Castles dominated the medieval landscape.
And Britain has some of the finest in the world.
Most today are decaying relics,
many of their secrets buried in time.
- Now, historian Ruth Goodman... - Whoo!
...and archaeologists Tom Pinfold and Peter Ginn
are turning the clock back
to relearn the secrets of the medieval castle builders.
PETER: This is the ultimate in medieval technology.
The origins of our castles are French -
introduced to Britain at the time of the Norman Conquests of 1066.
Trois, deux, un, tirez!
Here in the Burgundy region of France is Guédelon Castle,
the world's biggest archaeological experiment.
A 25-year project to build a castle from scratch,
using the same tools, techniques and materials available in the 13th century.
It's a lot of hard work at the coalface, because this is industry.
For the next six months, Ruth, Peter and Tom
will experience the daily rigors of medieval construction...
Drop down. Yeah, there.
...and everyday life.
How workers dressed, ate...
You can really smell your food, Ruth.
(Ruth laughs)
...and the art of combat.
Oh!
This is the story of how to build a medieval castle.
Ripped By mstoll
It's September.
After six months of working on the castle, the team are nearing the end of their stay.
They're up at dawn to start their day on the Great Tower.
Oh, I love the view from up here first thing in the morning.
- I know. You can see for miles, can't you? - Yeah.
I'm always really amazed, you know, when you think about how far medieval people travelled.
You have this image in your head, don't you,
of people sticking in their own village all their lives.
And then... you start looking at the evidence
and people moved miles and miles across the whole continent!
Ordinary people like us, which I just find quite exciting.
When you think about it you've got the skills set and the tools,
it's almost like a ticket to ride, isn't it?
You can get out there because people need you.
Talented builders and craftspeople were in constant demand for construction work.
A job that could see them travel the world.
I suppose once this project was finished
workers like ourselves would have had to have moved on, moved to the next castle.
That might have been the next town, could have been in the next country.
So there must have been 13th-century ordinary working people who were better travelled
and had a wider world view than many modern people.
One group of craftsmen that travelled widely from project to project were the stonecutters -
elite members of the construction team.
Usually freemen, their experience of different sites made them experts
in both military and religious architecture.
In the 13th century a mason like Clément Guérard might even have been on crusade,
gathering influences from distant lands.
This is your wooden template.
- Yes. - You've got from the tracing floor?
At the entrance of the chapel there's going to be an ornate arch
of alternating black and white stone.
Peter and Clément are working on the first piece, but it's a complicated shape.
It's very special. Here it's round.
- Yeah, yeah. - It's arch.
- Ah, right. OK. - But here it's a right angle.
- Right. - Just this small part, I need right angle here.
The stone will form the base of the arch.
It must fit precisely into the existing walls,
but it will also determine the shape of the curve.
If it's even slightly wrong the whole arch will be misshapen.
Once the shape has been marked out,
Clément uses a tool called a pitch to break off larger pieces of stone.
This is a bit of "pif", this is a bit of sandstone.
This is very, very hard. It's very, very black. And it's gonna intersperse with the limestone.
But... because it's harder it has to be dressed in a slightly different way.
You remember, when it's black it's very good quality.
- Yeah. - It's er... it's the same with granite.
- Right. - It's very hard stone.
The pif is black and hard because of its high iron content,
and takes four times as long to dress as limestone.
It was used alongside white stones to make a strong visual statement.
- When you are here you come... middle. - Ah, right.
- Always to the middle. - Always.
Always to the middle, OK.
A hard-ended tool called a punch was used to finish the job.
This is different, isn't it? It's, as you say, it's so much harder.
So, it's just a different technique, different tools.
Yeah. In sandstone no chisel.
- No chisel. - No chisel.
- Right. - It's too hard.
Masons were paid according to how many stones they dressed.
So the final job is to add an identifying mason's mark to the stone.
And now you make your mark on the top.
Perfect. With old chisel.
Yeah, OK.
And just on the line... and poke, poke.
Using these marks, archaeologists have been able to trace the movement
of particular masons through the landscape.
So we have a "T" for Tom, a "P" for Peter and an "R" for la Ruth.
By the 1200s, medieval Europe was a busy, developing, connected place,
as workers and traders moved across the continent.
A network of roads brought produce from across the world: Exotic luxuries like silks and spices.
The textile industry was at its peak in 13th-century Europe
and castles were a major consumer of fabrics.
One of the most important elements of the industry was the trade in dyes.
This is woad - the stuff that produces a blue dye and it grows quite well in Britain.
But in France the climate means
that it has a much higher concentration of the active ingredients that produce the blue.
By the 13th century it had become quite an important cash crop in northern France,
where large quantities were grown and processed
and sold right across Northern Europe.
Karin Grunau is an expert in traditional dyeing techniques.
Why are we cutting it rather than pulling it, Karin?
Because we need just the leaves, we don't need the roots,
and it will grow up again.
So, two or three times in a year we can cut it.
So you get several harvests out of the same plants.
Well, that's useful, isn't it?
It doesn't look very blue at the moment, does it?
The woad leaves don't last long in their fresh form,
so they were specially prepared before they could be sold.
Right.
I'm not seeing any blue, it still looks just like green leaves.
First, we have to ground these cut leaves and then we have to make balls.
This will open up a little bit the leaves, and the first blue will come out.
So, for the moment you can... there's no colour coming out of that at all.
- No, no. - How people discovered this I don't know.
When the woad is ground up, enzymes are released
which start to convert chemicals in the leaves into the blue dye.
And this first stage in which we're pressing it into balls that's also about transport.
This is for the transport. It is easier to transport these balls than the leaves.
And then as this dries the first chemical processes are happening.
Yes. You will see when it is dry this will be a little bit blue.
The colour is changing already. I mean, that's... it's got a bluey tinge to it, hasn't it?
I mean, it's still obviously green but it's a slightly more bluey-green.
Well, there's my first one.
Today the forests at Guédelon provide a plentiful source of wood for building the castle.
But this wasn't always the case.
From the 11th century huge forest clearances occurred across Europe,
as farms and towns expanded and new castles were built.
Tom is helping to fetch some wood to make a new door.
One of the great things about spending time at Guédelon
is actually getting to work with the horses.
And when you think about the amount of wood needed to build a castle
there is no better way than to get out here with a horse, tie it up, and off we go.
The forests at Guédelon span 12 hectares.
But today, as in the 13th century,
wood is a valuable commodity and must be treated with care.
Right now we're taking this log out and we're allowed to drag it
because basically it's not been shaped yet, it's not been worked.
So, the ground, it doesn't matter if it comes into contact with the bark.
Medieval woodcutters would have been based out in the forest,
felling and processing the wood for the carpenters.
Un, deux, trois.
A new door is needed for the castle
and the first stage is to split a tree trunk into planks.
"Whuck!"
Jean-Michel is showing me these natural splits in the wood
and this is what we need to work off.
We need to follow these to get our planks.
Using wedges means it's possible to split timber of any size.
They're hammered into a small cut at the top of the trunk,
following the natural weaknesses in the wood.
I can actually start to hear the crackling of the wood as it's starting to split.
(Crackling)
(Speaks French)
Once split into planks the outer ring of sap wood must be removed.
You see here this sap wood, up to the bark,
this is going to be infested with insects and also maintaining moisture a bit more.
We want to work with this. This is solid, this is hard. It won't rot.
This has to go.
The planks in the door will be held together using a mortise and loose tenon joint.
The mortise is the hole and is made using an auger.
So, I've gotta make sure I'm lined up in the middle of the mortise.
I've gotta make sure I don't go forwards, backwards, to the sides.
Mortise and tenon joints date back thousands of years
and were used in the construction of Stonehenge.
He hasn't told me to stop yet so I must be doing something right.
A line of holes are drilled on each side of the plank
and then the centre is chiselled out to complete the mortise.
This tenon should slide... reasonably easily in like that.
I'm now gonna bring this across.
The loose tenon is threaded through each plank in the door.
So we'll put the other two planks there and the next stage will be to peg it.
Making doors required advanced planning.
The planks won't be pegged in place until the wood has seasoned for a year.
When planks are fixed too early they shrink and gaps open up between them in the door.
This may seem like a complicated design and a lot of work,
but it's actually based on medieval examples.
And this door would have lasted hundreds of years.
Blue was very fashionable in medieval France
after being adopted as the heraldic colour of royalty.
As Europe's largest exporter, French woad was of huge economic importance.
Once dry the woad is ground into a powder.
To complete its transformation into a dye a special ingredient is needed.
And now you have to put urine on.
- That'll be this pot that's smelling so foul. - Yes. Yes, of course.
Everything you ever need chemical-wise, in the past,
is supplied by urine as far as I can work out.
The ammonia in the urine enables chemical reactions to complete the production of the dye.
Lime is also added which helps it form a sediment.
- Now we have to ground it again. - OK.
For to have at the end the real blue powder.
- It's quite a complicated process. - It is very complicated.
And now we know because it is so expensive.
Because the end, at the end, your powder...
you have just one, two kilos of powders from a hectare of leaves.
The powdered dye is dissolved in an alkaline solution known as a vat.
There is no oxygen in the vat, which alters the dye making it look yellow.
So now... in goes the first skein of silk into the vat.
And I'm trying to introduce it gently, so I've put not too much oxygen into the vat.
- Yes. - In it goes.
- So how long will we have to wait? - This is the question.
The longer it stays, the deeper will the blue be.
- Ooh, look at that changing. - Yeah.
So at the moment it's sort of looking the same colour as the vat and as it comes out...
- It will be blue. - It's green.
When the silk is taken out
the dye molecules react with the oxygen in the air
to slowly produce the final blue colour.
- It is beginning to change colour. - Yeah.
- It's darkening. - Yeah.
It will be blue, I'm sure.
Look how blue that bit there's gone by my finger.
Using the woad as well as other dyes, Ruth will produce a huge range of colours.
Medieval builders would have used ideas from castles and cathedrals across Europe.
Master mason, Florian Renucci,
has brought Peter to the town of Vézelay to the Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene.
The Basilica was an extremely important church in the late 12th century,
the place where Richard the Lionheart set off on the Third Crusade.
Florian has drawn inspiration for the chapel arch
from a particular architectural feature at Vézelay.
All this architecture er...
Iooks from... example coming from Byzantine or Roman art.
For instance, they do use the two kind of stone.
You've got a Romanesque arch with black stone, white stone, black stone, white stone.
This is Romanesque, it's Byzantine,
so it's coming from the sort of er... from the east.
The technique of using coloured stone alternating with white stone
originated in Byzantium.
It spread to both the Islamic world and to Western Europe
where it inspired masons who were rediscovering ancient techniques.
- From the fifth century... - Yeah.
...then 11th century... - Wow.
...all the country, they don't use stone so they forget.
- Right, so just using wood. - Yes.
So, they have to... to look to the antique tradition.
And so they see Rome, Greek architecture.
Armenian architecture.
So they think about it and they go, "Oh, we can do something with stone like this.
Well, why not we try to do it?"
Byzantine-style black and white arches like these at Vézelay
can be seen in medieval buildings throughout Europe.
And now the masons are ready to install theirs at Guédelon.
We've got a former built out of wood, unique for this doorway.
And we're gonna build up continuing the black, white, black, white,
the limestone and the pif from the quarry here,
to create a beautiful archway.
Both sides of the arch are built in parallel
to make sure the stones are absolutely level and the keystones will fit.
(Low chatter)
The stone Clément and Peter dressed in the lodge is at the base of the arch,
so it's vital that it's positioned perfectly.
Now it all makes sense. This stone that we've seen Clément work on,
we can see the bit that sticks out there that goes into the curtain wall
that leads towards the Great Hall.
The curve here that is gonna become the curve of the doorway, that Gothic arch.
(Speaks French)
The stones have been measured precisely to allow room for the lime mortar,
but only the parts exposed to the air will set properly.
I mean, certainly there are Roman buildings that have been taken apart...
and inside they have found that that mortar, that lime mortar,
in 2,000 years it has not gone off.
In 2,000 years it has not set. It is still as wet as this is today.
The last stones to go in are the keystones.
The stones are marked with arrows to show their orientation, but it's not always foolproof.
Ah, ah, ah, ah, ah.
(Conversation in French)
- The other side. - The other side.
We're just spinning this keystone around.
And there we have it, our final arch.
Last-minute adjustments are made to the stones using wooden wedges
which will hold them in position while they set.
As much as this is precise as it can be and it's almost down to millimetre perfection,
when you're here, when you're at the coalface,
you've just got to tickle it a little bit to get it to work.
It's like when you buy flat-pack furniture. There's always a few bits left over, isn't there?
"What do they do?"
Once the stones are in place, the wooden former can be removed to reveal the arch.
While the door Tom made is seasoning,
he's come to work on another door that was prepared a year ago.
It must now be trimmed to size to fit inside the kitchen doorway.
What I found really interesting,
they've orientated the saw blade at a right angle to the saw.
So by turning the saw you can use this two-handed up and down technique
to work across and cut cleanly.
And that's the secret.
Two strap hinges will form an integral part of the door,
spanning the planks and helping to reinforce them.
Blacksmith Martin Claudel is making them from strips of iron.
First they need to be hammered flat: A task requiring a real team effort.
Hammer, hammer, hammer. Get it in.
Bellows, bellows, bellows.
Right temperature. Out again. Hammer, hammer, hammer.
You really do need a team of people working with you, don't you?
But it's so funny to work together.
- So you've gotta be friends otherwise... - No, it's not working.
Yeah. (Laughs)
But working together isn't always easy.
And we need to strike...
...less stronger but more precise.
(Speaks French)
The end of the strap needs to be trimmed and curved round
to form the part of the hinge that will hang on the wall.
And this curve must be firmly secured in place.
So, now, we are ready for the forge weld.
Forge welding involves joining two pieces of metal together
using intense heat, where the iron is nearly molten.
Martin is using sand as a flux which keeps the surfaces clean helping the metal to bond.
We're almost at that crucial temperature now, between 1300 and 1400 degrees.
The heat coming off here is much more intense than it has been.
This is when Martin's gonna hammer those two bits of metal together to seal off that hinge.
He's gonna have to work really quickly.
At the opposite end of the scale of metalwork was the production of gold thread,
a highly skilled craft dominated mostly by women.
Ruth and her daughter, Eve, who works with historic textiles,
are attempting to make some using gold foil.
So there it is. Now, it's not as thin as the usual gold leaf.
Gold foil would have been made by hammering gold coins between leather
until around half a millimetre thick.
So we're gonna want little ribbons cut that are sort of,
you know, no more than a millimetre.
Right. It just seems to be about getting the right amount of pressure, doesn't it?
Well, it's kind of straight.
Ooh!
Do you want to have a go at seeing if you can wrap it?
Ruth and Eve are experimenting with their technique.
They're holding the silk core in place between two pins
while they attempt to wind the ribbons round the core.
This is sort of madness, isn't it?
People talk about lost crafts all the time.
This is something that you could say really...
BOTH: It is lost.
This doesn't appear to be working terribly well.
Maybe we could turn it by rolling it... with our fingers.
Oh! Oh, I think I've got it!
- I did it! I did it! EVE: It's working!
RUTH: Look at that. Look!
- It looks like gold thread. - Yeah.
It's got that sort of stiff, bouncy flexibility that's completely different from the silk.
Gold thread was typically found in a special type of embroidery known as Opus Anglicanum,
made almost exclusively in London.
Renowned for its complicated stitching,
it appeared on the finest fabrics...
from the vestments of bishops and Popes
to elaborate wall hangings in great castles.
Ruth is attempting to make a small piece to mount on a cushion.
Eve is making silk braid on a box loom to use as a trim.
This is something that is supposed to have a seven-year apprenticeship.
- (Laughs) - Right.
And you're doing it with how many years apprenticeship?
- About five minutes. - Brilliant.
Yeah. So I don't know quite how it's going to go.
Using the silk she dyed, Ruth starts with split stitching,
a technique where each stitch is punctured by the next.
- It means that you get a very dense line. - Mm.
But it also means that you can be very accurate in where the line twists and turns to.
The second technique, an underside couched stitch,
was used to attach the gold thread.
So I'm gonna have a go at some of this gold.
So if I lay a little piece of our gold thread across there.
Now, the sewing is done with this thread,
this fine linen thread.
So, what has to happen is it comes up... and round it.
Now, the point is that I have to get this thread
back through exactly the same hole that it came up in.
But that's not where you stop.
Then you grab hold of the linen thread from behind...
and you have to pull.
And what I'm trying to do is to pull it so hard that it pops a bit of the gold thread through the fabric.
I'm hauling the thread through.
During its heyday in the mid-13th century,
Opus Anglicanum was traded for huge sums...
...only affordable to nobles, kings and the richest clergy.
I know nowadays people think of this as, you know, sort of a lady's occupation,
as a bit of frippery on the side,
but there was a real industry in the 13th century run by women.
Indeed, the best English embroidery
seems to have been done in professional, secular workshops in London.
Yeah. You can have your own shop.
You can be in charge of yourself, and of apprentices and staff.
And it's the only profession that you can really do that
and get the full recognition as being a master of your trade.
At the Chapel Tower, the next phase of the entrance hall has begun.
With the addition of the doorways this chapel is really taking shape.
I mean, this is the internal doorway, pintles here.
Only the lord is gonna come into this space.
You then have this kind of lobby area with the external, ornate doorway.
This black and white, this Byzantine-influenced structure.
Up the spiral staircase.
And then you've got the arch there.
And this external door to the chapel needs to be connected to that -
the internal doorway of the chapel, by barrel vaulting to enclose all this space.
The barrel vault will form a curved ceiling,
linking the two chapel entrances and creating a corridor.
It will be built on top of a wooden former.
Arches mark out the shape of the vault
and the laths provide a surface on which to place the stones.
Layer mason, Constantin Lemesle, is in charge.
- If you want to... to have the demonstration. - Yep.
- Just cover that and you have the name. - Right, yeah.
Like that. You can see... it just look like a barrel.
- Yeah. - You have the name.
They wasn't very creative for the name.
The laths are laid loosely in place and not nailed,
so they can be easily removed once the vault is built.
To fit tightly in place the stones need to have regular edges,
so the first job is to straighten them off.
It's er... just that little lump there needs to come off.
Oh!
Now that's the problem. I have actually hit that... one too many times.
You can just see there's a crack forming there.
My lovely square edge is compromised.
You can see it's all the way there, and I could probably... break that off with my hands.
Which I can.
The stones are tested on the former
to ensure that there are no gaps which might cause weakness.
The thing I realise is this castle gets built twice.
Firstly, every stone is put in place to see if it fits there.
Then it's taken out, mortar's added and it goes back in.
By the end of it enough energy will have been expended to have built two castles.
Once their positions are finalised they're mortared into place.
Ssh.
But the weather isn't on their side.
The rain will wash away the mortar so there's a drive to get it finished and covered up.
It's like a row of rotten teeth. It's like a...
It's like a porcupine that's been run over. It's not nice.
But... when we remove those formers it should be beautiful stone.
Finally, the last stone is in place.
You can check that it's already good.
- Yeah. - If it wasn't... the former couldn't resist.
(Laughter)
That is trust.
(Low conversation)
With the advent of gothic architecture,
increasingly ambitious structures could be built in castles.
On the tracing floor, Clément is planning what will be
one of the most complicated projects at Guédelon so far.
This all looks so much more intricate than the other things I've seen, so much more delicate.
What are you drawing up?
The grand er... la grande fenêtre.
- A big window. - Pour la chapelle.
- A big window for the chapel. - Yes.
That would have to be grand, wouldn't it? Yes.
The chapel window is a Gothic arch made up of 34 individually carved pieces,
and incorporating two smaller arches, a popular design of the time.
- Now that's a very, very Gothic shape, isn't it? - Yes.
One that's sort of... Whenever you're thinking of Gothic arches,
that's pretty much what you have in mind.
- It's a good period for the stonemason. - Yes?
- 13th century, it's perfect: Church, cathedral. - Yeah.
Cos Gothic architecture had been around for quite a while by 1250,
but it had been developed and was concentrated in ecclesiastical buildings:
Churches, cathedrals, monasteries.
For a castle this is quite fashionable and new to have a Gothically-pointed window.
You do really have to think in sort of three dimensions, don't you?
I mean, how it's gonna look from every angle: The front, the back, the sides, the...
I dreamed er... part of... part of a window.
- Do you really? - Yes.
(Ruth laughs)
I work all the day on the... on the castle.
- And dream about it at night. - Yeah.
Now... these windows, we have just two stone is ready.
This stone and this stone - it's here.
- These two here. - Just two stones.
- Just the two out of all of it. - Oh, it's a good way.
- It's good. - A good start.
The mortar is still setting on the chapel tower vault,
so Peter has come to help Tom install the kitchen door.
That cart looks a bit too small for this door.
Blacksmith, Vincent Granon, and carpenter, Stéphane Boudy,
are both needed for what is a tricky job.
I love the fact this is a moment at Guédelon where the crafts come together.
You've got the blacksmith and you've got the carpenter... and you've got the jokers.
The door needs to be edged carefully into place
and held in position before the hinges can be nailed on.
I think this entire castle has been built on small wooden wedges.
One of the main problems we've got is this is a hundred kilos' worth of door at least.
They've gotta get it right.
And right now they're not sure whether to try and shave off some of that render,
or actually cut some of that wood to fit it in.
(Hammering)
These strap hinges are starting to fit into these chiselled grooves.
The hinges must be attached precisely.
A few centimetres out of place and the door won't open.
Wow!
- We have a door. - It looks like an iron maiden from this side.
The nails need to be bent over to anchor them in place.
So hold the sledgehammer against the head of the nail.
Door in tight against the wall, and then you're bending that over to create a staple.
I am. Oh, blimey.
There's a lot more movement in this than you think.
Oh. Oh, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
You're on the wrong nail. I'm holding this one.
(Laughter)
This process of hammering the nail over and tucking it in
has really acted as a staple and pulled these together.
I didn't realise you'd have a little claw digging back into the wood.
This isn't getting shifted for anything.
With valuable produce stored in the kitchen,
heavy doors would have helped keep the area secure.
Perhaps the most expensive commodities in a castle kitchen were the spices,
imported from the East.
The returning crusaders of the 13th century had acquired a taste for spice
and it became popular with wealthy lords.
Ruth is making gingerbread.
Because of its long journey to Europe,
ginger was only available in dried form and must be ground into a powder.
This is the first and the most important spice
that I'm gonna be using in making some gingerbread.
Every single grain of spice that was used had to come the overland route -
the old Silk Route.
You mustn't think of a Chinese merchant making his way all the way to medieval France.
Instead, you must think of that Chinese merchant selling his wares to another merchant,
who takes them to the next market and sells them to another merchant.
By the time it gets here it may well have passed through 30, 40 different hands
with a small profit accrued at every stage of the journey.
Spices were desired as much for their culinary properties as they were as a status symbol.
Gingerbread also included nutmeg, red peppercorns, cloves and cinnamon.
The extreme expense of something like this, and I do mean extreme expense,
meant that the only people who could afford it were the nobility and royalty.
You were, after all, eating something that was worth more than pure gold, by quite a long way.
The ground spices are made into a paste with honey.
Next, bread is combined with some red wine.
This is best done with the hand.
The spice and honey paste is added.
And the mixture is set on a board.
So I'm just gonna take the pulp and spread it out thin.
It doesn't look very appetising at this stage, does it?
So I'm going to tidy it up because once it is dry...
...I want to cut it into perfect little lozenges.
It gets dished out rather parsimoniously.
A little lozenge now and again, only for your very best guests.
The barrel vault has been setting overnight and now the formers need to be removed.
If the masons have got it wrong the whole vault could collapse.
There's no reason why this should fall in... but you never know.
It is the ultimate appraisal of their work.
And that is the reason why I've got a hard hat on.
Because this is medieval technology but we are in the modern world.
The first stage is to lower the scaffolding uprights that are supporting the formers.
This'll drop all the scaffolding down and then we can start taking the formers out.
(Hammering)
As they hit that wood, as they hit those wedges I can feel the vibrations in this arch.
Potentially... it's good.
Potentially it's good.
Now I'm very glad, because I don't tell you, but...
- Here we go. ...the vault can push...
- Yeah. - (Laughter)
No, I think... Yes.
But nothing has been pushed. So...
Good. We are going to see now.
(Conversation in French)
I'm actually standing in the most dangerous position, it seems.
With the scaffolding lowered the wooden laths can come out, followed by the formers.
(Conversation in French)
As the formers and laths come out,
the fresh mortar is dropping down from the barrel vault.
But it emphasises the fact that the mortar isn't integral to the structure.
It's the stones themselves that create the arch that creates the strength in the vault.
Ah!
You're now indoors, Florian. You've got a roof over your head.
- Mm. - You're happy, are you?
- You're happy? - Yes! That's a wonderful vault.
Now all that's left to do is a bit of clearing up.
- Ah! RUTH: Ooh!
- It's still raining mortar here. - Oh!
- It's up. - It is up.
- What do you think? - (Ruth laughs)
TOM: I can see a hole. - Always a critic.
You've made a nice Battenberg cake out of stone.
- Always thinking of your tummy. - Don't listen to him, I think it's lovely.
It's late summer and life at the castle is in full flow.
(Clucking and chirping)
Livestock would have been kept in the grounds, from poultry to sheep.
And at Guédelon they're enjoying the sunshine.
These are our castle sheep.
They're from the Isle of Ouessant, off the coast of Brittany,
and they're essentially the closest thing you're gonna find to medieval sheep.
They're much smaller than modern breeds
and when they were round the castle in the medieval time
they would have been essentially wild.
Ruth has finished her embroidery cushion.
Well, it's good for me.
I can see why I'd need another six years, 11 months and three weeks apprenticeship, mind,
to be any good, really.
First attempt.
And Peter is dealing with the effects of working on a medieval building site.
The problem with lime mortar is it just...
The lime is so caustic, it's so corrosive, and it just dries out the skin.
So I've taken to just applying a bit of pig fat,
which, for me, just keeps my hands soft and supple.
One of the major problems (Sniffs)...
...it does smell.
And there's more dogs than people on this site and I am currently the dogs' best friend.
Castle building was seasonal work, lasting from the spring to the autumn.
At the end of a season unfinished walls would be sealed with a layer of mortar
to protect them from rain and frost.
But for the decorative chapel window this won't be possible
so the team are working hard to finish the project before the winter weather arrives.
Well, it's more than two stones now. We've got one, two, three, four, five, six.
Plus those two that were here before.
(Exhales)
But we've got 34 in total to do,
so the masons' lodge, you can hear it - it's ringing with people working.
And when you look at them, I mean, the intricacy,
the complicated nature of this stone carving, it's no wonder it's taking so long.
In fact, so much work is there to do
they've opened a second lodge over the far side of the castle
and anyone who can work stone at all is being dragooned into making the window.
Intricate stonework was in high demand
and masons were employed based on their work in other buildings.
Window design was particularly important
and something the lord of a castle would have direct influence over.
Ruth has come for a lesson in fine masonry with Matthieu Carnavilliae.
- How long has this stone taken? - Um... three, four... four days.
- Four days? - Yes, and she's no finish.
A stonemason's apprenticeship lasted seven years,
so for Ruth this is a very valuable stone to start on.
- So what's the technique? - It's not difficult.
(Laughter)
Hard work, though.
- Just a li... - At that angle.
Keep up this. Like this, so.
- Ah... ah, I see. - Perfect.
And I'm just sort of wearing down the surface.
- Too hard, too soft? - Yeah, it's perfect.
It's OK?
It's a really strange mix, this, between something that's very delicate
and, on the other hand, really heavy.
The most detailed stones are dressed by the experienced masons.
But simpler stones are supplied by the second lodge.
So this is just getting the stone ready for the skilled work over there.
- You are not normally a mason, are you? - No.
- Je suis guide.
- You're usually one of the guides. - Oui.
But absolutely everybody is being pressed into service, to do a little bit extra.
This looks pretty good to me. Can I have a go?
OK, you can.
Like music. "Chu-chu, chu-chu."
So always at an angle so that I'm not going into the stone, I'm going across the stone.
This is an awful lot more crude than I was doing in the other lodge.
It's actually a heck of a lot easier.
You might think trying to chip big bits off is harder than chipping teeny-weeny bits off,
but it's not.
These are so much lighter for a start.
The stones for the window sill are ready to be put in place.
I think out of everything that we've done here at Guédelon,
I find this the most stressful because...
the amount of work that's gone into this and you get it wrong,
and you crack that stone - that's it, you know.
Well, not "that's it", but that'll be forever in the record of Guédelon: Your mistake.
The carving on the limestone blocks is incredibly delicate.
Flat braided ropes known as "torches" are used to protect the stones during transit.
And even the wooden rollers are specially shaped and smoothed
so they don't cause damage.
Now I've been into probably hundreds of churches.
I've looked at possibly thousands of windows.
I have never appreciated just how much work goes into making them.
It's a real mixture of pre-planning, execution.
And they're making adjustments as they go and talking all the time, communicating.
It's a real team effort. We can learn a lot from this.
Before their time at the castle comes to an end,
Ruth has gone to experience something
which would have been commonplace yet extraordinary in the 13th century.
Going on pilgrimage.
For many people who lived in the same community their whole lives,
this was a chance to see the world and temporarily escape the monotony of daily life.
(Church bells)
Pilgrimage is a really big thing at this point in history, isn't it?
Everyone is going on pilgrimage, who can.
Hundreds and hundreds of people are surging up these paths.
- Absolutely. - Meeting together, exchanging ideas.
- Yes. - Feeling part of a bigger world.
Ruth is on her way to the town of Vézelay to visit the Basilica of Saint Mary Magdalene,
one of the most important pilgrimage churches of the 13th century.
Chris Kelly, who runs the visitor centre, will be her guide.
It sort of looks like a castle, doesn't it? Or a fortified city, I suppose.
Absolutely. These are fortified cities.
You can see the width of this gate which is more than four metres, which is enormous.
So, in fact, you can understand it's not for defensive purposes, it's for processions.
In fact, it's the pilgrim entrance, so wide because there were so many people.
And this goes direct up to the Basilica.
(Choral music)
From the early 11th century the relics of Mary Magdalene were displayed at Vézelay.
News of miracles spread and the church soon became a centre for pilgrims.
One of the four starting points on the road to Santiago de Compostela,
Vézelay was a religious destination of huge importance.
Today the pilgrimage of les péres de famille is taking place.
This ritual of walking across the landscape to come for spiritual reflection
is the same now as it would have been in the Middle Ages.
So when the pilgrim arrived here, he would...
When he walked in through those doors,
naturally his eyes are drawn up to this semicircle of sculpted stone
and the first person he's gonna see is Christ there.
- So we've got Christ in the centre. - Yes.
And he seems to have ridiculously big hands, as far as I can see.
- (Laughs) - Yeah.
So the hand represents welcome.
He's welcoming everybody who comes into this place.
On the far right there are two people with very big ears.
- Yes. - Some people say they look like wings.
In fact, they're seen as a reference to St Benedict's rule:
"Open the ears of your heart and listen to the master inside."
That is to say, be who you are to the fullness of who you are.
I think most of us, when we think about medieval people and their experience of religion,
we tend to think people were largely ignorant but this is a very sophisticated way of thinking.
Of course, the monks, their role is to explain to each person when they arrive.
You could think of it like a visit to the Mona Lisa in the Louvre
and experts have to tell you what to think, almost, about it.
- Yes. - It's got an element of that tourism and...
Yes, you might call it spiritual tourism.
A once-humble church, the Basilica was expanded to make room for all the pilgrims.
Kings, nobles and abbots came along with thousands of ordinary folk
to venerate the relics and confess their sins.
Pilgrimage can be understood as a physical journey
that helps you to have a spiritual journey.
By leaving behind everyday life
you are putting yourself into the right frame of mind to help yourself grow inside.
It's been an endeavour of epic proportions.
But the intricate carved stones for the chapel window are now ready to be installed.
Over 2, 700 hours' work have gone into shaping and refining the delicate pieces,
crafted out of 15 tons of stone.
(Low chatter)
- How long do these take to make, then? - Hm... 15 days.
- Were you pleased with the results? - Yes, perfect.
- Time it's not important. TOM: As long as you get it right.
With stonework this delicate it's important to get it securely installed quickly
so the surrounding walls can be built up to protect it.
This is a massive push to get this finished,
because the chapel's gotta be covered up before those... that bad weather sets in.
Otherwise, all that work can be... can be undone.
And this really is medieval crunch time.
One of the most critical pieces is the mullion,
the central pillar which will support both of the internal arches in the window.
But there's a problem, it's too tall.
Hold tight.
This must be corrected before the stone can go in
or the rest of the window won't fit together properly.
That mullion for the window is a centimetre too long so...
- Oh, you're joking. - Clément is gonna have to shave...
a perfect centimetre off the bottom of that mullion
prior to it going in, prior to them finishing the window.
I mean, there's already a time pressure and things like this are just gonna...
- You can't plan for that at all. - But this is Guédelon, isn't it?
This is the... the whole purpose, learning as you do.
Clément's last-minute adjustment will be put to the test
as the rest of the stones can now be painstakingly eased into position.
(Speaks French)
Are they happy? It's hard to tell.
But the formers are removed.
Everyone who worked on the window has come to see it finally revealed.
(Applause)
Wow. I have to look everywhere because it's beautiful everywhere.
All the Gothic forms are make by the light.
So here it's er... white and here it's dark.
- It's like a painting. - Now, the key question: Are you happy?
- I think, yes. - (Laughter)
- He's not sure but he thinks. - Yes, I am.
With the window finished the team's time at Guédelon is coming to an end.
The seasonal nature of castle building meant many of the workers were itinerant,
moving from place to place and seeking other employment in the winter months.
All that's left to do is to tidy the site and clear the hovel.
But with 13th-century accommodation so sparsely furnished there's not much to pack up.
Ruth just needs to clean the floor.
These rushes have been down for a couple of months.
They are beginning to get quite trodden down and quite broken up.
Underneath the surface, which still looks reasonably clean,
I really was expecting to see insects moving around,
I was expecting to see mouse droppings.
And it's just not here.
So this is obviously the moment to clear it all out.
Probably the most important thing I think I've learned on site is...
how to put technique before anything else.
You don't go in with pure strength or force,
but you learn the techniques
that allow you to work for long periods of time and work accurately.
You get your technique right then everything else will follow.
- Hey! - Whoa! Very good.
I've really liked seeing the way the geometry has come into play.
We all studied this at school and it seemed so distant and pointless,
and yet... here we can see exactly what it's all for.
And now, when I look at all of the built world, I can see the geometry.
I can see why those lessons actually were really important!
Guédelon is the largest experimental archaeology project in the world,
but the castle itself is merely a by-product.
The experiment is creating the Chantier Médiéval:
The medieval building site.
Having seen just how much work goes into laying, say a single stone,
whenever I see a ruined castle I won't be looking at the building itself,
I'll be looking at the hundreds of craftspeople that were involved in that project.
The thousands of hours of labour that went in to make it.
And the community that surrounded it.
(Man plays recorder)
How do you build a castle? Well, I know now.
PETER: Hi, Ruth. RUTH: Aha! Look!
- What have you got there? - Ooh!
- We have some wine and some gingerbread. TOM: A bit of a treat.
RUTH: Doesn't that look amazing? PETER: It does, doesn't it?
TOM: It's incredible.
I mean, this morning it was just pieces of stone in the masons' lodge
and it just looked like a ruin.
And they brought them up here, put them together and it just is beautiful.
I really have got a new respect for the builders of the past.
Ah, it's changed my view entirely.
Such a fitting place to end our journey,
because we started down there on the chapel floor.
We marked out the centre and in a season we've come up...
We're 12, 15 feet higher up at least.
- With our food of kings. - Food of kings.
- I'm gonna try this. - Drink of men.
That's full of flavour.
Wow, I think, don't you?
- To the window and to Guédelon. - To the window and Guédelon.
Window and Guédelon.
PETER: Well, we do Guédelon, you know. TOM: Most of the time.
(Laughter)
Ripped By mstoll