100-200 pound stones up to 1,000 feet. The catapult was used to destroy buildings and walls inside and outside of the castle walls, it could also destroy an enemies moral by throwing severed heads of comrades, they could spread disease by throwing shit and dead animals in, and they could destroy wooden building by throwing bundles of fire in.
The figurative walls in the novel are much harder to pin point than those that are literal. Candido’s father showed him that when he is “…lost or hungry or in danger, ponte pared, make like a wall” (Boyle
The interior (as stated above) is certainly just as awe inspiring as the exterior, notably that of the Hall of Mirrors. The main feature of the hall is the seventeen mirrored arches that reflect the seventeen arcaded windows which look out onto Versailles equally- magnificent garden. Each arch contains twenty-one mirrors, for a total of 357 in all. This magnificent hall measures 73 meters long, 10.5 meters wide, and 12.3 meters high (240x34x40ft). Statues and busts line the walls. Other areas of note are the Versailles Gardens, and the Royal Chapel, both of which echo the palace itself in regards to the beauty and grace of their appearance. As mentioned earlier, Versailles is a key example of baroque palace architecture, and many of the finest craftsmen in Europe worked it for many years.
Towers extend from each of the four corners. Exterior walls enclose the premises. The walls were clearly built for defensive purposes with towers on each corner. The tower of London exists, with some later modifications, till this
The principle behind the Gothic style was to reach greater interior heights. However, “medieval churches had solid stone vaults (the structure that supports the ceiling or roof). These were extremely heavy structures and tended to push the walls outward, which could lead to the collapse of the building. In turn, walls had to be heavy and thick enough to bear the weight of the stone vaults,” (“Gothic Art and Architecture”). Thus, the taller buildings such a churches would be more expensive to build and look bulky and ungainly, which doesn’t quite fit the style the clergy were aiming for. In response to this problem, master masons of the medieval period developed the iconic ribbed vault. This newly developed ribbed vault had several interesting characteristics. A ribbed vault was the conjunction of two or more barrel vaults. The vault itself was a collection of stone ribs traversing the vaulted ceiling and transporting the weight onto the ribs themselves. Also, instead of the traditional round arches, pointed arches were used. This gave the ceiling of Gothic buildings a light and more versatile look (Martindale). Not only did these ribbed vaults bring a (somewhat) unique look to cathedrals, they also served an incredibly vital part in the architectural design of Gothic structures. The Gothic structures’ “new arrangement significantly reduced the weight (and thus the outward thrust) of the ceiling vault,” which reduced the constant danger of collapse and cracking for the thick Romanesque walls when they tried to reach taller heights (“Gothic Architecture”). The ribs also “transmitted [weight] along a distinct stone rib, rather than along a continuous wall edge, and could be channeled from the rib to other supports, such as vertical piers or flying buttresses, which eliminated the need for solid, thick walls,” (“Gothic
In the joust the knight used the lance, a weapon specifically designed for mounted combat. At first jousters would simply spur their horses towards one another, weapons ready, each attempting to knock each other off there horses. If a knight was knocked to the ground, his battle was as good as lost. For the mounted warrior could run him down, trample him with his horse, or spear him with his lance; all while out of reach of the land bound fighter.
The Palace of Westminster, also known as the Houses of Parliament, serves as the meeting place for the House of Commons and the House of Lords. The Old Palace was a medieval building that was destroyed by fire in 1834. After the fire, a competition was held for architects to submit plans for the new building that should be in a Gothic or Elizabethan style hoping to embody the conservative values of England. A Royal commission chose Charles Barry’s designs for a Perpendicular Gothic palace. Barry’s own style was more classical than Gothic, which is why Augustus Pugin’s involvement was so crucial in Barry winning the competition.
He passed the house with its huge open hearth which, in the days of ...
The strength of a gothic building is made to reside in a finely organized framework rather than in its walls. This framework, which consists of perfectly placed piers, arches and buttresses, frees up any unessential impediment of walls and presents a light feeling. The stability of the building depends only on inert massiveness in its outermost parts, whose opposing forces counteract each other in a perfect stability of thrust and counterthrust. Gothic architecture is an artistic, strategic system of engineering, schemes for building were followed for elevations, termed quadratum (four sided) and triangulorum (three sided). 2 This system allowed them to raise their ideal structures according to symbolic measure and numbers reflecting the geometry of the New Jerusalem and its prototype, the Temple of Solomon. (Figure 1.1)
The first castles built (Motte and Bailey) were made of wood and quick to build, but they were burnt and worn down easily, so the next castles were made of stone. (Square keeps) They were tall, strong, large and lasted long, but attackers would surround the castle and wait for ages for the people inside to come out. The third castles (Shell Keeps) were even stronger, but because they were made of heavy stone, they might collapse. So finally, the fourth castles (concentric) were built and they were the strongest, largest most defensive and most expensive castles built.
During the whole of a dull, dark, soundless day in the autumn of the year, when the clouds hung oppressively low in the heavens, I have been passing alone, on horseback, through a singular dreary tract of country; and at length found myself, as the shades of evening drew on, within the view of the melancholy House of Usher. (654)