Historical Builder › Castles › Beaufort Castle
How Long Did It Take to Build Beaufort Castle?
Short answer: about 51 years, from 1139 to 1190. This period is our own estimate of the main building phase; the sources do not give one clear start and end.
Its lord claimed to be on Saladin's side, won three months, and used them to repair the walls and stock up on food. So the chroniclers tell.
What the sources say about the building period
Site captured 1139 by Fulk of Jerusalem; Crusader castle probably begun soon after; Saladin 1190; retaken 1240; hall of the 1260s; Mamluks 1268. Wikipedia Secondary source
Stone and crew in numbers
- Country and type
- Lebanon, castle
- Stone in the walls
- 8,000 to 20,000 m³ Estimate
- For comparison
- about 6 Olympic pools of stone, or 1,400 truckloads
- Average crew
- about 33 workers (model value: the crew that would need exactly this long, working without a break)
Volume basis: castle about 75 x 150 m, up to 30 m high; built into the rock, so only part is masonry. Checked against measurements. Our estimates come from published dimensions and are shown as a range. The result is a simple model, not a measured fact.
Where the stone came from
Pale limestone. The castle is built into the limestone ridge it stands on. Lebanon Traveler: Beaufort Castle Secondary, provisional
Legend: tradition, not evidence
Lord Reynald of Sidon fooled Saladin. He claimed Muslim sympathies and used the three months he was given to repair the walls and stock food.
What we know: This is told in the chronicles. The castle held out until April 1190 and surrendered in return for Reynald's release. Another account says he was tortured before his men.
Wikipedia: Beaufort Castle, Wanderleb: Beaufort Reported by chroniclers
Build it yourself
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