Bohemian houses?

Story & Setting
#1

So by now all of you have probably visited the cozy little village in the tech alpha.

What you probably noticed was that the homes have a nice rustic feel to them. However there is one thing I want to know more about.

All houses are build like log cabins (bare or with white plaster) which I know is really popular in countries with lots of straight trees (pines) such as Scandinavian, Russia and parts of the US. Is this building style also really common in Bohemia? I was under the impression that timber framing was more common in countries where oak was prevalent. Of course Bohemia is situated at a border between Eastern and central Europe so perhaps this is the reason for the log cabin construction.

Another thing which I didn’t really understand was the furnace thingy in the middle part of some houses. It seems awfully inefficient for a small house with a few folks living in it. It also has this white bulb protruding into the (bedless) living room. Am I to understand this is part of a chimney through which smoke is funneled for extra heat?

I am quite interested in knowing what houses were like back then and I hope a Czech person could tell me a bit more about this. It would also be great if Warhorse compiled a list of the sources they used for the game.

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#2

Yes, houses are accurate. Timber houses was a common thing in the whole Bohemia (and still are as cottages). Feel free to search images for “česko starĂ© roubenĂ© domy” bohemia old timber houses


Ad furnace - why inefficient? Fun fact - people actually slept on it so it served as warm bed too, priceless thing.

Czech republic is not situated between eastern and central Europe, it is central europe.

9 Likes
#3

I would say part of central Europe. But in his words about the border between central (German-ic) and Eastern (Slavic) Europe is actually wisdom. :thumbsup:

Log (timber) houses are quite common in Bohemia. About the furnace, well, the big house seems weird to me but I believe they studied period rural architecture properly and they know what they are doing. :slight_smile:
I haven’t notice a door of the furnace (for baking purposes), is there somewhere a door?

#4

The above house is a timber framed house like I said, I expected those ones just not logs stacked on top of each other with joints at the sides.

But the google search is amazing, love the way it’s build with squared off sides.

Regarding the furnace: It’s really slender and long, to fire it up entirely would use a lot of wood. It just seems awfully big for a single rural house. I would love to see some more information about it or whether it is found elsewhere in Europe.

#5

They do seem rather big yeah, some have a largely empty central room (to store the harvest or something?) Two pantries stocked with food and a living room without beds.

#6

Not so far from the game location:
http://www.google.cz/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hlinsko.cz%2Ffoto%2F19%2F2273.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hlinsko.cz%2Fmesto%2Fcestovni-ruch-turistika-pamatky%2Fhistoricke-pamatky%2Flidova-arch&h=809&w=1144&tbnid=RLIbPxz99ZO34M%3A&zoom=1&docid=EiAzfCTaQfRFcM&ei=JTxMVOzBIMeQPfm2gPgN&tbm=isch&ved=0CDAQMygQMBA&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=153&page=1&start=0&ndsp=34

http://www.google.cz/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fi.idnes.cz%2F11%2F082%2Fcl6%2FHRO3af780_143144_2663018.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fusti.idnes.cz%2Fchomutovsky-skanzen-rozsiruje-expozice-fp3-%2Fusti-zpravy.aspx%3Fc%3DA110507_142916_usti-zpravy_zep&h=375&w=630&tbnid=nCd0YNYaLxIQTM%3A&zoom=1&docid=1Me3gQIuCa9pxM&ei=JTxMVOzBIMeQPfm2gPgN&tbm=isch&ved=0CEYQMygcMBw&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=329&page=1&start=0&ndsp=34

#7

Have been thinking about the same since the first videos of the game came out.
I have minimal knowledge about late medieval houses in this area, but in Denmark Timber framing houses was the norm. So that was what I expected.

Not loghouses.

#8


From Landscape of Medieval Bohemia

#9

Thanks. So we are talking a real difference in how they build houses. In Bohemia compared to “Germany” north of it.

Atm we are talking farmhouses in a village.
How about houses in cities? where they the same?

In “Germany” Timber framing was pretty common in the cities.

#10

I think pretty common is understating it :smile:

#11

As far as I know timber framing (Fachwerk) was not pretty common in central Bohemia. There are a few Fachwerk-buildings build by mostly by german builders, but mostly in the west at the border of bavaria. The bohemian Fachwerk is more diagonal and tighter in comparison to the german style Fachwerk.

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#12

Thanks. Guess I learned a bit about housing in Bohemia. :slight_smile:
My education focused on medieval Denmark.

#13

Some of the town houses were built rather of stone. There is even one original gothic house preserved in the centre of Prague:

After the reconstruction and expansion executed by King of Bohemia and Holy Roman Emperor Charles the Fourth (who founded a built the New Town of Prague with three large squares - the Horse Market - today’s Venceslaus Sq., the Cattle Market - Charles Sq. and the Hay Market - SenovĂĄĆŸnĂ© sq. and the network of wide streets you can still admire in the centre of the town out of the borders of the Old Town) Prague became one of the largest towns of the whole Europe (it is stated Prague was exceeded by only Constantinople and Rome but I suppose Cordoba and Sevilla were larger and towns such as Bologna was about the same size) and the most important town of the Holy Roman Empire blessed by the first University established “north of the Alps”.

There you can see the extent of Old Town (brown) with Jewish ghetto (yellow) with the castle (red) and the castle quarter (orange) and the town of “Malá strana” (Little side) on the left bank of the Vltava river - that was Prague until 1348. The large pink area on the right side of the river is the New Town, founded about 1348 and built during the rule of Charles the Fourth which almost trippled the area of the town. I suppose most of the New Town was build of stone in fact.

Even during romanesque era only Regensburg had as many stone houses as Prague and there were some stone houses in other important towns of the Bohemian realm - Kuttenberg, Eger, Iglau, Krumlau and the Realm of House of VĂ­tkovci, Budweis etc.

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#14

Ah medieval houses, there aren’t many left of those :frowning:

But I doubt Prague was ever the biggest city in Europe, I don’t think it comes even close if this table on Wikipedia is correct.

It appears to be bigger than Antwerp and London after the plague but smaller than four Italian cities (not counting Rome), Naples and Paris.

How much of Prague are we actually going to see in the game?

PS, does anyone have some more information about the long furnace type thing in two or three of the houses?

#15

In this time period Prague was the third biggest city in the whole Holy Roman Empire. But about number of people, there was a “bigger” cities like Venice, Genoa, Rome and a few others.

Prague will be not in the game. At least not in Act 1. I doubt in any other. There was other interesting and important towns as Kutna hora (also a lot of easier to portrait in-game).

#16

Making a large city would be rather impossible. If it was to be made in the real size.
But Iam looking so forward to going to “town” and taking a closer look at the buildings.

Here in Denmark our oldest surviving timber framing house is from early 16th century.
But we do have some 2000 medieval churches
 most from the 12th and 13th century. And almost all of them are still in use.

#17

Actually Rome was smaller than Prague. It was a destitute place when the Pope came back to it.

Anyways I am looking forward to seeing towns in the alpha.

#18

As I have said I quite doubt Prague was amongst the very biggest late 14th century cities. Italian cities such as Bologna, Firenze, Naples, perhaps even Venice, Genoa and Milano were probably larger. Siena was about the same size if I am not mistaken. I suppose Seville and Cordoba could have been larger (definitely were larger before) and perhaps even Palermo and Granada. Medieval FĂ©s (in Africa admittedly) was inhabited by about 150-300k people, Marrakech and declining Constantinople about 100k. Cairo perhaps even half milion.

But nevertheless Prague is supposed to have been the biggest city of the Empire and of the whole Europe “north of Alps”.

Definitely we can not be sure about it :smiley:.

About medieval houses, perhaps you should search for Krumlau / ČeskĂœ Krumlov, Kuttenberg / KutnĂĄ Hora and perhaps even Telč and Slavonice if you are interested in late rennaisance buildings. :smiley:

#19

I am more interested in the rural houses right now.

Do you know what the purpose of the white plaster on one side of the house is?

Well that depends on whether you are talking above the alps literally or above the alps in latitude

#20

Ad north of the Alps: “Founded in 1348, it was the first university in Central Europe, east of France and north of the Alps.” - Wiki about Universitas Carolina. It’s widely used term. It means: north of the Alps except Paris, Toulouse, Oxenaforda and Cambridge. (Or France and England.)
Frankly, it’s the oldes by about sixteen years (Krakow 1364). No big deal. But it set the trend.

I forgot Novgorod in my humble list of great late medieval European cities. :cry:

Ad white plaster: I don’t understand what you mean. The walls were commonly limed (it was not exactly plaster). Is there a house with just one white side in the game? I didn’t notice.

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