5 ms·

Maintenance of old crumbling European castles in inconvenient locations are also often famously bad deals for the owner.

umeshunni 1y ago
Ha, yes. I found dozens of articles about castle renovations gone awry https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/no-way-back-1-15m-120000548.html https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/no-way-back-1-15m-120000548.... https://www.csmonitor.com/1991/1212/12121.html https://www.csmonitor.com/1991/1212/12121.html
- tough 1y ago
  so how do you make it right, just bull doze it?
  - pjc50 1y ago
    Find someone with a suitably bottomless supply of money who wants it as the status symbol it always was. Or somehow make it nice enough to be a public attraction, but there's a real oversupply of chateaux.
akudha 1y ago
This might still be appealing to young people, especially those who do not like the noise/pollution of big cities and can't afford them?
- bee_rider 1y ago
  I could see the appeal of a shack, but I suspect a castle would be quite a maintainence burden. I guess nowadays one would not need to employ as large a retinue… but you don’t get to tax the local villages anymore. Seems like a wash.
  - AndrewDavis 1y ago
    I really enjoy the TV show Escape to the Chateau. A lot of couple buy an old run down French chateau and move in with their two kids. Each episode is roughly them doing up a part of it. Often with ideas for making money out of it. Very much light entertainment, but it's eye opening how significant of a restoration and maintenance burden it is.
- thefz 1y ago
  Do you have any idea of the thermal inertia of a castle? How are you going to heat it to an acceptable living temperature?
  - yread 1y ago
    If you spend 700k eur on heating instead of on the purchase price you can stay warm for quite a while
    - Someone 1y ago
      I wouldn’t count on that. https://www.lifestyledaily.co.uk/article/2021/03/23/how-much-it-costs-heat-bridgerton-and-crown-lookalike-palaces https://www.lifestyledaily.co.uk/article/2021/03/23/how-much... gives £209k as an estimate for heating the main house from Downton Abbey. Now, Italy is a bit warmer than the UK, and most castles a bit smaller, but castles in Italy can be on colder mountaintops.
  - yobbo 1y ago
    1. Accept lower temperature in the stonework/bricks/concrete 2. Use heatpumps, wood furnaces, accumulator tanks 3. Only heat the rooms you use when you use them. It's very doable, especially in Italy.
    - Tpt 1y ago
      A lot of large castle owners in France have setup a small apartment on the side for winter and use the main rooms only occasionally and during summer. This is not something new, in Versailles you can visit the king actual private bedroom that is much smaller and easy to heat than the official one.
    - whatevaa 1y ago
      Second point has no point, heat pumps are overhyped on expensive electricity, accumulator tanks still need be heated up by something. Lot's of energy must be spent. 3 point is silly, such "houses" have massive thermal inertia, it's gonna take a while to heat those rooms when you start using them and heat is gonna "bleed" internally anyway. It will cost you a lot anyway, can't escape entropy.
- ASalazarMX 1y ago
  "I couldn't afford to live in the city, so I bought a castle".

umeshunni 1y ago

Ha, yes. I found dozens of articles about castle renovations gone awry https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/no-way-back-1-15m-120000548.html https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/no-way-back-1-15m-120000548.... https://www.csmonitor.com/1991/1212/12121.html https://www.csmonitor.com/1991/1212/12121.html

tough 1y ago
so how do you make it right, just bull doze it?
- pjc50 1y ago
  Find someone with a suitably bottomless supply of money who wants it as the status symbol it always was. Or somehow make it nice enough to be a public attraction, but there's a real oversupply of chateaux.

akudha 1y ago

This might still be appealing to young people, especially those who do not like the noise/pollution of big cities and can't afford them?

bee_rider 1y ago
I could see the appeal of a shack, but I suspect a castle would be quite a maintainence burden. I guess nowadays one would not need to employ as large a retinue… but you don’t get to tax the local villages anymore. Seems like a wash.
- AndrewDavis 1y ago
  I really enjoy the TV show Escape to the Chateau. A lot of couple buy an old run down French chateau and move in with their two kids. Each episode is roughly them doing up a part of it. Often with ideas for making money out of it. Very much light entertainment, but it's eye opening how significant of a restoration and maintenance burden it is.
thefz 1y ago
Do you have any idea of the thermal inertia of a castle? How are you going to heat it to an acceptable living temperature?
- yread 1y ago
  If you spend 700k eur on heating instead of on the purchase price you can stay warm for quite a while
  - Someone 1y ago
    I wouldn’t count on that. https://www.lifestyledaily.co.uk/article/2021/03/23/how-much-it-costs-heat-bridgerton-and-crown-lookalike-palaces https://www.lifestyledaily.co.uk/article/2021/03/23/how-much... gives £209k as an estimate for heating the main house from Downton Abbey. Now, Italy is a bit warmer than the UK, and most castles a bit smaller, but castles in Italy can be on colder mountaintops.
- yobbo 1y ago
  1. Accept lower temperature in the stonework/bricks/concrete 2. Use heatpumps, wood furnaces, accumulator tanks 3. Only heat the rooms you use when you use them. It's very doable, especially in Italy.
  - Tpt 1y ago
    A lot of large castle owners in France have setup a small apartment on the side for winter and use the main rooms only occasionally and during summer. This is not something new, in Versailles you can visit the king actual private bedroom that is much smaller and easy to heat than the official one.
  - whatevaa 1y ago
    Second point has no point, heat pumps are overhyped on expensive electricity, accumulator tanks still need be heated up by something. Lot's of energy must be spent. 3 point is silly, such "houses" have massive thermal inertia, it's gonna take a while to heat those rooms when you start using them and heat is gonna "bleed" internally anyway. It will cost you a lot anyway, can't escape entropy.
ASalazarMX 1y ago
"I couldn't afford to live in the city, so I bought a castle".