The rise and fall of a LEGO castle in four seasons

Given the challenge of building a castle scene depicting the four seasons, most builders would go the traditional route of spring, summer, fall, and winter… there is nothing wrong with that, but these four builders took a very different approach. A collaboration between Brickleas, Simon Hundsbichler, Jonas Kramm, and Ralf Langer. They each choose a season, and built a partial view of a castle, adding a temporal, metaphorical twist to the seasons, depicting birth in the spring, prime in the summer, decline in the fall and death in the winter.

The four Seasons

Spring: Brickleas starts the “year” off with a castle under construction in spring. The main design element that connects the four slices of the castle is the chunky built stones used to construct the castle walls. The stonemasons are hard at work, and there are a number of wooden tools like scaffolding and the winch, as well as some great forced perspective in the pine trees in the background on the left.

The four Seasons - Birth

Summer: Simon picks up the story with an arched gate topped with a wooden structure. The walls are slightly weather-worn, but otherwise, the castle is indeed in its prime. The chunky bricks that line the gate include a number of the ingot part in light gray and give the blocks a great texture.

The four Seasons – Prime

Fall: Jonas built the literal fall of the castle, with an invasion in full force, including a siege tower being mounted by soldiers, and some battle damage to the thatched roof of the wall walk. The chunky blocks of the castle wall are also showing a bit more wear from the elements over the years.

The four Seasons - Decline

Winter: Ralf brings the story to a sad ending, showing the aftermath of the battle, which did not go well for the castle. The shattered remains of a corner tower lay half-buried in the snow, and a burnt-out husk of a wooden tower teeters in a silent vigil of a once-great fortress.

the 4 Seasons - death