In France they are recreating a medieval castle from around the 13th century using medieval building techniques. This is one of the biggest experimental archaeology projects that is going on and is scheduled to last for around 25 years.

The location was chosen because most of the building materials are close by. There is rock for the walls en towers, big oak trees for wood and access to water and sand.

The techniques used for building the castle are the same techniques that where available during the 13th century. Everything is made by hand using period correct tools, you won't find any power tools on this building site!

Some of the techniques they had to re-discover or improvise like the exact combination of materials for the mortar.

Here is one of the main architects of the castle in front of what I believe is the chapel tower window.

All the blocks of stone are hand carved and individually fitted.

In medieval times stonemasons where paid for the number of finished stones they could produce. An ornamental piece as shown here would probably pay more than a stone used for a wall.

Here some of the workers are moving a keystone in place. You can see they use rollers to move the stone around. Most of the workers wear somewhat period correct clothing but every now and then you can spot something modern. One of the few modern concessions they had to do was safety equipment so you can see safety shoes and protective eye-wear on site.

To get the sometimes heavy stones to the top of the towers and walls they have got their own human powered cranes! For transport around site hand carts and horse drawn carriages are used. You might spot quite some modern stuff in this picture like the guy with the sunglasses. This is a visitor of the site, you can visit the building site during the construction period (spring through autumn).

Here they are making a roof of one of the towers, you can see the beams of the room below. The wooden planks are removed from the inside after the roof is finished to reveal a pure stone roof.

On the building site it is not just the castle they have, around it is a period village that can provide all the services that are needed to support the building of a castle. You can see one of the blacksmiths here, they say that without a blacksmith the construction comes to a halt after three days. Things like the chisels for the stone masons need constant resharpening and they need nails, hinges, and other tools all the time.

Also carpenters are on site. During the medieval times saws where very expensive, hard to make and maintain. Most of the work is done with axes, adzes, chisels and planes.

The logs come from the trees in the forest surrounding Guédelon.

An example of some of the woodwork in the castle. In the back you can see a very nice doorway with alternating light and dark blocks of stone.

It's not just the support services for the castle that are on site. They also have some living history where they recreate the day to day living of people in medieval France.

Grinding flour by hand is a long and pretty intense job if you have to do it every day (hence: the daily grind!). A water mill makes short work of it so you can enjoy your bread quicker, just watch out for the occasional piece of grinding stone in your bread.

In medieval times not everything was dark and muddy, there was actually quite some color and indoor decoration during those times although movies might make you think differently.

The BBC made a very nice 5 part series of the building of the castle called Secrets of the castle. I think most of them are on YouTube if you're interested.

This is what the castle should look like once it's finished.

According to the plans this should be the chapel tower in the foreground, the lords residence and kitchen and keep tower in the background.

A shot of the dry ditch with the bridge leading into the castle grounds. I find this a really interesting project and something I want to visit sometime before it's finished and wanted to share with you all.