It was convenient for several reasons at once.
We will hardly shock you now if we inform you that sleep is an important part of a person’s life. Medieval people understood this too. But how do you get enough sleep if it’s cold at home, the whole family lives in one cramped room, and wolves stick their muzzles through the open door? The answer is simple: the bed is a box!
For the first time, box beds (or box beds, or even wardrobe beds) appeared on the territory of Brittany in the Middle Ages. Later, they spread throughout Europe, penetrated into France, Holland and Austria, and even turned into a fashionable interior item.
The box bed was actually a box on legs, about 160-170 cm long. You won’t be able to accelerate much, right? But the inhabitants of Brittany were not tall. In addition, it was customary to sleep half-sitting on high pillows, since the recumbent position was associated with death.
Often, a bench or chest was placed in front of the box bed, which made it easier to get inside. The box beds were also two-storied: in this case, the younger and lighter one climbed onto the second floor. Sometimes the box beds were equipped with drawers in which linen was stored.
So what were the advantages of a box bed compared to a regular bed? For a medieval man, there are many.
Firstly, such a bed gave some kind of privacy – there was a shortage not only among the poor, who huddled in one or two rooms with numerous families, but also in the chambers of noble people, where completely strangers also used to spend time. (Remember at least the ceremonies of the king’s awakening and going to bed, which the whole court was going to watch.)
The painting “Maternal duty” by the Dutch painter Peter de Hoch, XVII century. Behind the mother’s back is a closet bed with a side drawer to make it easier to climb into
Secondly, a box bed or a closet bed retained heat well — a nice touch in medieval houses where there was no central heating.
And finally, the box bed protected the person sleeping in it from animals. Some bear or fox who decided to visit. Although, let’s be honest, this plus is disputed by many historians.
But the fact that peasants and townspeople locked their children in bed boxes when they went on business is much more likely.
Box beds were used until the beginning of the 20th century. Curiously, they were slept on the longest in the place where they appeared — in Brittany. But new hygiene rules, the fashion for ventilation and the advent of central heating have rapidly destroyed the number of box beds.
Nowadays, such beds can only be found in a museum. Although the designer brothers Ronan and Ervan Borullek (also, characteristically, from Brittany) made an attempt to rethink the concept of a box bed in a modern way. It turned out, by the way, pretty.
Source: https://ekabu.ru/
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