Chateau or Castle Chillon: Innards, Furnishings, Ladies in Armor?

 Castle Basics
Chillon

Join us going through rooms and ins and outs of the Castle at Chillon. The top "teeth" on the battlements are called crenellations: archers and other defenders behind getting some protection, ducking frpom cover to cover. It also is a common sense kind of minimal fencing. See ://architecture.about.com/od/buildingparts/g/battlement.htm

Security checkpoints, Castle Chillon, defenses.

Castle interior design did not include closets.  People used wardrobes - large and bulky; or these movable chests that could then be packed and sent on with the owner to the next castle stop.  To the equivalent of Miami for the Season, or perhaps to the next place where tolls were being collected and books had to be audited.
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Clothing chests, or other household goods, wooden-carved, Chillon Castle, Switzerland

Some chests are religious in theme, others secular. As today,  it all depends on your predilection. Here is Adam and Eve, the snake now morphed into a female representation, when the Bible says the Snake is a "he."  All to suit the increasing masculinization of the Church?  Start trashing the ladies?  Above is a contemporary merchant kind of dress on the people represented.

Religious theme: Adam and Eve and, oh, no, a female snake (the Bible says the snake was a "he"); all the better for dogma, my dear. Castle Chillon, Switzerland

This kind of wardrobe - armor - would not fit into the chests. Women in armor.  Look at the shape, second from the left.  Then fast forward to other collections of armor, say, at Thun, Switzerland.  Unh-hunh. Amazing how a cultural need to box in a group succeeds just by never mentioning. Let the evidence just slide by, so nobody's antennae are set in that direction. Is that so?

Women in War. Woman's armor? Chillon Castle collection, second from left, Switzerland

Firebacks are familiar but have a longer history than we may think.  A fireback is a cast iron backer that deflects and absorbs and radiates back into the room the heat, away from the rock stone fireplace, where such heat can lead to cracking over time.  Let the fireback crack first.  See ://www.fireback.com/ for American colonial firebacks.  Can't remember the theme of this one: should have made a note.

Fireback, Chillon Castle, Switzerland

How to keep warm.  Small fireplaces had iron firebacks to reflect heat back into the room.  Beds had constructions available for curtains, and little roofs to them of solid wood instead of just fabric canopies for additional warmth.  We were told that the mattress, just a few inches of something, sat directly on a wooden platform.

Bed, Chillon Castle, Switzerland; portable. Guide said Duke took furnishings with him castle to castle.

Roofs served many functions inside and out:  here, outside, the roof to the battlements were solid, for weather-proofing, as well as to withstand invaders' weapons and fire arrows. Hurling weapons at each other, including setting fire to them and then firing them off, has a long history among enemies, see History of Rocketry at ://www.spacearium.com/special/spaceline/spaceline.org/history/1.html

Roofed battlements structure, post and beam, Chillon Castle, Lake Geneva, Switzerland

The roofing was not only protection for the fighters beneath, but also could deflect a fire weapon into the courtyard where somebody else could cope.

Medieval post and beam structure: here on battlements.
Large medieval fireplace with overhang, not heat-efficient, Chillon Castle, Switzerland

In fireplaces, even the huge ones, most heat went straight up.   It took the later wood-burning stove, or coal burning, with its ducts leading hot air to different floors and rooms, to make large places livable without an active fireplace in each room. See Europe Road Ways, Themes, Wood-Burning Stoves.

Chillon Castle, Chateau de Chillon, Switzerland

 Chillon - A Small Castle

Lake Geneva

Castle Basics

Smaller castles, used for residence and defense, can be known as "chateaux" - or, a single one, a chateau.  Use a variety of names when researching a castles - add chateau.

Castles on the water, on peninsulas, or on islands, are particularly lovely. Water all around, or on three sides, is a military advantage to the defender. Some manufactured the defensive advantage of water by creating moats (many of those old moat areas are now gardens, or just depressions left when watercourses changed, or drained.

Chillon is still on its island in Lake Geneva, firmly built out of the rock foundation already there. Was it a peninsula? There is a bridge now.

Now:  a tour of some of the main rooms, courtyard, staircases, little doors for going where you don't want people to know you are going.... and the necessaries. Necessarily included.

Castle Chillon, an island now bridged, Lake Geneva, Switzerland

Before electricity lighting up the water, it was easy to glide over to climb in. Bars on windows was a common sense defense, and did not signify a prison area inside.

Chillon Castle, View from the Prison at water level,above an unloading dock, Lake Geneva, Switzerland

Pilfering: keep the keys on the manager's hip. Or was this a prison cell?  

 Courtyard and fortified storage area, perhaps prison off and on, Castle Chillon, Switzerland

Round towers came later as a defensive measure, and signify a newer addition.  Read an online discussion of the development at ://www.castlesontheweb.com/quest/Forum12/HTML/000483.html/. Apparently, the rectangular form persisted well after the 1200's. Some used the round form as a kind of trademark. And Romans used a rounded front sometimes.

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 Outer walls, Chillon Castle, Switzerland

Escape hatches or hiding places.  We saw many floor-level indications of spaces beneath, with only the need for a crowbar in the iron ring to lift it.

 Escape hatch or treasure storage? Put a rug on top. Chillon Castle, Switzerland

Shapes of doors indicate function:  where it is desirable to keep armed people out, make the door too narrow for armor.  Where it is desirable to let someone in after hours, or to leave one's own chamber after hours, make a little door suitable for a quiet in and out. Or, let the person slip away to the pottie and back.

 Passageway door, to area between walls;  too narrow for armor, just slip in and slip out, Castle Chillon, Switzerland. Boudoir? Council room? We recall boudoir. Check for us.

Our idea of staircases folding into the attic is not a new one.  Here are folding castle stairs.

 Folding stairs, castle defense, Castle Chillon, Switzerland

 Courtyard staircase to battlements, Chillon Castle, Switzerland

A covered staircase was not only for weather, but also to shield from arrows, to a degree. Lattice-work allows a look at whoever is trying to climb up from the other angle.

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 Tower-top prison room, with manacles, Chillon Castle, Switzerland

Prisons were not always below ground.  We saw prison confinements at the tops of towers.

 Castle toilet. Garderobe. A one-holer, lookig down to lake. The necessary. Chillon Castle, Switzerland. Also useful for invading climbers. Look before you sit.

Life's necessities.  Castle toilets. Garderobes. /.  See ://www.jamesmdeem.com/castlepage.toilets.htmThe idea of a one-holer or two-holer is not new.  In Sicily, see the sizable square room with one-holers all in a row on each side.  A family affair, no problem, and a special slot in Sicily at the Roman Villa for the handy stick on which a piece of disposable cloth or wool was attached for cleanliness, then let go, and the water flowed beneath - running water. Our medievals were not so pampered here in the towers.

  Chimney pots, baffles for cinders from fireplaces, Chillon Castle, Switzerland>

Letting ash fly into the air from the kitchen fires was dangerous, with wooden shingles on many roofs.  Chimney toppers, known as chimney pots, baffle the embers' flight enough for them to cool and die, flameless.

 A two-holer, more Necessaries, Chillon Castle, Switzerland (with guard)

Was this bar there originally? Perhaps, because it was possible - and considered a fine invasive maneuver - to grapple your way up the wall and into the castle this way.  Here is a Museum of Toilets, at ://www.sulabhinternational.org/pages/museum_toilets.php/  Here is Plumbing Information, including Turkish, Crusader, etc.  Go to ://www.theplumber.com/toilets-world.html/. Flatrock.org has more, but this is enough.

 A two-holer with arrow slit above for defense when not otherwise in use, Chillon Castle, Switzerland

Chillon Castle tourist who thinks sensible castle plumbing is fun

Persuasion techniques.  Many castles have their old torture equipment around.  And the various Madame Tussaud's wax museums recreate it all.  This table, however, was different. Its pieces move and extend and contract and twist about.  Un-Cheyney us, please.

 Not fun. Torture table. Chillon Castle, Switzerland

Who was it from the US who put in an order a few years ago from the Chillon Grisley Catalogue? In 1348, Jews were accused of poisoning the water supply and causing Plague that broke out in Villeneuve. They, along with accused Christian accomplices, were tortured at Chillon. See ://switzerland.isyours.com/E/guide/lake_geneva/chillon.history.html/  But the site says they were tortured in the dungeon - the dungeon at Chillon is above water level, so the window is not inconsistent. First cause:  lack of understanding;  first resort:  go torture somebody.