French Medieval Castle Has a Quirk: It's Only 26

Construction is underway at a medieval castle in France's Burgundy region, but not to restore or repair the building. Instead, it's being newly constructed, a project that broke ground just 26 years ago using only tools and materials found in the 13th century. NPR visited Guédelon Castle to get an inside look at its progress. Today it sees 300,000 visitors yearly—generating $5.25 million in revenue that helps foot the bill for construction costs. A key component of the project is education, so the workers take long breaks to stop and explain their set ups to visitors. "This is a place you experience with all your senses," communications director Sarah Preston told NPR. "As soon as we walk onto the site you smell the woodsmoke. There's something so evocative about these sites and sounds."

To keep with the middle ages vibe, workers on site wear medieval style clothing and turn off cell phones. One exception to their wardrobe is sturdy work shoes, and workers sometimes don hard hats when required. Guédelon Castle's website says over 40 people are dedicated to constructing it, including, stonemasons, carpenters, and people working the forge. Lunch breaks also stay true to the times. "We grow only medieval plants," a gardener on site told NPR. "So that means we don't have tomatoes, we don't have potatoes, because those came from South America much later." Paints and dyes are also derived locally, and some of the heavy lifting comes from a period treadmill crane that can lift 1,000 pounds.

"The stones are very heavy," stonemason Tendra Schrauwen told NPR. "It's very dangerous. You can damage your body. So the most important thing is to work in a team." Such dedication to keeping things medieval is not all that easy. A similar project broke ground in Arkansas, of all places, and Atlas Obscura reports that it was ultimately abandoned in 2016. But the skills learned at Guédelon Castle came in handy after Notre Dame Cathedral's fire in 2019, when Preston says they were inundated with requests. "Guédelon served as an example that it would be possible to re-build using traditional techniques," she told Newser. "We had previously built Great Hall's roof with green, axe-hewn wood. (A 2,000 year old castle in Turkey was heavily damaged after this year's earthquake).