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I hope you get some interesting replies to this. You probably need to clarify your meaning though; "castles from kingdoms".

For most of human history, Castles were more like a fortified house at the center of village, often where the villagers could take shelter if there was an attack. The vast majority of castles have very little living space square footage compared to what we see in movies. The walls surround a large interior space that is busy during peace times and haphazardly crammed with villagers during a siege.

There would have been a considerable amount of smaller, wooden structures that sprawled out and around the castle to provide support. Having cooking fires, and slaughter houses, and rodent attracting grain stores, and access to fresh water, and stables for animals, and facilities for disposing of animal waster, and space for hundreds of employees to sleep and live, all would happen outside the castle walls. Think of a castle instead as a center point of a large village and it's more likely to be an effective way of thinking about it.

That said, buy this book, https://www.amazon.com/Stephen-Biestys-Cross-sections-Castle-Biesty/dp/1465408800/

Despite it seeming being "for kids" it will probably have more info than any committed amateur might need to suss out what's going on in a castle.

Others that also look interesting.

https://www.amazon.com/Castle-Eyewitness-Books-Christopher-Gravett/dp/0756637694/

https://www.amazon.com/Year-Castle-Time-Goes/dp/1580137962/

Y'know, I still think David Macaulay's Castle is excellent. Though aimed at young readers, Macaulay's ink drawings continue to fascinate me like they did when I was ten.

I highly recommend reading a book about him as he's hilarious and very strange. Here are a few examples off the top of my head:

-He would start his morning around 1am and sleep during the day. He was nocturnal and indulged in his fantasy creations at night.

-Would ride off into the mountains on horseback to avoid government officials seeking his input for decision making. Or would swim away to an island.

-Created a giant indoor greenhouse with a mini-lake, and it started leaking through the ceiling into the server quarters below (because a giant ball that mimicked the sun or moon fell down or something...). He'd hide in his elaborate greenhouse sometimes to avoid court officials too.

-Requested a waterfall down castle stairsteps.

-Had his horse to the table to dine.

-Sometimes he thought his servants were talking and laughing about him behind his back so he ordered them to not look at him.

-Had a table that lowered down a floor into the kitchen area where servants would put the food on the table, and it'd be cranked back up to him so he could eat in privacy without servants looking at him.

-At night he would have a sleigh company and visit locals, banging on their door. Imagine being woken up to the King of Bavaria at 3:30am. He asks how you and your family are doing and here are some gifts!


This is the book I stumbled onto a while back that was quite entertaining.

Anyway, these are his 3 building projects:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neuschwanstein_Castle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linderhof_Palace

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herrenchiemsee

Would you consider doing a whole series on fortified bridges? I'm reading a book about medieval technology (Cathedral, Forge, And Waterwheel) and the author talks a little bit about fortified bridges, but not enough to sate my curiosity. There's a neat mention in here, if I can quote:

>As early as the sixth century, supplemental roles were found for bridges. One important one was conceived during the siege of Rome by the Goths in 537, when the enemy shut off the aqueducts whose water drove the city's gristmills. Belisarius, the Byzantine general defending the city, ordered floating mills installed close to the Tiber bridges, whose piers constricted and accelerated the current. Two rows of boats were anchored with waterwheels suspended between them. The arrangement worked so well that cities all over Europe were soon copying it. The Grand Pont in Paris, probably a combination of wood and stone, built water mills under its roadway and houses on top of it, inaugurating one of the Middle Ages' most picturesque architectural fashions.

I read that it was in the Loire Valley in the DK Eyewitness book Castle. In the glossary, it shows this gatehouse and identifies it as being in the Loire Valley.

Edit: That being said, I do want to thank you for identifying the city that this is located in.

CD of music recorded there. Cool space!

http://www.historynet.com/medieval-warfare-how-to-capture-a-castle-with-siegecraft.htm

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Medieval-Sieges-Siegecraft-Geoffrey-Hindley/dp/1602396337/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408864276&sr=8-1&keywords=sieges+and+siegecraft

Still for sale today.

The last review was January 20, 2017, so I suppose you can assume shortly before that was the last time it was sold.

I spent the flight from London to the US reading Macauly's Underground.

Who knew sewers could be so fascinating?

It's the second of a series, Dragonfly in Amber. The first is Outlander. They are really bizarre but really addicting - basically an English woman goes back in time in Scotland to a few years before the Jacobite/Scottish Clan uprising.

Hell yes.

http://www.amazon.com/Pyramid-David-Macaulay/dp/0395321212