Medieval fortress being built in Arkansas, USA

[Daria]

This is awesome. Although I live in Florida, my dad's side of the family all migrated to Arkansas before I was born. They predominanlty live in Rogers now. So a family visit would be an excellent excuse to stop by the castle. It's actually not a surprising choice for a site to build either, the Osarks are a beautiful part of the country.

I'm also assuming that they'll start hosting Ren Faire's there. Although it looks like a permanant one now what with all the "volunteers" & artisans in constume.

[Tower of Iron Will]

Unfortunatly I don't have anyone I know that lives near that area. It's currently a few (3 or 4) states away from where I am now. It would be very cool to go and check it out.
-Tower

[Thoriun]

I saw the images and visit the site, i thing it's a great idea. In europe there are lots os old castles and several medieval buildings that are in ruins, maybe rebuilding some of them if not all it would be a great thing. It would creat jobs if nothing else.

Thoriun

[elwurmogrande]

I saw the images and visit the site, i thing it's a great idea. In europe there are lots os old castles and several medieval buildings that are in ruins, maybe rebuilding some of them if not all it would be a great thing. It would creat jobs if nothing else.

Thoriun

I have to disagree here.

Firstly it would be way too expensive (who would pay so much money for several thousands castles?) and secondly it would rather destroy and deface what is left of the past. Of course there are some really good examples, where a castle has been restored really nicely, but in most cases the result is more than shocking.

Take a look at the castles along the Rhine. I know that many people like them, but some of them really offend my eye like Stolzenfels for example. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stolzenfels_Castle or, a more modern sin, Bensberg near Cologne http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burg_Bensberg and what about Schoenburg castle? Many old and really beautiful frescoes were destroyed just fore an elevator. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schönburg_(Rhein)

Personally I think it is better to preserve than to restore, as the loss is/would be permanent and not worth the effort. I think that many ruins give off much more fascination and imagination than a preserved castle could ever do. Spend the money on research and computer models rather than fancy, pseudo-medieval buildings just for entertaining the masses.

Believe me, there is nothing better than driving through the Eifel (as it is quite near to my place, of course it can be somewhere else in Europe) in autumn, when it is really cold and foggy, and you climb a mountain with an old ruin on top of it and the silhouette slowly emerges out of the fog and you are alone. The only thing you hear is the cold wind, a buzzard or maybe an owl is calling from somewhere and suddenly you travel back in time and you are really awestrucked by the mastery of our ancestors. I seldom had that feeling at a restored castle, as they tend to be overcrowded (museum, hotel, youth-hostel, etc). So, let the ruins be ruins and enjoy their natural beauty.

[Heir of Black Falcon]

I don't know. I think that if done properly a well restored castle can be very useful for learning about them, more so than anything we can make as a visual aid.

I think this is a good example-
http://www.jeremy-irons.com/press/archive/56.html

Mr. Irons spent time doing it right. In the end people around it may or may not have liked it but this was how it was. As he said we have hundreds if not thousands of ruins. Many of these if left alone could/will be nothing more than piles or rocks if some interest and therefore funds are not raised. One clear way to do this is restore them. Now clearly it is wise to do all the research and checks before doing so. Each site needs to be scanned for anything that with rebuilding might be lost but I think there needs to be a balance between simply preserving the structures, letting remain as it is currently (or at times limp along to slowly fall apart of time) and rebuilding the structures in part or in whole. I do tend to think rebuilding some structures from scratch to preserve the original would be an interesting way of giving the full effect of the primary structure but cost would be prohibitive. That said I am not aware of this being done on a meaningful scale.

One reason I like this project is no originals were harmed in its creation.

Heir

[elwurmogrande]

That's the point. If there had been proper research on it, I wouldn't always disagree, but only a few are willing to finance it and very often it is simply impossible.

I know of several communities who had recently "restored" castles without proper research in some kind of "medieval hysteria", where entertainment was/is more valuable than historical accuracy. Luckily our monument protection service is limiting this hysteria at least to a certain extend.

A nice example is the castle in Huels/Krefeld, which was, although researched by archaeologists, not properly reconstructed. A gate was inserted, the walls and tower loosely reconstructed.

http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burg_Hüls
http://www.burgenwelt.de/huelser/index.htm

quote: Von der recht spät erbauten ehem. Wasserburg, haben sich noch ansehnliche, leider sehr modern sanierte Reste erhalten. - Of the late medieval moated castle some impressive ruins are left, which were sadly restored in a very modern way.

As I have said before, there is light and shadow and this has been discussed for ages. Personally I welcome an excellent reconstruction, but that is in many cases very difficult and is based upon speculations. In these cases secure their structure and let them be what they are. Don't forget that ruins have a special charm

[Thoriun]

I Would like to point out one thing. I didin't say rebuild all the castles in europe but one or two in each country, why not?

In a time were there is a huge unemployment in the world and a global financial market crisis, europe is not in any way far from this reality.

It's a good way to create jobs. To build a castle its necessary to have carpenters, masons, glass workers, etc.. It would give purpose to a nation (any in europe or the world), the revival of its national history and Heroes. Beside the above jobs it would create other jobs. People to reenact medieval life, In Portugal like most of europe there are medieval fairs). Tourism benefits from this events. It would provide schools a place to show their students how life was 800 or 1000 years ago even how a medival battle was fought. The cost to build the castles using medieval techniques would be Wood, Stone (largely avaiable in europe) and people (mencioned above) so the cost would be paying the workers. The materials would be another cost but even that i live to your consideration. Beside with a castle with would come a small vilage to suporte it (again the medieval reenactment). In this vilage comerce would be generated. Medieval Weapons, potery, etc..

Naturaly all would have to be done with historians suporting the knolege

Personaly i perfer the VII to XIV century castles to the more recent XVIII or XIX century styles.
Beside Medieval Life, europe also has something like 2500 years to recreate
romans, dark ages, age of discovery, age of enlightment, etc..

Hope that i havent bored you

Thoriun

p.s. sorry for the english, not my native language.

[DNL]

I have known about the one in France for a while after reading about it in a book, and my dream is to once participate in the building progress to learn about primitive construction techniques and medieval life. First i will have to learn some more French or it will be hard to communicate, and i will have to find the time and money. I prefer the design of the american one, the shape of the building just looks nicer and more intriguing.

[Blueandwhite]

I love the concept behind this. The idea of actually building a castle using only traditional building techniques is amazing. I also agree that this has more meaning in a place such as North America where such structures simply don't exist.

Still, there's a reason that a site like Guedelon attracts countless viewers from abroad. The actual act of building a castle can be as interesting as the castle itself. Also, let's not forget that many of the castles in Europe were constantly updated over the years with larger windows and 16th and 17th century additions. Finding a true medieval fortification that isn't in a ruined state or updated for it's more recent occupants isn't necessarily an easy task. Most true medieval fortifications which weren't updated fell into decay hundreds of years ago. I would definitely like to see a few more of these projects green-lit.

On the topic of restoration; I don't think restoring existing castles is always the way to go. Many of Europe's ruins hold a great deal of history. Moreover, with restoration there is almost certainly going to be controversy. Many restored castles so far removed from their original purpose that they lose their identity. In some cases I feel that the parties involved would be better to build a duplicate version of the castle on a second site with similar terrain. Moated fortifications like Bodiam Castle would be ideal as the terrain is less-specific.

[Heir of Black Falcon]

Check this out. Pretty good looking castle in the Southern Medtrn. Style.

http://www.castellodiamorosa.com/index. ... a5dc009af9

Heir