Hacker News Reader

Comment by sfkdjf9j3j | Hacker News Reader

I wonder how expensive it is to maintain the castle. And since it has some kind of official designation, if you have to use period-accurate materials for repairs.

View on HN

Rather expensive. The walls must be keep repaired and strong, a moat must be filled with water, a forest must be cleared up to a distance of a trebuchet shot, the locker must have enough food supplies. Fail to do any of this, and an eventual siege will end in a disaster.

And of course you'll need a retinue to man the walls.

Though as Dumas shows through countless examples in his works the retinue of defenders need not be large if they are very doughty. [1] The works of Goscinny and Underzo also explored the proposition that the defenders might further increase their advantage through judicious use of technology. [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Three_Musketeers#Plot_summ...

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterix

*Uderzo

I always misread it as Underzo when I was a kid though.

Same here. There's probably space here for an off-topic thread on words we misread/mispronounced as kids and how long it went on. In my case it's about 45 years.

AFAIK the biggest ongoing expense which such castles is the heating bills which are insane since castles are very big and badly insulated. The gardening expenses are also quite intense; depending on the size of the property you may have to hire personnel.

The price of repairs are also mind-boggling, but for those you can get state subsidies

They say that only a couple of bedrooms and a kitchen has heating. The rest is not very pleasant in winter months.

It gets down to the 50s (or sometimes high 40s). There are fireplaces. Not saying it would be my choice but it's not unreasonable given apparently existing fireplaces plus electric heaters. (My house is never above mid-60s in the winter with heat.)

But, yes, I'm sure maintenance is in the $100K+ a year area easily.

Which sounds like a huge renovation bill if you actually want to use the thing (plus most buildings of this type tend to be light in things like indoor plumbing)

Who said you would get permission to renovate? It's historic and made from stone. You can't add windows or insulation, it needs constant ventilation to prevent mould (no water barrier in the construction).

Basically it's only pleasant in the summer or if you're being raided by a neighbouring state.

It will do when the Spanish attack.

Will the HOA/government prosecute you if you neglect maintaining the flora?

The HOA better show up with some siege equipment to serve papers, though.

"HOAs" in the American sense are a 20th century construction that originally had ethnicity clauses in and have tried to replicate those with proxies since they were banned. They only exist when they're put in by contract law by the builder; I don't believe they can be "retrofitted"?

This castle is from the 11th century. It might have had the 11th century equivalent, which was feudal burdens, but those have almost certainly been abolished since the revolution.

Scotland has formally abolished the feudal system; England, however, has not, so you may still find yourself liable for the repair of a church built ten centuries ago. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chancel_repair_liability

Government, maybe. There are no home owners associations in Europe, at least not in the sense the US has them.

You sort of have them for co-properties (apartment blocks and residences) but the neighborhood racket that American HOAs are luckily isn't here.

Yeah, I know about those, but they can't kick you out of your home or demand payment for BS. If anything, it's the other way around, as long as you respect the law, they're at your mercy, usually. If you don't want to cooperate with them, they can't do anything.

I'm not totally familiar with French law on the matter, but, it's likely that, in addition to needing period-accurate materials, you also have to use period-accurate methods. This is what makes it expensive, since very few people are familiar with obsolete, 4-500 year old building methods.

Someone on Twitter said the maintenance is likely around 200k/year. I don’t know how they got there but at the same time you probably need at least one full time staff at that size right?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com