Guédelon Castle

Guédelon Castle
Château de Guédelon
near Treigny, Yonne, Burgundy, France
Guédelon Castle in August 2015
Plan of Guédelon Castle
Guédelon Castle Guédelon Castle
Coordinates	47°35′1″N 3°9′20″E / 47.58361°N 3.15556°E / 47.58361; 3.15556Coordinates: 47°35′1″N 3°9′20″E / 47.58361°N 3.15556°E / 47.58361; 3.15556
Type	Castle
Site information
Owner	Michel Guyot (first owner)
Open to the public	Yes
Condition	Under construction
Website	www.guedelon.fr
Site history
Built	1997–ongoing
Built by	Jacques Moulin (architect)
Materials	Wood, stone, lime and other medieval materials

Guédelon Castle is a de novo castle construction project located in Treigny, France. The object of the project is to build a castle using only the techniques and materials used in the Middle Ages. When completed in the 2020s, it should be an authentic recreation of a 13th-century medieval castle.

In order to fully investigate the technology required in the past, the project is using only period construction techniques, tools, and costumes. Materials, including wood and stone, are all obtained locally. Jacques Moulin, chief architect for the project, designed the castle according to the architectural model developed during the 12th and 13th centuries by Philip II of France.

Construction started in 1997 under Michel Guyot, owner of Château de Saint-Fargeau, a castle in Saint-Fargeau 13 kilometres away. The site was chosen according to the availability of construction materials: an abandoned stone quarry, in a large forest, with a pond close by. The site is in a rural woodland area and the nearest town is Saint-Sauveur-en-Puisaye, about 5 km to the northeast.

The project has created 55 jobs and is now a tourist destination, with more than 300,000 visits each year.

The original idea of building from scratch a 13th-century-style castle came to Michel Guyot while restoring his Saint-Fargeau property. The shape of Guedelon is similar to that of the original shape of Saint-Fargeau. It matured to become a complex project focusing on several aspects:

Experimental archaeology employs a hands-on approach of testing methods to rediscover forgotten techniques. It was initiated when academics decided to experiment and learn by themselves the old skills, rather than relying merely on models, hypotheses, and theories. Another example of this approach is the attempts by archaeologists to create flint tools. Over the years ancient techniques are superseded and forgotten.

When ethnographic research is not possible, only archaeological materials and old manuscripts can help. But this creates an interpretation bias. To understand how to use a tool, how to create an object, an actual reproduction becomes necessary. This leads to the creation of swords, siege engines, fortification, etc. The purpose is not only to learn how to fabricate the object, but also to learn how to use it.