The vast majority of the medieval population lived in villages. In the countries of Europe, such settlements were, as it were, templated, and if there were any differences between them (depending on countries and cities), they were quite insignificant. The medieval village is a special reminder for historians, which allows you to restore the picture of the past life, traditions and features of the life of the people of that time. Therefore, now we will consider what elements it consisted of and what it was characterized by.
General description of the object
The plan of a medieval village has always depended on the area in which it was located. If this is a plain with fertile lands and spacious meadows, then the number of peasant households could reach fifty. The less useful the land was, the fewer households there were in the village. Some of them consisted of only 10-15 units. In mountain ranges, people did not settle in this way at all. 15-20 people went there, who formed a small farm, where they ran their small farm, autonomous from everything else. A notable feature was that the house in the Middle Agesconsidered to be moving property. It could be transported on a special wagon, for example, closer to the church, or even transported to another settlement. Therefore, the medieval village was constantly changing, moving a little in space, and therefore could not have a clear cartographic plan, fixed in the state to which it belonged.
Cumulus Village
This type of medieval settlement is (even for those times) a relic of the past, but such a relic that has existed in society for a very long time. In such a settlement, houses, sheds, peasant lands and the estate of the feudal lord were located "just like". That is, there was no center, no main streets, no separate zones. The medieval village of the cumulus type consisted of randomly arranged streets, many of which ended in dead ends. Those that had a continuation were taken out into the field or into the forest. The type of farming in such settlements was, accordingly, also disorderly.
Cruciform settlement
This type of medieval settlement consisted of two streets. They intersected each other at right angles, thus forming a cross. At the intersection of roads, there was always the main square, where either a small chapel was located (if the village had a large number of inhabitants), or the estate of a feudal lord who owned all the peasants living here. The medieval cruciform village consisted of houses that were turnedtheir facades to the street on which they were located. Thanks to this, the area looked very neat and beautiful, all the buildings were almost the same, and only the one in the central square stood out against their background.
Village-road
This type of settlement in the Middle Ages was typical for areas where there were large rivers or mountain slopes. The bottom line was that all the houses where the peasants and the feudal lord lived, gathered in one street. It stretched along the valley or river, on the banks of which they were located. The road itself, of which, in general, the whole village consisted, might not be too straight, but it exactly repeated the natural forms that it surrounded. The terrain plan of a medieval village of this type included, in addition to peasant lands, the feudal lord's house, which was located either at the very beginning of the street or in its center. He was always the tallest and most luxurious among the rest of the houses.
Beam villages
This type of settlement was the most popular in all the cities of medieval Europe, therefore very often its plan is used in cinema and in modern novels about those times. So, in the center of the village was the main square, which was occupied by a chapel, a small temple or other religious building. Not far from it was the house of the feudal lord and the courtyards adjacent to it. From the central square, all the streets diverged to different ends of the settlement, like the rays of the sun, and houses were built between them.for peasants, to whom land plots were attached. The maximum number of inhabitants lived in such villages, they were distributed in the north, and in the south, and in the west of Europe. There was also much more room for different types of farming.
Urban situation
In medieval society, cities began to form around the 10th century, and this process ended in the 16th. During this time, new urban settlements arose in Europe, but their type did not change at all, only their sizes increased. Well, the medieval city and the village had much in common. They had a similar structure, they were built up, so to speak, with typical houses in which ordinary people lived. The city was distinguished by the fact that it was larger than a village, its roads were often paved, and in the center a very beautiful and large church (and not a small chapel) certainly towered. Such settlements, in turn, were divided into two types. Some had a direct arrangement of streets, which could, as it were, be entered into a square. This type of construction was borrowed from the Romans. Other cities were distinguished by the radiocentric arrangement of buildings. This type was characteristic of the barbarian tribes that inhabited Europe before the arrival of the Romans.
Conclusion
We looked at what the settlements were like in Europe during the darkest historical era. And to understand their essence was easier, the article has a map of a medieval village. In conclusion, it may be notedthat each region was characterized by its own type of construction of houses. Somewhere clay was used, somewhere stone, in other places frame dwellings were erected. Thanks to this, historians can identify which people exactly belonged to a particular settlement.
