Garderobe

The garderobe at Peveril Castle, Derbyshire, England

The term garderobe (French: "wardrobe") describes a place where clothes and other items are stored, and also a medieval toilet.[1] In European public places, a garderobe denotes a cloakroom, wardrobe, alcove, or armoire used to temporarily store the coats and other possessions of visitors.[1] In Danish, Dutch, Norwegian, German, Russian, and Spanish, the word garderobe can mean a "cloakroom". In Latvian it means "checkroom".

Historical use

According to medieval architecture scholar Frank Bottomley, garderobes were:

Properly, not a latrine or privy but a small room or large cupboard, usually adjoining the chamber or solar and providing safe-keeping for valuable clothes and other possessions of price: cloth, jewels, spices, plate and money.[2]

The term is also used for a medieval or Renaissance toilet and for a close stool.[1] A description of the garderobe at Donegal Castle indicates that during the time the castle garderobe was in use it was believed that ammonia would protect visitors' coats and cloaks, particularly from fleas.[3]

In a medieval castle or other building, a garderobe was usually a simple hole discharging to the outside into a cesspit or the moat, depending on the structure of the building. Such toilets were often placed inside a small chamber, leading by association to the use of the term garderobe to describe the rooms. Many can still be seen in Norman and medieval castles and fortifications, for example at Bürresheim Castle in Germany, where three garderobes are still visible today.[4] They became obsolete with the introduction of indoor plumbing.

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Bell, Susan G. (2004). The lost tapestries of the City of ladies. Christine de Pizan's Renaissance legacy. University of California Press. pp. 38–39. ISBN 0-520-23410-3.
  2. ↑ Bottomley, Frank. The Castle Explorer's Guide. London: Kaye & Ward Ltd. 1979. p. 70
  3. ↑ "An Asbo in 14th Century Britain". BBC. 5 April 2011. The name garderobe – which translates as guarding one's robes – is thought to come from hanging your clothes in the toilet shaft, as the ammonia from the urine would kill the fleas
  4. ↑ Bürresheim Castle in the Rhineland-Palatinate state of Germany has three garderobes: "...the rectangular castle keep dating from the 12th century, and raised in height to five storeys in the 15th century ...Only the fifth floor added in the late gothic period has rectangular windows and can be recognized as the dwelling for the tower watchman through its chimney and garderobe." Burgen, Schlösser, Altertümer. Burresheim Castle Koblenz, 2000. p. 22.
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