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From fortified European Castle to American Luxury Mansion
What is missing in today’s luxury homes that falls short of mimicing those great castles and palaces of yesteryear?  What rooms were included a few centuries earlier but are irrelevant  now and why? How does culture, technology and conflict shape large manors and chateaux? This short historical narrative should help explain the evolution of historic large castles and manor houses to American pleasure palaces and other castle type manors inspired by European styles.
Travelling through Italy, Germany, France, and England one can see the fortified castle evolve into a show palace over a few centuries.  The medieval castle is a fortified structure designed to keep the occupants safe and defend against any outside attack.  Usually, they are added on to for years but normally start with a solitary tower, the Keep, which contains the family, servants, soldiers, and livestock. 
A wall of varying geometry encircling the Keep allowed farm animals to be contained and  offered a first line of defense.  This courtyard was entered through a gatehouse or barbican tower.  Note the immense thickness of walls as siege catapults, battering rams, assault with ladders, and other weapons and military strategy had to be resisted.  The higher the walls, the thicker they had to ... more

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