Medieval castles were meant to defend those inside it so they were usually built out of stone. They included a group of buildings inside of a high wall with a tower (the Keep), gatehouse, residential structures and storage areas.
Today, it is still possible to build a model of your very own medieval castle!
Styrofoam Castle
There are a lot of materials you can use to build a medieval castle. What you choose to use will depend upon the type of castle you wish to build: Styrofoam, cardboard, sugar cubes, wood or plaster of Paris being the main types. For a styrofoam castle, you will need 108 Styrofoam bricks measuring 4 x 8 x 2 inches, two Styrofoam boards measuring 36 x 24 x 2 and some transparent tape.
Cardboard Castle
On the other hand, if you want to build a cardboard castle, you will need an assortment of cardboard boxes and tubes, some gray craft paper; gray crayons, colored pencils or markers and cardboard. For a sugar cube castle, you will need some cardboard, aluminum foil, four boxes of sugar cubes (1 lb. each), white icing and either a cake decorator’s bag or a spatula.
Wood Castle
To build a wood castle, you will need a wooden milk crate, some Popsicle sticks, a hot glue gun with hot glue sticks, a hand saw, some twine, acrylic paint and a paintbrush.
Be extra careful when using the hand saw as it can easily hurt you.
The procedure to build a wood castle is the same as all the others, the main difference being that wood is harder than styrofoam or cardboard and thus requires special tools. Wood glue can be regular white glue, though there are special wood glues that professional shop owners seem to prefer. For this project you can stick with regular white glue if you can’t find others.
Plaster of Paris Castle
Now for the last type of castle, a plaster of Paris castle, you will need a rubber castle and small brick molds, some plaster of Paris, a ½ cup water, a plastic spoon, some disposable cups, a metal putty knife, a timer, some cardboard, some tacky glue and either Latex or acrylic paint.
Castle Architecture
Inside of the castle, you will want to include all of the major components that were a part of a medieval town. For instance, whenever you are building the keep you will want to put a meeting hall, a dining hall, an armory where the weapons and armor are stored, a chapel, living quarters (for royalty, knights, soldiers, servants and peasants) and a kitchen that is big enough to feed everyone who lives in the castle.
On the other hand, inside of the castle itself, you will want to include multiple storage rooms (used for storing food, grain and meat), a large vegetable garden on the inside of the inner courtyard, pens and stables for livestock, a place for grain to be stored, a bakery for bread, a dungeon for prisoners, a blacksmith shop and a carpenter shop.
It is also important to include a well for drinking water. For this, you will want to draw a large circle with a large rectangle in the middle of it. The rectangle will be your outer wall. Place a moat around it. Inside of your outer wall, you will want to create an inner wall and the keep. You will also want a courtyard between the inner wall and the keep.
Conclusion
It is up to you just how creative you get with the layout of your castle and which materials you use to build it. You could build a real size one in stone if you really wanted to! But that’d take just a slightly bigger budget than a styrofoam castle would!
The aforementioned plans are simply meant to help you create an authentic medieval castle, regardless of how elaborate you decide you want it to be.
When done, don’t forget to show your architectural feat to your friends and family!
