The Medieval period encompasses a long span of years when castles, churches and many other great buildings were built. The way the people of the time built their structures tells us a lot about the lifestyle of the people, particularly the wealthy, and each country reflects its own style of architecture. The Roman Empire had crumbled and Christianity was rising in strength. The world was in unrest and the architecture of the time reflects that. Furnishings had to be easy to move from place to place. Main rooms were relocated to the first floor while the ground floor was used for storage or to keep animals. There were not a lot of windows and the ones that were there were small. Sometimes they were decorated with stained glass that could be removed for safekeeping.
             During this time brick was used as a principal construction material and they also dressed their buildings in costly marbles. There was still a central hall that had numerous uses. Again the furniture was often being moved to accommodate these different purposes. A hammer-beam roof was needed to span the huge space. Some places had stone vaulting that might be painted a deep blue with stars. This room had a large fireplace that might be decorated with carvings. It also had a tall hood on brackets. The walls were whitewashed over plaster that was applied to stonework. They also might have painted wooden wainscoting on the walls. Most of the wood was painted at this time. On the upper part of the wall, you might have seen a frieze of figures or other decorations. The lower areas were kept for cloth hangings and the wealthy used tapestry. They even used them for bed covers and bed hangings. The floors were flagged with stone. They used wood on the upper floors. Green, black, brown and yellow colored ceramic tiles were also used for decoration. The lighting was rushlights and tallow candles. Fortification lessened when peace settled in (15th century). As time passed more r...