Main Residential Floor
The main residential floor is divided by timber block walls into three rooms.
Summer Room
The largest room of the main residential floor is the summer room. It is also the brightest space in the tower house. It is lit by two bifora windows (paired openings divided by a central stone column).
The designation “summer room” did not mean that this room was used only in summer. As it had no heating and the bifora windows could only be closed with wooden shutters (internal shutters), it was cold and inhospitable in winter.
Winter Room
In the colder months, the adjoining block-built winter room offers greater comfort.
For improved thermal efficiency, the winter room retains block-built exterior walls, against which the stone shell of the tower was added in a second construction phase. It is the only room in the tower house fitted with a tiled stove.
In the external wall in front of the winter room, a group of windows is set. It consists of three outward-splayed round-arched openings. The openings contain frames set within the block-built wall.
In the High Middle Ages, thin animal membranes, bladder skins, waxed paper, or similar light-permeable materials were stretched across these frames.
Window glass only became widely used towards the end of the Middle Ages and was not used in High Medieval castle construction.
The winter room, with these features, became a standard element in castles from the 13th century onwards.
Sleeping Chamber
The third room on the main residential floor is the unheated sleeping chamber. It is lit and ventilated only by a slit window without any closing mechanism. The chamber is fitted with a garderobe projection (latrine).
The sleeping chamber was used by the lord of the castle and his family. The latrine was reserved exclusively for the lord’s household.
Block Staircase
A block staircase in the summer room leads up to the service floor above.