fireplace at Chillon castle
by Michelle Meenawong
Title
fireplace at Chillon castle
Artist
Michelle Meenawong
Medium
Photograph - Metal Print
Description
The fireplace, housing for an open fire inside a dwelling, used for heating and often for cooking. The first fireplaces developed when medieval houses and castles were equipped with chimneys to carry away smoke; experience soon showed that the rectangular form was superior, that a certain depth was most favourable, that a grate provided better draft, and that splayed sides increased reflection of heat. Early fireplaces were made of stone; later, brick became more widely used. A medieval discovery revived in modern times is that a thick masonry wall opposite the fireplace is capable of absorbing and re-radiating heat.
Without modern furnaces or space-heaters, there were only two ways to keep warm in a medieval winter: fire and the animal heat of other living creatures.
We take fireplaces for granted, and indeed fireplaces were a medieval invention. They came in originally during the twelfth century but did not become common until the thirteenth, and were very much something for the elite. Before then, and for peasants throughout most of the rest of the Middle Ages, the normal source of heat was a fire pit in the middle of the room. The smoke found its way out through small holes under the roof.
This one stays in the Castle of Chillon in Switzerland
A very grateful thank you to the following groups for featuring this picture
Images That Excite You
07/13/2018
Uploaded
May 30th, 2018
Statistics
Viewed 860 Times - Last Visitor from Beverly Hills, CA on 04/23/2024 at 12:26 PM
Embed
Share
Sales Sheet