13th C-style castle built by hand
September 3, 2006 8:46 AM   Subscribe

In 1996 Frenchman Michel Guyot set out to build a XIII century castle the medieval way1 -- using hammers and chisels to carve the stones, horses to cart the rock and no power tools. Ten years later it is one third completed and if all goes well will be finished by 2023, after which the plan is to build an abbey, then a village.2

1. Guyot, Michael (1996). "Guedelon: Chantier Medieval". Online project home page. Multi-lingual.
2. Doland, Angela (August 31, 2006). " Stone by stone, craftsmen build medieval-style castle". Associated Press, via CNN.
posted by stbalbach (19 comments total) 6 users marked this as a favorite
 
Also of note is Bishop Castle in Beulah, Colorado. One man has been building it himself, stone by stone, for over 30 years. It's quite impressive.
posted by fatbobsmith at 9:02 AM on September 3, 2006


Dude, you can hyperlink inline.
posted by furtive at 9:08 AM on September 3, 2006


Reminds me a bit of the Coral Castle.
posted by Civil_Disobedient at 9:10 AM on September 3, 2006


Dude, you can hyperlink inline.

Silent prediction fullfilled in just two comments! I need to take this winning intuition to Vegas.

posted by cortex at 9:19 AM on September 3, 2006 [1 favorite]


Someone has been writing too many papers of late.
posted by ?! at 9:19 AM on September 3, 2006


There are many with such intuition hitchhiking out of Vegas every week, baby.

I'll say out loud that style is often commented on more than substance.
posted by ?! at 9:22 AM on September 3, 2006


I award two style points, one per footnote. But where does the good saint stand on our Wikipedia controversy?
posted by mwhybark at 9:32 AM on September 3, 2006


I was going to make a snarky comment about how if the olden-days folks had power tools, they would have used them...

But after reading that I'm nothing but impressed, and filled with an intense desire to visit.

Also, the fact that he's employing people and turning his crazy dream into a massive history lesson is great. I'm stealing this for my blog.
posted by ®@ at 9:49 AM on September 3, 2006


This will really confuse future archeologists.
posted by smackfu at 10:01 AM on September 3, 2006 [1 favorite]


This moves beyond awesome and into super-awesome territory. Fantastic post!
posted by jonson at 10:13 AM on September 3, 2006


I was worried about datedness after reading the Anglais version of the web site. It appears to have been last updated depuis 2003. When I switched to Francaise, it seems a bit more up-to-date.

Cool link. I'd love to visit, but my 14-year-old would never think it cool enough.
posted by mmahaffie at 10:53 AM on September 3, 2006


This will really confuse future archeologists.

And ancient futurologists never saw it coming.

I'd love to visit, but my 14-year-old would never think it cool enough.

You just have to make up some tripe about it being perfectly aligned with Uranus on every full moon.
posted by pracowity at 11:22 AM on September 3, 2006


2023, eh? They should race with Sagrada Familia.
posted by yeti at 1:04 PM on September 3, 2006


This is great stuff, thanks.
posted by stinkycheese at 1:04 PM on September 3, 2006


I have one1—no, two2—things to say.

1. That guy's crazy as hell, and good for him.

2. Great post construction!

posted by languagehat at 1:06 PM on September 3, 2006


There is also Richard Hurbain, who bought and restored a 14th century castle in France. Smithsonian had an article about him sometime around 1997. I can't find much on the web, but the Smithsonian article is worth looking up at your local library.
posted by QIbHom at 1:09 PM on September 3, 2006


Sees like the perfect opportunity for those guys that like to reconstruct castle-smashing trebuchets.
posted by blue_beetle at 3:53 PM on September 3, 2006 [1 favorite]


Dear God1

1. Blasdel, Frederick (September 3, 2006) "It's way better than useless motherfucking caret links to Wikipedia articles". Me, via myself. Also I.
posted by blasdelf at 4:53 PM on September 3, 2006


Reminds me of Ferdinand Cheval's Ideal Castle which I visited a couple of months ago... Impressive!
posted by rom1 at 9:42 AM on September 5, 2006


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