Medieval Times Castles — The Middle Ages in America
Medieval Times Dinner & Tournament
Off I-90 close to O’Hare International Airport and across from an Ikea, you’ll find a towering castle in of all places, Schaumburg, Illinois. Chicago may be known as the City of Big Shoulders, but the castle the Chicago suburb of Schaumburg resembles was the skyscraper of its day. Inspired by the castles of 11th century Spain, the Schaumburg castle boasts its most eye catching feature: the colossal tower at its center. Set against a green lawn, the Schaumburg castle sets itself apart from its surroundings in a big way.
The castle is owned by Medieval Times, a dinner and show company specializing in elaborate middle ages themed productions. This isn’t your average dinner theater. Guests enter a 1,000 seat arena to watch an elaborate show featuring knights in combat, trumpeting heralds, a princess awaiting her love, and even a falconry exhibition. Falconry used to be a great pastime in the Middle Ages where nobles and kings would have aviaries to keep and train hawks for use in hunting, and Medieval Times brings this spectacle back to modern times!
Medieval Times has actually built several castles all across the US and one in Canada. Apart from their Schaumburg Castle, Medieval Times has castles in Orlando; Dallas; Buena Vista, CA; Atlanta; Myrtle Beach; Baltimore; Lyndhurst, NJ; Scottsdale, AZ; and Toronto. Inside every one of these castles, guests are taken back in time with décor recalling the middle ages and exhibits featuring knight armor and weaponry. The Orlando castle goes one step further and has an eight cottage medieval village inside its walls.
Schaumburg Castle
In the Schaumburg Castle, guests first wait in the Great Hall before the show begins. It’s richly decorated with stone façade walls and a raised medieval style roof complete with frescoes of shields and heraldry. Exhibits feature a full set of plate armor on display and a glass case filled with all sorts of medieval weaponry like swords, knives, and battle axes. Best of all, these dangerous weapons are available for purchase!
Photo opportunities are available with the Schaumburg Castle as a backdrop and guests can also get a drink at the bar or visit the horses used in the show in the stable area. The Medieval Times experience wouldn’t be complete without visiting the gift shop where you can bring home the middle ages. A serving wench, one of many in the Schaumburg Castle, is ready to ring up your purchase like nifty dragon statuettes, goblets, and conical princess hats.
For an extra fee of only $2 per person, guests can also visit the torture chamber, and it’s an experience you won’t want to miss. Exhibits featuring torture devices are on vivid display including such devices called the “Breast Ripper,” the “Head Crusher,” and the “Judas Cradle” where a victim is made to sit squarely atop a furniture-like piece with a pointed end reserved for the nether regions. The torture devices featured were not invented for the show. These types of devices were actually used on real people. Arguably the worst of the bunch was a torture device called the “pear.” The fearsome device’s bulbous end, shaped like a pear, was reportedly shoved inside a victim’s mouth. The torturer would then crank the pear where the bulbous end would slowly open breaking teeth and jaw bones.
Once the trumpets sound for the “Call to Tables,” the show finally begins. Each guest gets seated in the Schaumburg castle performance venue able to seat over 1400 people. Each section of the performance venue corresponds to a knight’s team easily recognizable with their color like blue, green, etc. Once given a team, you can’t help but cheer your team on!
The food included in the ticket price heightens the experience. Serfs and serving wenches each serve guests with the “Bill of Fare.” The kingly feast includes a delectable array of oven roasted chicken, garlic bread, tomato bisque soup, sweet buttered corn, and the pastry of the castle: a delicious apple turnover. Eating with your hands is encouraged but alcohol, which would heighten the medieval experience even more, is served for an additional fee. Vegetarian options are available but ask ahead of time.
Origins
Medieval Times first began in the island of Majorca, Spain and then migrated over to America. They built the first castle in 1983 in Orlando, FL and then slowly adding more until the ten we have today with the most recent being the Scottsdale, AZ Castle. The gallant knights featured in the show are no mere mortals. They first start out as squires, and with sword and horsemanship training, work their way up to become knights. Like the knights of old, the regimen of a knight keeps them in shape and possibly like the middle ages, long hair is encouraged to the swooning of the ladies in the audience. With the cheers of the audience and performing night after night, the job of a knight leaves a lasting mark. One retired knight named Rich Brostowski, only in his late thirties at the time, wistfully reminisced about his time at Medieval Times. He says “a knight is here,” he told the New York Times as he pointed to his mind. “This place was never just a job for me. That’s who I am.”
It’s one thing to visit castles, it’s another to experience the Middle Ages. Medieval Times in Schaumburg, IL and nine other participating locations lets you do just that — relive the middle ages and the age of castles!
