Barracks
Build the quarters of soldiers as they were in different cultures: the Roman barrack block with a room for each contubernium and a portico, the garrison hall in a castle, the long barracks of Vauban or of the Prussian king, the Ottoman kışla with a veranda, the Japanese nagaya along the castle wall and the Viking longhouse of a ring fortress. Choose the length, the storeys and the number of rooms. At the bottom you can read how everything is calculated.
Point at a block for the explanation. Click a block to mark it as placed. The side view shows the section at the chosen column, Layer shows the chosen layer from above.
Build plan
Per layer
| Layer | Parts | Blocks |
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A number is the count of blocks of that part in that layer, in the colour of the part. Click a layer to see it from above.
Build tips
- Put crafts together as they were: in a town, smiths, bakers and weavers often had their own street. Think of Smith Lane or Tanners’ Row.
- Every villager profession in Minecraft has its own workstation. A building with the right workstations does double duty when villagers live in it.
3D and layer-by-layer build plan
To Minecraft
Download the barracks as a schematic file and paste it with WorldEdit, or build it with a hologram in Litematica.
How it is calculated
History and fun facts
The Roman barrack block
A Roman unit of eighty men, a century, slept in a long building with ten pairs of rooms. Each contubernium of eight men had two spaces: an anteroom for the equipment and a sleeping room. A portico ran in front of the façade, and at the end the centurion lived in a larger room. In Isca, present-day Caerleon in Wales, the foundations of the barracks of the fortress of the Second Legion Augusta can still be seen. In forts such as Vindolanda the barracks were first of timber and later of stone.
From castle hall to nagaya
In the Middle Ages a castle’s garrison slept in a large hall, as in Harlech Castle, which Edward I began in 1283. Only in the seventeenth century did French kings build permanent barracks; the engineer Vauban had them placed in fortress towns, and Prussia made Potsdam a garrison town. The Ottomans built kışlas for the Janissaries and later the Taksim Artillery Barracks in Istanbul (1806). In Japan samurai and guards lived in nagaya, long houses with a row of rooms along the castle wall. Around 980, under Harald Bluetooth, the Vikings built ring fortresses with sixteen longhouses, such as Trelleborg.
Did you know?
- A Roman contubernium was eight men who shared a tent or a room and a mule between them.
- In Himeji the long corridor of guard rooms along the wall is called the Hyakken-rōka, the corridor of a hundred rooms.
- The sixteen houses of Trelleborg stood in four squares of four houses each, around a courtyard.
Sources and further reading
Read more about the history here. The links go to museums, archives and heritage organisations outside this site.
- Frontiers of the Roman Empire (opens in a new tab) UNESCO World Heritage Centre
Hadrian’s Wall, the Antonine Wall and the German Limes with their forts and barracks. - Viking-Age Ring Fortresses (opens in a new tab) UNESCO World Heritage Centre
The Danish ring fortresses of around 980, including Trelleborg. - Himeji-jō (opens in a new tab) UNESCO World Heritage Centre
The Japanese castle with its long guard corridors and storehouses.
About this tool
With this planner you build barracks in Minecraft, in the style of the culture you choose. The building has rooms with beds, chests, weapon racks and lanterns, a portico or veranda if you want, and a parade ground with a flagpole.
You see the build plan layer by layer, a 3D preview and the block list, and you can download the barracks as a schematic for WorldEdit or Litematica. For a whole fort, place several barrack blocks in a row and combine them with an armoury and an army camp.
Frequently asked questions
How do I build barracks in Minecraft?
Choose a culture, for example the Roman barrack block or the Prussian barracks. Set the length, the number of storeys and the number of rooms. Build the walls and roof first, then place the beds, chests and weapon racks from the build plan.
How many people sleep in a Roman barrack block?
A barrack block for a century had ten pairs of rooms with eight men each, so eighty soldiers. In the planner you choose the number of rooms, ten by default, with a separate door for each room as on the portico.
Which cultures are there?
Six: Roman, medieval castle, eighteenth-century French and Prussian, Ottoman, Japanese and Viking. Examples include Caerleon, Vindolanda, Harlech, Potsdam, the Topçu Kışlası, Himeji and Trelleborg.