Outdated hygiene practices that are anything but clean

People Threw Their Waste into the Moats

Castles might look majestic, but their moats harbored a disgusting secret. Instead of being filled with clean water, many contained sewage and trash — both human and animal. In practice, they functioned as open-air toilets.

Without proper plumbing, servants tossed everything from food scraps to the contents of chamber pots straight into the moat. It’s hard to imagine anything less royal than the stench of a castle surrounded by black water.