r/interestingasfuck 22h ago

Germany has more castles than the United States has McDonald’s. This is the Eltz castle, located in Wiershem. It has been owned and occupied by the same family for 33 generations over 800 years

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u/intashu 21h ago

Why do you think so many castles had large tapestries on the walls? They where basically carpets you'd hang to help retain the heat in the room.

Biggest issue however isn't heat. That's what the fireplace is for. It's the maintaining that much volume of space. Between dirt, water, wind, and just plain volume of area... There's a reason why you'd need staff on hand just to. Maintain it... Or have whole wings closed off you don't go to since it's unmaintained due to cost.

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u/kurburux 19h ago

Why do you think so many castles had large tapestries on the walls? They where basically carpets you'd hang to help retain the heat in the room.

Some castles also had rooms with wooden walls and lower ceilings that were easier to heat. Often those wooden panels didn't survive the centuries though. The appearance of castles today may be very different to actual medieval life.

u/ReaDiMarco 7h ago

volume of area

My math brain can't believe this phrase