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Farmhouse from Søre Rauland

Numedal has the largest number of preserved medieval buildings in Norway. One of them is the farmhouse from Søre Rauland.

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    Anne-Lise Reinsfelt / Norsk Folkemuseum

The open-hearth house consists of an ante-room, small chamber and and living room. Because of doubt about the location of the hearth, it does not currently have one. Recent dating shows that the house was built no earlier than 1238 and this makes it the oldest wooden dwelling house in the world.

Open-hearth dwellings often had high ceilings like this one, so that smoke from the hearth would collect above the head. The table is as old as the house. The long benches lining the walls were filled with earth to insulate the space between groundsills and foundation, and thus hinder cold drafts.

The farmhouse logs are fairly large. The corner notching has a complex shape that has been named raulandslaft after the house. The groundsills are remarkable due to their size, shape and end pieces.
Museum24:Portal - 2024.03.19
Grunnstilsett-versjon: 1