In 1997, in a quiet corner of Burgundy, someone started building a castle. Not restoring a ruin. Not rebuilding a landmark. Building one — entirely from scratch, using only the tools, techniques, and materials available in the 13th century.
That project is still under way today. And it is one of the most extraordinary things you can visit in Europe.
What is Château de Guédelon?
Guédelon (pronounced gay-duh-lon) is a working medieval castle under construction in the Yonne department of Burgundy, France. It began as an experiment in experimental archaeology — a discipline that tries to understand how things were made by actually making them.
The team chose a design typical of the 1220s: a seigneurial castle with round towers, a curtain wall, a keep, and a great hall. Everything a regional lord of medieval France might have built for himself.
The only rule? Nothing modern. No diggers. No concrete. No power tools. If a 13th-century mason couldn’t use it, neither can the builders at Guédelon.
How do they actually build it?
The sandstone is quarried from an outcrop right on site, cut by hand, and shaped with iron chisels. Lime mortar is slaked in traditional pits. Roof tiles are fired in a wood-burning kiln. Ropes are twisted from plant fibres. Baskets are woven by hand from willow.
Every trade has its own workshop: stonemasons, carpenters, blacksmiths, tile-makers, weavers, and rope-makers all work side by side. Workers dress in period costume. The site feels less like a building site and more like a window directly into the Middle Ages.
To move heavy stones, the team uses oxen, wooden cranes, and simple rope-and-pulley systems — the same methods that built Notre-Dame and the great châteaux of France. And those methods work. The walls go up. The towers take shape. Stone by stone, Guédelon is growing.
Who does the building?
Around 70 craftspeople work on Guédelon each season, from April to November. Some are professional archaeologists and historians. Others are skilled tradespeople — stonemasons and carpenters — who have retrained in medieval techniques. Many are long-term volunteers who return year after year.
The project was conceived by Michel Guyot, owner of the nearby Château de Saint-Fargeau. His idea was simple: build a castle the old way to understand how it was done.
What they discovered has surprised historians. Medieval construction was far more sophisticated — and far more efficient — than most people expected. The craftspeople who raised the great fortresses of Europe understood geometry, load-bearing physics, and materials science with remarkable precision. Without a calculator in sight.
Love exploring the world? Join thousands of travellers who get stories like this every week. Subscribe free →
What will you see when you visit?
Visiting Guédelon is nothing like visiting a finished castle. You are watching one being built in front of you. You walk through active workshops where stonemasons are cutting stone in real time. You see the blacksmith forging iron tools. You watch mortar being mixed by hand in a wooden trough.
If you time your visit well, you might see the wooden cranes swinging cut stone blocks into position on the growing curtain wall.
The site draws over 300,000 visitors a year — more than many of France’s famous finished châteaux. Families, school groups, architects, historians, and castle enthusiasts from across the world all come to watch history being made. For anyone who has ever stood inside a medieval castle and wondered how on earth people built something so vast without modern machinery — Guédelon is your answer.
When will it be finished?
The original target was 2023. That has slipped. The current estimate is around 2030, though the team has revised its timeline before. Building a castle the medieval way simply takes time.
Nobody involved seems particularly troubled by the delay. The process is the point. Every year brings new discoveries. Every course of stone teaches the team something fresh about how their medieval predecessors actually worked.
When it is finally done, Guédelon will be something the world has never quite had: a genuinely new medieval castle, built entirely by hand, using the same methods that raised every great fortress in Europe. You can explore those castle secrets too — but at Guédelon, every technique is on full display.
Frequently asked questions about Guédelon Castle
Where is Guédelon Castle?
Guédelon is near Treigny in the Yonne department of Burgundy, central France — about two and a half hours from Paris by car. The nearest town is Saint-Fargeau.
When is Guédelon open to visitors?
The site is open from April through to mid-November each year. Hours vary by season — check before you go. Entry costs are reasonable, and guided tours are available in English and French.
When will Guédelon Castle be finished?
The current estimate is approximately 2030. The site will remain open throughout the construction period — and that is very much the point. Every visit is different, because the castle is always changing.
For Those Who Dream In Miles
Every week, get travel stories that take you somewhere extraordinary — castles, coastlines, hidden villages, and the roads less travelled.
Love more? Join 64,000 Ireland lovers → · Join 43,000 Scotland lovers →
Free forever · One email per week · Unsubscribe anytime
Every stone lifted at Guédelon is an answer — and a reminder that the people who built those vast medieval fortresses were not labourers working blind. They were craftspeople of extraordinary skill, building to last centuries. At Guédelon, that tradition is alive and rising, one cut stone at a time.