The historical and architectural context

The architectural and historical context

Guédelon's building plans

The methodology

The materials

1997 - 2010: Building timetable

Diaporamas

The historical context

The historical context

Guédelon has adopted a specific historical timeframe. The start date for the castle's construction is taken as 1229. Louis IX, the future Saint Louis, was crowned in Reims three years earlier in 1226; too young to rule, his mother, Blanche of Castile, acted as Regent until 1235. 

Locally, Puisaye is under the control of Jean de Toucy.  To the south-east lies the county of Auxerre-Nevers, controlled by Mahaut de Courtenay; in the north, the Capetian lands of Gâtinais.  On the eve of the sixth crusade, Puisaye is enjoying a period of relative peace and stability.

The architectural context

© Guédelon

The architectural context:

The future castle of Guédelon is an entirely new construction; there are no vestiges of a former castle in or around the site.  The castle's design is based on the architectural canons laid down by Philip Augustus in the 12^th and 13^th centuries.

Philip II Augustus, King of France from 1180-1223, is attributed with standardising the military architecture of castles in the French kingdom. Examples of this standard plan include the Louvre in Paris, Yévre-le-Châtel castle in Loiret, or more locally, the castles of Ratilly or Druyes-les-Belles-Fontaines in Yonne. 

Castles built to this standard plan have the following characteristics: a polygonal ground plan; high stone curtain walls, often built on battered plinths; a dry ditch; round flanking towers pierced with single embrasured arrow loops, the position of which is staggered on each floor of the tower; one corner tower, one corner tower higher and larger than the rest: the tour maîtresse; a twin drum towers

                                                                              protect the gate.

During his reign Philip Augustus established, by way of treaties, alliances and politically advantageous marriages, a long-term Capetian policy of expansion, this fact justifies the choice of a French, as opposed to a Burgundian, architectural model in this particular part of France.

The social context

The man we imagine to have ordered the castle's construction, Guilbert, would have been a low-ranking nobleman, vassal to Jean of Toucy, in turn vassal to the king of France. Having obtained leave to build his castle, owing to his modest standing in the feudal hierarchy and his limited finances, Guilbert favours building a small castle, a fortified residence, far removed from the scale of royal castles like the Louvre or Brie-Comte-Robert in Seine-et-Marne.