Description
Book SynopsisThe essential companion to discover the styles, architecture, form, significance and historical impact of castles from all over the world. How to Read Castles is a travel-size primer that takes a strictly visual approach to castle architecture, building up your vocabulary of castle types, styles and materials, and showing you how these aspects can be recognised across architectural features from the floor-plan and moat, to the towers and crenulations. Focusing on the 10th-16th century period, and crusading across the globe from a Welsh motte-and-bailey to a Japanese
hirajiro, this is both an architectural reference and a visitor's guide showing you how to read the stories embedded in every castle’s stones. Castles once dominated the landscape as seats of power and symbols of wealth and status, providing a means of control over borders, passes, routes and rivers. Armed with this book you will be able to unpick their histories and see how they shaped the land around them. From rugged coastline defences to soaring mountain fortresses, this book takes you on an international journey of discovery, exploring some of the most inspiring and impressive architecture history has ever seen.
Trade ReviewFor anyone beginning to take an interest in castle building, Hislop's book will prove a very sound introduction. -- John R Kenyon * Medieval Archaeology *
Table of ContentsIntroduction
The Grammar of Castles Function Design & Construction Castle Types Destruction & Revival
Castles: Feature by Feature The Great Tower The Enceinte Tower, Turrets & Bartizans The Entrance Barbicans Wallhead Defences Accommodation Chapels Dungeons, Oubliettes & Prisons Doors & Windows Water Supply & Sanitation Heating Staircases Glossary Resources Gazetteer Index Acknowledgements
