In the heart of rural Burgundy, deep in a forest clearing, an extraordinary experiment is unfolding stone by stone. At Guédelon, a team of builders, archaeologists, and skilled craftspeople are constructing a medieval-style castle using only the tools, materials, and techniques available in the 13th century. What began in the late 1990s as a bold, innovative historical project has since grown into a living laboratory, part archaeological experiment, and part cultural preservation.
Guédelon reminds us that history is not only something to be studied but something to be practiced. By building with patience, skill, and materials drawn from the land, it serves as a testament to the power of craftsmanship, collaboration, and sustainability.
This article interviews those who make Guédelon possible: Florian Renucci (Project manager), Vincent Gaignard (carpenter) et Sébastien Bouillette (stonemason). In their own words, they reveal how such a remarkable feat has run successfully for nearly three decades and why such a project is important.
Mad’in Europe: Could you briefly explain what motivated you to pursue this project?
Florian: With a university background in art history and archaeology, and years of experience as a stonemason in a company specializing in historic monuments, Guédelon seemed to me the place for experimentation, bringing together authentic materials and traditional knowledge.
Vincent: At first, I came like everyone else, as a visitor, and I thought it was quite a nice working environment. In reality, I’m a ship’s carpenter, so the kind of timber construction practiced here isn’t really my field of expertise. But in naval carpentry, I’ve often had the chance to use hand tools, since we work a lot on site and don’t always have the possibility of using modern, high-performance machines.
Mad’in Europe: A considerable challenge: how has a project of this scale been financed over the years? Could you explain the economic model?
Florian: Guédelon is a site open to the public. It is financed by our visitors who, from the very first year until today, have allowed us to be financially self-sufficient, even if there were some initial start-up subsidies. At the start, we expected 30,000 visitors to break even, but we had 55,000. So, from the very first year, in 2000, the project was self-sufficient.
Mad’in Europe: At Guédelon, you employ traditional techniques and trades that are sometimes rare or endangered. How did you go about reviving these skills?
Florian: Very often, these techniques and professions have completely disappeared as manual, economic activities. We had to rediscover them through ethnological research. But we also had to recreate professional pathways within the Guédelon site through experimentation. Based on an empirical, archaeological, and experimental approach, we tried different methods.
Many skills were rediscovered through trial and error: our tile kiln was rebuilt five times before reaching an 80% success rate. Lost trades were relearned from old masters or through ethnological research. Guédelon has thus become a living conservatory of traditional crafts, transmitting this knowledge to employees, students, apprentices, and visiting builders.
Sébastien: Here, with my colleagues in the stonecutters’ lodge, we try to reproduce what was done in the 13th century to cut and shape stone. We reopened an old quarry closed in 1950 and work as much as possible by extracting the stone by hand. Here it’s ferruginous sandstone, a very local, particular stone whose source covers only a few square kilometers. It requires different cutting methods because of its properties. In the craft, the material matters: there are many types of stone, and each is worked differently, with different tools. These adaptations allow us to preserve a wide range of knowledge. But the decline in the number of quarries leads to a loss of such skills, in favour of more standardized techniques.
Mad’in Europe: You mentioned the importance of Guédelon in rediscovering vanished & medieval skills practices. Do you also see its relevance in today’s world, for instance socially or environmentally?
Florian: The magical thing about Guédelon is that it produces data that had never been provided by historical texts or archaeological studies. In this respect, Guédelon also contributes to research, offering us brand-new data that we need to interpret. Mastery of handwork today is something precious, and we hope to continue it for a long time.
Vincent: I think it’s entirely relevant. If we talk a bit about ecology, I know it can be a loaded term, the act of hewing timber with an axe makes it possible to use local wood, worked almost directly on site, that otherwise wouldn’t be exploited. It’s a meaningful approach if we imagine tomorrow’s timber construction as being simpler and more economical. You can absolutely envision efficient buildings using less wood, but sourced locally. We really need to focus on this and develop the knowledge linked to such techniques.
Sébastien: The 13th century has a lot to teach us. They sourced almost all their building materials within a radius of 15 to 20 kilometers. That meant lower costs, greater efficiency, and, in fact, more local work that also involved the community which is a good thing.
If you cut stone more thoughtfully, depending on its use and final purpose, there’s no need to work as quickly. In a way, this would help balance things and make the work more sustainable and livable for everyone in the future.
The essence of Guédelon lies in the interaction between the different trades, all using materials sourced directly from the site itself.
Florian Renucci
Guédelon is a testament to both place and skill.
Local stone, oak, and clay are nothing without the craftspeople who cut, carve, and shape them into lasting form. Reviving these methods is more than an act of preservation; it is proof that craftsmanship and locality come hand in hand. Through their work, these crafts professionals restore not only knowledge on how to build, but how to value patience, precision, and the ties between people and their land.
Let's look at a few different trades present on site.
- Iron-ore is smelted in bloomery by the blacksmiths, who also forge nails, tools, and fittings. They make, temper, and maintain all the tools used by stonemasons, carpenters, and stonecutters, a rare skill today.
- Guédelon’s forest is, of course, the carpenters’ domain. The oak grove on site allows carpenters, in a short supply chain, to go directly from tree to timber frame. The beams are hewn by hand, respecting the natural grain. The wood is also dried for the joiners, who make chests, doors, windows, and workbenches.
The quarry provides ferruginous sandstone, which supplies both sand for the masons and stone for the stonecutters. The quarryman works in a way that has now completely disappeared: he both sorts and collects the stones. Nothing is wasted; every stone will eventually find its place.
- The limestones found nearby are used for architectural details (door and window frames), but also to produce lime for mortar, reviving the ancient craft of the lime burning.
- Pigments are also collected on site, providing ochres for sixteen natural colors, bound with milk, egg, or cherry sap to recreate medieval polychromy.
- The natural environment around the castle walls & the gardens supply food and dye plants, cultivated with techniques close to permaculture, reviving medieval self-sufficiency.
- Another resource on site is clay. It’s an extraordinary advantage to have all three sources in one place. The clay, dug from pits just 15 metres from the workshop, is molded and thrown on traditional wheekls to produce tableware, tiles and paving bricks. Everything is then wood-fired in potters’ and tile kilns, all reconstructed from 13th century models.
