What is a great room in a castle?

What is a great room in a castle? Toggle text. Life in a medieval castle centered on the great hall, the castle's main room. Here the lord would eat, entertain guests, and conduct business. Each day, the lord and his family would enjoy a huge meal, waited on by pages and servants.

What is the weakest part of any castle?

The Gate. The entrance was often the weakest part in a castle. To overcome this, the gatehouse was developed, allowing those inside the castle to control the flow of traffic. Gatehouses were inside the wall and connected with the bridge over the moat, but they were more than just doorways.

What rooms are in a royal palace?

What are rooms in castle called?

In a medieval castle, the rooms were often referred to as the Great Hall, the Keep, the Solar, the Chapel, the Kitchen, European by reason Author has 4.5K answers and 16.7M answer views Updated 5y.

What is the big room in a castle called?

A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages, and continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great chamber for eating and relaxing.

What was a great room used for in a castle?

The great chamber was at the dais end of the hall, usually up a staircase. It was the first room which offered the lord of the household some privacy from his own staff, albeit not total privacy. In the Middle Ages the great chamber was an all-purpose reception and living room.

Why do castles have secret rooms?

These were often used as a means of escape or as a way to move around the castle undetected. The secret passages could be used as an escape route in case of a siege or an invasion, or as a way to move around the castle without being seen by enemies.

What is a small castle called?

A motte-and-bailey castle is a European fortification with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by a walled courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade.

What is a castle balcony called?

In medieval fortification, a bretèche or brattice is a small balcony with machicolations, usually built over a gate and sometimes in the corners of the fortress' wall, with the purpose of enabling defenders to shoot or throw objects at the attackers huddled under the wall.

What is the tallest room in a castle?

The Keep. The Keep was traditionally the heart of any Medieval castle layout. It was usually the tallest and strongest tower, situated at the heart of the fortifications. In Medieval times, they wouldn't have used the term 'the Keep'.

What is the weakest part of a castle?

The entrance to the castle was always its weakest point. Drawbridges could be pulled up, preventing access across moats. Tall gate towers meant that defenders could shoot down in safety at attacks below. The main gate or door to the castle was usually a thick, iron-studded wooden door, that was hard to break through.

What is the safest place in the castle?

At the time of Chr tien de Troyes, the rooms where the lord of a castle, his family and his knights lived and ate and slept were in the Keep (called the Donjon), the rectangular tower inside the walls of a castle. This was meant to be the strongest and safest place.

What is the open space in a castle called?

The Yard (or Bailey or Ward): An open courtyard inside the castle walls. Loopholes: Narrow slits in the walls (also called embrasures, arrow slits, or arrow loops) through which soldiers could shoot arrows at the enemy.

What is a great hall in a castle?

great hall, main apartment in a medieval manor house, monastery, or college, in which meals were taken. In large manor houses it also served other purposes: justice was administered there, entertainments given, and often at night the floor was strewn with rushes so that many of the servants could sleep there.

What are sections of a castle called?

Castle Battlements and Parapets The raised sections of the battlement were known as merlons and the lower parts were called crenels. Crenels, sometimes called embrasures, were regularly spaced gaps in the castle battlement. Castle defenders could take protection behind the merlons and fire arrows from the crenels.