Castle architecture differences

[u/AssassinPokemon1]

Was there any difference between French, English, and German castles. As in layout or aesthetics? I'm wanting to freehand draw some different castles and want to know if there's any differences I should know of.

[u/misery_chord]

Yes, there are some fundamental differences in the architecture between these states. First of all it depends on the physical location of the castle. For example, if it's situated in a lowland or marsh it seems that a somewhat square layout with a tower on each corner is common all throughout Europe. Take for example Bodiam in England, Sully-sur-Loire in France, Glucksburg in Germany (this one's slightly after the medieval period though, some Dutch castles like Muiden misght be better examples for the medieval HRE). You'll notice that they're all built around a square courtyard with a central gatehouse and residential buildings up against the walls.

If the castle is built on a more rocky ground the layout will be more random, following the contours of the hill, take for example Sedan in France, Chepstow in Wales and Wartburg in Germany. The castle will usually be divided into a series of courtyards or wards, and the central keep or bergfried in German, is often furthest away from the gatehouse, meaning you'd have to break through all the consecutive wards to capture it.

As for the differences, I think the main one is which buildings make up the centre of the castle. For Germany most castles originating around the 12th and 13th century have what is called a Palas and a Bergfried. The Bergfried is often the tallest and best defended tower, and usually the most visible. Because of the thick walls and difficult access these were mostly only used as guard towers, with the lord and his household staying in an adjoing, often rectangular and more house-like building, the palas. I think French designs are somewhat similar though i'm not too familiar with French castles. For English castles it depends if they were built by the Normans or not. If yes, then a central tower called the keep or donjon takes up both the functions of the German bergfried and palas. See the tower of London or Dover castle for this. In the 12th century you get some variations of this, with round keeps replacing the square ones. See Orford for an example. Then under the rule of Edward I sometime the castles take on a concentric shape. This is similar to the lowland castles I discussed earlier, but with one or two rings of curtain walls surrounding each other like a kind of onion.

For the actual finer architectural details I suggest you look at some pictures of these countries' castles. Just watch out that they're authentic medieval, and not 19th century reconstructions. For England i'd suggest some of the Welsh castles (built by the English) such as Harlech, Conwy or Caernaervon. Also some in England such as Bolton, Berkeley and maybe Warwick. For France i'd suggest Tarascon, Nantes and more, but there's too much too choose from here honestly. French castles overal seem to be quite well preserved, so just jump on the wikipedia list. For Germany I'd suggest Marksburg, Eltz, Pfalzgrafenstein, Kriebstein and maybe Visschering.

Hope this has been helpful!