Life in a Medieval City

“Life in a Medieval Town” is a classic bestseller by renowned historians Francis and Joseph Gies, where the medieval world is presented through the everyday life of the French city of Troyes—the historic center of Champagne.

1250. This is the peak of the rise of medieval civilization, when former Roman forts like Troyes, strengthened by centuries of defense against ruthless invaders and developing the economy, became crossroads of bustling trade routes, thriving European cities that were yet to face the devastating breath of brutal wars in the coming centuries and the Black Death epidemic.

The authors reconstruct the way of life of both rich and poor families, housewives and their servants, a merchant and a craftsman, a doctor and a schoolboy—along the way shedding light on customs and traditions of the period long since forgotten. Watching how life unfolds in a medieval town—where, it seems, even you yourself might have lived for more than a year by the last page—you open a window onto an astonishing, intricate, and vivid world that, even in the light of all the achievements of the 21st century, can by no means be called “backward Middle Ages.”