13th century wooden houses in Sweden

[Tjurved]

Hello thought I show you two of the oldest wooden houses in Sweden. One built 1285 and another built 1229. Quite nice houses .
http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrkhärbret_i_Älvdalen

http://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiondeboden_i_Ingatorp

 

[robin wood]

Thanks for that, very interesting. It would be good to know which timbers the dendro dates come from and how many of the timbers are of that date.

 

[Tjurved]

Yes I wonder that myself how much is replaced. The walls seems uniform and with the same patina, I guess they are all that old. I wonder if or how many times they have been covered with tar or any other natural wood preservative.

 

[gunnix]

Maybe the wood was from trees which were damaged while they were still standing, so that the wood was full of resin. This is what I was told when visiting similar wooden houses built in that period in Sweden, maybe from the 14th century. It seems to me a very ecological way of making the wood more durable, but ofcourse requires time and planning which was no problem back in those days, but a bit hard in modern times. I'd also be interested to know how they maintained those houses during their lifetime.