Any castle medieval is a masterpiece of ancient architecture and a witness of innumerous wars and battles. The primary function of the medieval times castles was to defend and protect their inhabitants, as well as to attack and fight. A castle medieval was a home and a castle at the same time. It was a property of knights and nobles and they planned carefully their building and exterior and interior decor.
Every medieval castle is unique and individual; however, there are still some similar features in their construction. No matter what a castle it was, the living quarters of it certainly included one major element, the hall. It was a large room structure, sometimes on the ground floor, but often on the second floor for a greater security. The windows of the early halls were supplied with wooden shutters, secured by an iron bar, in the 13th century kings or great barons had "white (greenish) glass" in the windows of their castles and by the 14th century glazed windows found their common usage. The carpets were not used as the floor coverings in Britain and Northwest Europe until the 14th century; instead, they decorated walls, tables and benches.
At a feast or dinner, the castle family sat on a raised dais of stone or wood opposite to the entrance. The lord had a massive chair, sometimes with a canopy, which emphasized his status. Rush lights or candles enlightened the room and only in the Late Middle Ages the castle medieval inhabitants began to use fireplaces.
The domestic quarters contained no internal corridors. Rooms were joined by spiral staircases or opened into each other. The family slept at the extreme upper end of the hall, beyond the dais, separated by a simple curtain or screen. In several medieval castles there was a sleeping chamber for the lord and lady, located on the second floor. These second-floor chambers were sometimes provided with peepholes, disguised in the wall decorations, through which it was possible to watch what was happening on the ground floor. The intrigue was a coherent part of each castle medieval life and it was necessary for the owner to keep a close eye on the events. The lord and lady's chamber, located on the second floor, was called the solar, the name, associated today with any private chamber.
An integral part of the castle of a great lord was the chapel, the place for the family morning mass, which was situated close to the hall and bedchamber.
By the late 13th century the castle had reached a considerable degree of comfort, convenience and privacy. The lord and lady, who had slept in the hall, gradually moved to their own apartments. A century later, the castle inhabitants invented a wall fireplace, with its draft chimney.
The castle garden was nice with a variety of fruit trees and vines at one end and plots of herbs, flowers - roses, lilies, heliotropes, violets, poppies, daffodils, iris and gladiola on the other end. In some castles there was a fishpond stocked with trout and pike.
However, the main function of the medieval castle was a military one; that is the reason why, the castle inhabitants took great efforts to improve, in the first place, its mighty construction and defensive features.
Certainly, their work has been the greatest success since and then, as some of the castles have been in use for nearly a thousand of years, but still impress by their powerful appeal and stable structure.