Odd Details About Life In Medieval Castles That Are Anything But A Fairytale
There's nothing more romantic than the image of a magnificent castle perched atop a high cliff, standing proud throughout the ages. But while these structures might conjure up images of knights and princesses, the truth is that life inside a medieval castle was anything but a fairytale. Between squalid conditions and hidden dangers, castle residents led tough lives. Reading about their trials and travails will make you grateful to live in a modern home!
What's that smell?
Castles were smelly. With a general lack of running water and extreme difficulty obtaining it, most servants and lower-class residents couldn't clean themselves. And the types of toilets they used didn't help. Toilets weren't fancy in the least. When you needed to go, you'd likely have to do it on a wooden bench with a little hole in it. Your waste would fall into a vast poop pit or a moat. Outside the bathroom, life wasn't much better.
Almost no privacy available
You probably wouldn't have any privacy when you were using one of these gross, dirty toilets. Castle makers followed the HGTV network's sage advice and went with an open floor plan. Unless you were a noble, you probably didn’t have a room to call your own. Workspaces, common areas, and even beds tended to be very crowded, which we imagine got pretty awkward.
Crowded hallways
Generally, more than 100 people would live in a castle, so there wasn’t much “me time” to be found. There was so much square footage that needed to be maintained, so royalty required an enormous staff for upkeep. Such close quarters would become especially difficult during a siege, which prevented anyone from venturing outside the castle walls. Things got pretty claustrophobic.
Kitchen fires
As if life packed in together like sardines wasn't hard enough, kitchens commonly caught on fire. For some reason, they were made of wood, and the food was being cooked over huge flames. You do the math. Eventually, builders changed to using stone more often than wood, but castle residents still feared infernos, which, as you can imagine, were incredibly hard to put out.
