A Medieval Town

In the Middle Ages, towns in Europe were noisy and crowded by day, but quiet and dark at night. The silence was broken only by watchmen calling out the hours. Churches, guilds, fairs and market all drew people into the towns.

 

If you walked through a medieval town, you took care where you stepped, because people threw out their rubbish into muddy streets. Open drains ran alongside and smelled foul. People either fetched water from the town well or bought it from the water-seller, hoping it was clean. Pigs and chickens wandered in and out of small yards. Houses were built close together, with the top floors often jutting out over the streets. Since most houses were made chiefly of wood, they caught fire easily. At night, the curfew bell warned people to cover or put out their kitchen fires.

MONEY MAKES MONEY

European merchants usually carried silver coins, but Arabs preferred gold. As international trade increased, Italian merchants set up the first banks, using written bills of exchange to pay for goods instead of heavy bags of coins.

Many houses doubled as workshop and shops. Craftworkers and traders formed groups called guilds to organize their business and to set standards of work. Guilds also staged pageants and plays in the streets. Some towns were famous for their fairs, which attracted merchants from all over Europe, as well as entertainers, fake doctors and pickpockets.

In towns, work was to be found building magnificent cathedrals, churches and defensive walls. Large trading cities in Europe, such as Hamburg, Antwerp and London, grew rich from buying and selling wool and other goods. About 90 cities in northern Europe formed the Hanseatic League to fight pirates, win more trade and keep out rivals.