Guédelon Castle: a New Medieval Chateau Rises in France

Sometimes things are worth waiting for.  Guédelon in France is a castle being built using only medieval techniques. As such (and perhaps unsurprisingly) it is the first castle of its type to be built in France for getting on for 800 years.  An experiment in archaeology in reverse.  Instead of digging down, the archaeologists are building up.

Little known outside of France the castle still boasts a huge amount of visitors, over 300,000 in 2009 (making it worthwhile visiting early in the morning before the those clad in twenty first century clothing somewhat dim the experience). Visitors can wear what they will. Workers on the site on the other hand cannot wear modern items such as watches although they can get away with spectacles if they are needed.

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Something amazing is happening near the quiet French town of Treigny in the historic region of Burgundy. Something that has not been attempted for hundreds of years is slowly appearing - a full scale medieval chateau is being painstakingly built entirely by hand. This is a thirteenth century chateau rising in the twenty first century.

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