Monday, October 20, 2008

Wandering in history again

I spent some time in the open air museum yesterday. The weather was incredible. I don't think we have had a fall that has been so consistently sunny and beautiful.



The old Stavechurc is among our oldest wooden church types in Norway, this one is from 1200. First of all, the attention to details are amazing! But secondly, which keeps suprising me, is the decorations. They are not really religious at all. Inside the church they would have a painting from the Bible, but outside, they have all these typical viking decorations.



For me that has always seemed so contradictory. But it does make for an interesting building. The wood is tarred during the summer, giving it a very particular odour when the sun is baking on the sides.

 

The craftmanship is good, too. Look at the roofing slates:)

Another typical old farm building is the foodstorage houses, or larders.



They differ slightly in architecture from valley to valley, but they usually have one thing in common: the last step is alwasy very high.



The reasoning behind that is to keep mice from coming in to the larder. Make sense, doesn't it? But it always looks strange....

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I have way too many mice finding their way into my kitchen. Should I try creating the "high step" to help?

Desperate Housewife ;-)