The oldest building on earth. The oldest house. Pyramid of Josser in Saqara

Going to almost any country, you can see architectural buildings that are more than 5,000 thousand years old. . The buildings that have survived on our land are sometimes simply amazing. They don’t look like modern architecture, people don’t live there. Historians are wondering which one is the oldest building in the world? To this day they cannot give a definite answer to this question. However, there are a couple of cities that any traveler should definitely visit - after all, they contain the history of mankind since the birth of great civilizations. They will be discussed in this article.

The oldest buildings in the world

In India, it is considered the oldest building Taj Mahal Palace . The temple was erected from white marble by the padishah of Shah Jahan in the name of love and devotion to his wife of amazing beauty Mumtaz Mahal. Erected in 1631, it combines several styles. The striking element of the palace is the white marble dome. The main place in the palace is occupied by the mausoleum. Inside it there is a huge number of halls decorated with mosaics. In one of the rooms there is the coffin of the ruler, who after his death wished that his body be buried near his beloved.

Historians included in the list of “Oldest Buildings Surviving in the Modern World” Temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Egypt .It is named after the woman who was the only recognized pharaoh. Construction took place from 1482 to 1473 BC. The building turned out to be of magnificent beauty, but, unfortunately, over time it suffered severe destruction. Some of them occurred due to natural reasons - the building is located near a steep cliff. Also, damage to the ancient building was caused on the orders of Thutmose III, whom the queen removed from rule for 15 years. Restoration began in 1961. Today, Polish restorers are collecting the sanctuary bit by bit. The object is located at a considerable distance from the buildings of other kings, erected in the Theban necropolis. On the walls are pictures of reliefs that reflect the way of life of the country's inhabitants, pyramids of that time. The main plot of the reliefs is the story of the birth of the queen. In front of the entrance to the upper terrace there are statues of the queen with a false golden beard - an attribute of male power. From the point of view of the religion of ancient Egypt, a woman could not take the place of ruler, because the pharaoh was considered the incarnation of the god Horus, and he is a man. Therefore, the ruler is depicted in this form.

Pyramid of Djoser at Saqqara - the oldest surviving architectural structure on earth. The architectural masterpiece was created by the ancient Egyptian architect and supreme dignitary of the pharaoh - Imhotep around 2650 BC as a funeral structure for the pharaoh's family.

Preserved in Rome Mamertine prison 578 BC, where the offenders were located. According to legend, the apostles Peter and Paul spent the last days of their lives there.

Also the oldest mysterious building in the world - Stonehenge in England . The years of construction are from 1100 to 3500 BC. Approximately 80 stones of different types, weighing up to 50 tons, were used for the structure: dolerite, volcanic tuff. For a long time, not a single historian could unravel the reason for its appearance. D. Hawkins published a book about this in the 60s. In it, he described how the stone ring, built of stones, was used as an observatory, allowing the British to carry out astronomical observations and calculations.

The oldest building in Russia

There are many buildings in the Russian Federation that witnessed historical events. Assumption Cathedral of the Moscow Kremlin , erected from 1475-1479, was rebuilt by workers under the direction of town planner Aristotle Fioravanti. The building has been well preserved to this day. To this day, services are held here.

Can't be ignored Church of John the Baptist in Kerch , which dates back to the 8th century AD. Located in the very center of the city, the oldest known building in Russia today is the St. Sophia Temple, built by Prince Vladimir in 1050. The monastery of the princess in Vladimir, the thirteenth century, which was rebuilt many times, experienced ruin, but survived. Walking along the streets of the city of Pereyaslavl-Zalessky you can see the church built by Yuri Dolgoruky.

In general, it is quite difficult to judge the age of a structure based on visual signs. Because early architectural techniques could be preserved as a stable tradition in later times. As a rule, the oldest houses are characterized by the amazing quality of finishing of parts and the accuracy of their fit to each other, which later gave way to simpler and more technologically advanced techniques. But even these features do not give us the right to unambiguously name even the century of construction. A fairly accurate method is dendrochronological analysis, the essence of which is to compare log cuts with the pattern of a tree trunk recorded in a certain year. But this method only indicates the time at which the tree was cut down, and not the year of construction. Therefore, one can easily imagine a situation where crowns or individual logs from an older log house were used in the construction of a house. Perhaps the most reliable dates are those obtained at the intersection of several methods: dendrochronological analysis, analysis of architectural features and the study of archival documents.

Treasure of Russia - ancient wooden churches

Church of the Placing of the Robe in the village of Borodava. Drawing from N. A. Martynov’s album. 1860s

The oldest wooden building in Russia is the Church of the Placing of the Robe from the village of Borodava, the date of its consecration is October 1 (14), 1485. Over its long life, the church has undergone changes more than once - the roof covering could change up to 10 times, in the middle of the 19th century the open roof was removed a gallery on pillars - a walkway surrounding the refectory of the church; the walls were repeatedly trimmed and small details were partially changed.
In 1957, it was transported to the territory of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve. The church is being studied, thorough restoration work is being carried out, the goal of which is to return the church to its original appearance, while preserving all the details that have survived to this day.

Church of the Deposition of the Robe from the village of Borodava on the territory of the Kirillo-Belozersky Museum-Reserve

The Vitoslavitsa Museum, located near Veliky Novgorod, has a number of old churches. The earliest of them is the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin from the village of Peredki, the time of its creation is 1531.

Church of the Nativity of the Virgin Mary from the village of Peredki in the Vitoslavitsy architectural museum in Veliky Novgorod

An interesting monument from the early 17th century is located in the small town of Slobodskoye, not far from Kirov. This is the Church of St. Michael the Archangel, built in 1610. It was once part of the Epiphany (later – Holy Cross) monastery. After the revolution, the historical building was used as a warehouse for church property from demolished monastery churches, and it was tightly sheathed on all sides with boards. After restoration in 1971 - 1973. The church went to Paris for the exhibition "Russian wooden sculpture from ancient times to the present day." There, a church was installed near the Champs Elysees. From this voyage, the unique monument returned to the park in the center of Slobodsky, where it remains to this day. It is worth noting that the author of the restoration project, as in the case of the Church of the Deposition of Robes, was Professor B.V. Gnedovsky.

Church of the Archangel Michael in Slobodskoye, Kirov region

Fortunately, other monuments of wooden architecture from the 16th – 17th centuries have also been preserved, but they all belong to temple architecture; there are no residential buildings of this age. There are plenty of explanations for this. Firstly, the type of exploitation itself contributed to better conservation of wood. Secondly, the churches were not rebuilt, only some structural details were changed. The houses were completely dismantled and reconstructed in accordance with the needs of the owners and the characteristics of the time. In addition, churches, which stood, as a rule, away from residential buildings, and were more carefully guarded, nevertheless burned less.
However, the study of monuments of temple architecture does not give us an idea of ​​the architecture of peasant dwellings. Of course, there were general construction techniques, but we must remember that churches were built by professionals, and houses were built by the peasants themselves with the help of relatives and neighbors. When decorating the church, all known decorative techniques were used, but the peasant house was not decorated for reasons of the position of peasants in Russian society.

HouseXVIIcentury

What, after all, was the house of the 17th century like? Among the documents of this time, fairly detailed descriptions of the buildings in the courtyards, their interior decoration, and information about construction techniques have been preserved. In addition to written sources, there are drawings and travel sketches of foreigners, The most interesting drawings are given in the book by Adam Olearius “Description of a Journey to Muscovy.” Also, a large set of sketches was made by the artists of Augustin Meyerberg’s embassy. These drawings are made from life and are very realistic, painted (or rather tinted) with watercolors.

It must be said that the artists of that time reproduced what they saw quite accurately. To this should be added the drawings of individual buildings and courtyards, which give a fairly accurate idea of ​​the size and layout of the buildings. This information, which clarifies our ideas about residential and commercial buildings of the 17th century, is still incomplete and uneven; the dwellings of the ruling classes, especially the royal mansions, are much better known; the peasant dwellings are described extremely sparingly.

Adam Olearius, "Journey to Muscovy"

Nevertheless, let's try to summarize what we know.

The hut was cut from large logs: pine, spruce, and the lower crowns were often made of oak or larch. The main building module was a log from 2 to 4 fathoms long. For coniferous species (spruce, pine), a well-known “standard” was developed - with a thickness of 20-30 cm, the length of the logs was 3-4 fathoms (1 fathom = 213.36 cm). The limitation of the length of the log by the indicated dimensions did not depend on the height of the tree, but on the extent to which the difference in the thickness of the log between the butt and the top turned out to be so insignificant that it did not interfere with construction (practically the log was an even cylinder).
Slightly retreating from the edge (30 cm), at each end of the log a recess, called a “cup,” was cut down to half the thickness. On two such parallel logs, another pair was placed transversely into the recesses, in which recesses were also cut out for the next transverse pair. Four logs connected in this way made up the crown of the log house.

Connecting logs of a log house "into the oblo"

The height of the log house depended on the number of crowns; judging by the drawings of contemporaries, there were 6-7 of them, that is, the height of the log house was 2.4-2.8 m. To make the logs fit better together, a groove was made in the upper or lower part, and the grooves between the crowns they laid moss. This simplest felling of log houses was called felling "in the oblo", and this method was used to build most houses both in villages and in cities. The internal area of ​​such a room could be very small - about 12 sq.m., but the vast majority of residential buildings were built from three-planted logs, that is, their area reached 25 sq.m. These dimensions, determined by the properties of the building material, have been observed to be the most stable over the centuries.

The roofs of peasant huts and other buildings were gable. The side walls came down to the ridge, forming two slopes made of logs. There is no documentary information about the construction of ceilings in peasant huts. The arrangement of windows in peasant huts, well known to us from drawings, makes us think that there were no flat ceilings in these dwellings at that time. They appear a century later.
Two light windows were usually cut between the two upper crowns of the wall, and the third, smoke window, was even higher, almost under the very ridge of the roof. When the black-fired huts were then dominant among the peasants, it was mainly the smoke from the stoves that came through this window. If the huts had flat ceilings, then they would block the path of smoke and cutting a third window would then become nonsense. Apparently, if the huts had ceilings, they were vaulted. Or the roof logs themselves also served as the ceiling.

Adam Olearius, "Journey to Muscovy"

Information about the floors in peasant dwellings is also fragmentary. Whether the floors were always made of wood or were left earthen is impossible to say. Ethnographic information on the XVIII-XIX centuries. show the widespread use of earthen floors among Russian peasants in the central and even northern provinces.

An obligatory element of the hut was a stove. These stoves were heated black. No chimneys, no wooden chimneys in the mass peasant housing of the 17th century. not yet, although both were often used in the homes of feudal lords and wealthy townspeople. They made ovens from clay; In terms of strength, such stoves were superior to brick ones, as far as is known from ethnographic analogies.

Russian stove without a chimney, smoke came out straight from the hearth. The picture was taken from the Internet resource.

The internal layout of the hut was quite simple: in one of the corners (for the 17th century, perhaps even in the front), where there were windows that drew out smoke, a stove was placed. On the side of the stove were laid bunks - beds. Whether these floors were low, at a level of 1-1.2 m from the ground, or high is definitely impossible to say. But one might think that high pay appeared among the northern and central groups of the Russian peasantry somewhat later, in the 18th century, when the stove was placed at the entrance, at the back.

Along the walls of the hut there were benches so wide that one could sleep on them. Above the benches there were special shelves - shelf holders. In the corner, opposite the stove, they placed a small table with a base. In the 19th and even 20th centuries. There were also ancient tables with a barred base where chickens were kept. In the same corner where the table was, there was also a “holy”, “red” corner with a shrine for icons.

The living space of a chicken house, or black hut. The drawing was taken from an online resource; it quite accurately shows the flow of smoke from the fireplace and the type of ceiling, but the samovar is clearly superfluous here.

Even in the summer, such a hut was semi-dark, as it was illuminated by small fiberglass windows (approximately 60x30 cm), and in the winter such windows were covered with a film of bull bladder or payus (payus is a film in which the caviar of sturgeon and other fish is found, thin and transparent), and in addition they were “cloaked” with boards fixed in the grooves. The hut was lit only by a stove fire or a torch fixed in a light or a wall crack.
So, a 17th-century hut is a small structure with a rectangular or square base, a simple gable roof, and three small slit-like windows located quite high.
City houses differed only slightly from village houses, retaining all the same elements at their core.

HouseXVIIIcentury

In the 18th century, the wooden house underwent a number of changes. First of all, the ceiling changes, it becomes flat, this entails a change in the flow of smoke, in order for it to escape, chimneys (smoke chambers) are installed, and the windows, having lost their purpose, are shifted down and serve to illuminate the hut. Despite this, in many ways, the houses remain quite primitive. "White" heating - a stove with a pipe - is very rare. It should be noted that by the time of the abolition of serfdom (1861), more than a third of peasant huts remained chicken huts, i.e. drowned in black.
Rafter structures and, as a result, hipped roofs appear.

And the tall, richly decorated mansion houses of the Russian North, or the huts of the Nizhny Novgorod region richly decorated with voluminous carvings, which are described in such detail in the books that we admire in museums of wooden architecture - all of them appear only in the 19th century, and most of them only in the second half of it, after the abolition of serfdom. It was this transformation of Russian society that made possible the development of personal farming, the improvement of the financial situation of the Russian peasant, the emergence of independent artisans and free city residents, who, in turn, were able to fearlessly decorate their home in accordance with their wealth.

House in Uglich

The house in Uglich is the oldest residential building in Russia. No older houses have been recorded. Photographs of two buildings dating from the 18th century are given in the pre-war book “Russian Wooden Architecture” (S. Zabello, V. Ivanov, P. Maksimov, Moscow, 1942). One house is no longer there, but the second has been surprisingly preserved.

The Voronins' (formerly Mekhovs') house is located on the banks of the Kamennoye Stream, its address is: st. Kamenskaya, 4. This is one of the few surviving examples of wooden townsman (city) housing in our country. The house was built in the first half - mid-18th century. Its uniqueness also lies in the fact that it was built before the regular development plan for Uglich in 1784, approved by Catherine II. In fact, this house is an intermediate link between a medieval and a planned city.

Same house in later photo

Here is a description of the house from one of the Internet sources: “This house is on a high basement, which was once used for household needs, previously had both a tower and a summer attic room. The staircase to the living floor was once located outside, but now inside "at home, it leads to the vestibule, which divides the floor into two parts: a living room and a summer room. The staircase railing and the bench on the upper landing are decorated with modest ornaments. The landmark of the house is the magnificent tiled stove."

Tiled stove in the Mekhov-Voronin house

The Mekhovs are an ancient family of city merchants, burghers, who, judging by their surnames, were engaged in furrier business. At the beginning of the 20th century, Ivan Nikolaevich Mekhov was the owner of a small brick factory. And now on ancient Uglich houses you can find bricks with the mark of his factory - “INM”.
The fate of the house is common for Russia - the owners were evicted, dispossessed, exiled, strangers moved into the house, who did not care about maintaining it in exemplary order, and accordingly, the house fell into disrepair. It was resettled only in the 1970s. Without people, the house collapsed even faster; it was even necessary to put up supports to prevent it from falling into the stream. At that time, the unique structure was on the balance sheet of the Uglich Museum. In 1978-79, a decision was made to restore it with money from the Society for the Protection of Cultural Monuments. We restored the brick plinth, replaced the lower crowns of the frame, and restored the interior decoration of the house. We restored the stove with tiles and rebuilt the roof.

Door in the basement of the Mekhov-Voronin house

In the nineties, when there was a shortage of money everywhere, the Mekhov-Voronin house was mothballed until better times. Paradoxically, the 2000s became fatal for the Mekhov-Voronin house, when it was recognized as a monument of federal significance. Let us explain what this term means: no one has the right to touch it. That is, it can be destroyed, but no person, under pain of criminal punishment, has the right to touch it. Except for the state. And the state, preoccupied with universal projects, such as the Olympics of all times and peoples, is unlikely to remember a modest wooden house in the Russian outback.
As one would expect, the status “Protected by the State” did not protect the house from homeless people and other marginalized individuals, but it put an end to the museum’s attempts to preserve this house.

However, in 2014, the homeless people were evicted from the house, the windows and doors were boarded up, and the house was surrounded by a metal fence. What next is unknown. Perhaps it will remain there until the next emergency, or perhaps, as we would like to hope, it will soon be restored, and we will be able to admire the unique monument not only from afar, but also up close and from the inside.

This is what the house looks like now. It is impossible to get closer to him because of the fence with a scary sign

The windows on the residential floor are of a later date. But two windows in the basement, if not the same age as the house, are still older than the top ones

Basement window. Its earlier origin may be evidenced by the design without a window sill board.

The information for writing this article was collected by the author over several years from a variety of wonderful books, many of which are listed on the website dedicated to Russian platbands.

Also important were numerous trips to the Urals and Russia, which the author has been making since 2003.
Invaluable assistance was provided by the wonderful Russian scientists Gerold Ivanovich Vzdornov, Mikhail Nikolaevich Sharomazov, artist and restorer Lyudmila Lupushor, historian and creator of the Nevyansk Icon Museum.

Construction is defined as a structure of human production used or intended to support or shelter the elements or permanent occupancy. This article lists 10 oldest buildings, built in the world, which are a masterpiece of the craftsmanship and handcraft of the people of that era. Today we are surprised to see these miracles, how such masterpieces were created in such distant centuries without any modern technologies and machines. So, top 10 oldest buildings in the world.

10. Dhamek Stupa, India

Dhamek Stupa is a massive stupa that is located in Sarnath, 13 km from Varanasi in the state of Uttar Pradesh, India. It was built in 500 AD, which was meant to replace earlier architecture commissioned by the great Mauryan king Ashoka in 249 BC, along with several other monuments, to honor the activities of Buddha at this place. Dhamek Stupa emerged as circular mounds surrounded by large stones. King Ashoka built the Dhamek Stupa to enshrine small pieces of calcined bone and other relics of the Buddha and his disciples. An Ashoka pillar engraved on it with a decree stands nearby.

9. Sanchi Stupa, India

Sanchi Stupa or Great Stupa is oldest building in India made of stone and was commissioned by Emperor Ashoka the Great in the 3rd century BC. Its core was a simple hemispherical brick structure over the relics of the Buddha. From the outside it looks like a crown, symbolizing a high rank, which was intended to honor his relics. The Sanchi Stupa has four carved decorative gateways with a balustrade surrounding the entire structure. The construction work of Sanchi Stupa was supervised by Empress Devi, who was the first wife of Ashoka.

8. Thracian Tomb of Kazanlak, Bulgaria

The Thracian tomb of Kazanlak has a vaulted brickwork "beehive" which is located near the town of Kazanlak in central Bulgaria. The Kazanlak tomb is located near the ancient Thracian capital of Sevtopol. The Kazanlak tomb is part of a large Thracian necropolis. It includes a narrow corridor and a round burial chamber, which is decorated with frescoes representing a Thracian couple at a ritual funeral. The monument dates back to the 4th century BC and has been listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979.

7. Parthenon, Greece

The Parthenon is a temple on the Acropolis of Athens, Greece, dedicated to the goddess Athena, whom the people of Athens considered their patron. Its construction began in 447 BC, when the Athenian Empire was at the height of its power. It was completed in 438 BC, although decoration of the building continued until 432 BC. It is the most important building surviving from classical Greece. The Parthenon is considered an enduring symbol of ancient Greece, Athenian democracy, Western civilization, and one of the greatest monuments of world culture. On the seventh line in the top 10 oldest buildings in the world.

6. Minoan Palace of Knossos, Greece

The Minoan Palace of Knossos was the ceremonial and political center of Minoan civilization and culture. The palace was excavated and partially restored under the direction of Arthur Evans in the early years of the 20th century. Its size far exceeds his initial expectations, as does the discovery of two ancient scripts, which he called Linear A and B to distinguish their writing from pictogram. At some point during the late Late Bronze Age the palace was abandoned (c. 1380-1100 BC). The incident is not known for certain, but one of the many disasters that befell the Palace was probably the refusal of the population to use it as an administrative building by the Mycenaean Greeks, who had previously occupied the city-state.

5. Great Pyramid of Giza, Egypt

Also known as the Pyramid of Cheops is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids at Giza, Necropolis, Egypt. This oldest building of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one that remains virtually untouched. Egyptologists believe that the pyramid was built as a tomb for the fourth dynasty Egyptian pharaoh Cheops during the 10 to 20 year period of 2560 BC. Originally at 146.5 meters (481 feet), the Great Pyramid has been the tallest man-made (man-made) structure in the world for over 3,800 years.

4. Pyramid of Djoser, Egypt

Located in Saqqara, Egypt, the Pyramid of Djoser was built in the 27th century BC. for the burial of Pharaoh Djoser by his architect Imhotep. This is the first Egyptian pyramid, which consists of six steps built on top of each other.

The size of the pyramid is 62 meters high, with a base of 109 m × 125 m. The core of the tomb is made of white limestone. The Step Pyramid is considered the earliest large-scale stone construction. The oldest known uncut stone structure. The construction of the pyramid dates back to 3000 BC.

3. Tarxien Temples, Malta

The Tarsheen Temples are an archaeological site in Tarsheen, Malta. They date back to around 3150 BC. The temples were accepted into the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1980. The Tarshin Temples consist of three separate, but attached, structures. The main entrance has been under reconstruction since 1956, when the entire complex was restored. At the same time, many of the decorated slabs discovered at the site were moved indoors for protection at the Museum of Archeology in Valletta. The first temple was built around 3100 BC. and is the most ornate of Malta's temples. Third place among oldest buildings in the world.

2. La Hougue Bie, Jersey

La Hugues Bee is a historical monument, with a museum, in the parish of Grouville, Jersey. The monument was built around 3500 BC. It is a corridor tomb 18.6 meters long, covered with a 12.2 meter earthen rampart. The mound was first excavated in 1925 by the Jersey Society. In Western Europe, it is one of the largest and best preserved corridor tombs of Western Europe. During the 2nd World War the chapel was used as an observation post, and there was an underground command bunker in and around the mound.

1. Tumulus of Bougon, France

The oldest building in the world The Bougon necropolis is a group of five Neolithic megalithic burial mounds (Mound A, B, C, D, E, F) discovered in a bend of the Bougon River, France. The discovery of the necropolis in 1840 caused great

scientific interest. To protect the monument, it was acquired by the department of De Sèvres in 1873. Excavations resumed in the late 1960s. The oldest buildings in this complex date back to 4800 BC.

Original taken from d_popovskiy to 25 ancient wooden buildings in the world

I already wrote about the surviving wooden buildings in Manhattan. Today I propose to look at ancient wooden buildings from different parts of the world. Many of them have already been mentioned by me on Facebook. I didn’t have a special method for selecting buildings for a post; everything that accidentally came across the field while surfing the Internet and seemed interesting to me was immediately sent to my wall. The only limitation is that the buildings had to be built no later than 1700, i.e. the end of the 17th century. Thus, the post contains 25 buildings representing 10 centuries of wooden architecture. Not being able to actively travel around the world and photograph all these objects myself, I had to resort to the help of Wikipedia and Flickr.

7th CENTURY

1. Pagoda and condo in Horyu-ji
Ikaruga, Nara, Japan

The temple was founded by Prince Shotoku in 607. In 670, due to a lightning strike, the complex was completely burned down and was rebuilt by 700. The temple was repaired and reassembled several times. The work took place at the beginning of the 12th century, in 1374 and 1603. Despite this, it is believed that 15-20% of Kondo's structures retained the original temple materials during reconstruction. This makes Horyu-ji (the pagoda and kondo) the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world.

XI CENTURY

2. Kirkjubøargarður
Faroe islands

Kirkjubøargarður is one of the oldest inhabited wooden houses in the world, dating back to approximately the 11th century. In 1100, the episcopal residence and seminary were located here. After the Reformation, which took place in the Faroe Islands in 1538, all the properties of the Catholic Church were seized by the King of Denmark. Today this land is owned by the Faroe Islands government. The Patursson family has rented the land since 1550. The house is a museum, but the 17th generation of Patursson still lives in it.

3. Grinstead Church (St Andrew's Church)
Grinstead, Essex, UK

Grinstead Church is the oldest surviving timber church in the world and one of the oldest timber buildings in Europe. It was originally believed that the church was built in 845, but recent dendrochronological studies have rejuvenated the building by two hundred years. The brick extension dates back to the 1500s and the white tower dates back to the 17th century.

The church is an example of the traditional Saxon construction method.

4. Shakyamuni Pagoda at Fogong Temple
Shanxi, China

The Shakyamuni Pagoda at Fogong Temple is the oldest wooden pagoda in China. It was built in 1056-1195. It is alleged that over its 900-year history, the pagoda has survived at least 7 major earthquakes, one of which almost completely destroyed the main temple complex. Until the twentieth century, the building underwent 10 minor repairs.

XII CENTURY

5. Stavkirka in Urnes
Urnes, Luster, Norway

Stavkirka is the most common type of wooden medieval temple in Scandinavia. From the 11th to the 16th centuries. About 1,700 bets were built in Norway. Most of the buildings were demolished in the 17th century. In 1800, there were 95 such temples, but only 28 buildings have survived to this day. In Norway, the people’s attitude towards stavkirks and the replication of their image is twofold. On the one hand, the government is pursuing an active protectionist policy in relation to cultural heritage; the majority of the population reveres them as shrines. On the other hand, militant representatives of youth subcultures, pagans and Satanists are methodically destroying these ancient architectural monuments. The only thing the Norwegian government can do to prevent arson is to install expensive surveillance and fire extinguishing systems.

The Stavkirka in Urnes is the oldest surviving Stavkirka in Norway, built around 1130, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

Ornament on one of the walls of the Urnes headquarters:

6. Hopperstad Stavka
Vikoyri, Norway

Stavkirka was built in 1140.

Interior:

XIII CENTURY

7. Headquarters in Heddal
Heddal, Notodden, Telemark, Norway

The Stavkirka in Heddal is the largest surviving frame church. The exact year of construction is unknown, the building dates back to the beginning of the 13th century. The church was rebuilt and reconstructed many times.

The last major reconstruction, carried out in the 1950s, returned the headquarters to an appearance as close as possible to the original. The church building still contains about a third of the wood used in its construction in the 13th century.

XIV CENTURY

8. Kapellbrücke Bridge
Lucerne, Switzerland

The Kapellbrücke Bridge was built in 1365 and is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe. Under the roof ridge along the entire bridge there are 111 triangular paintings telling about the most important moments in the history of Switzerland. In 1993, Kapellbrücke was badly damaged in a fire believed to have been caused by an unextinguished cigarette. 78 of the 111 paintings were destroyed. The bridge and some of the paintings were restored according to the surviving inventory.

9. Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Michael the Archangel in Khaczów
Haczow, Poland

The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Michael the Archangel is a Gothic wooden church in the village of Chaczów, which, together with other wooden churches in southern Lesser Poland and Subcarpathia, is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The church was built in the 14th century, probably in 1388. In 2006, work began on updating the shingles. The cost of the work is more than 100 thousand euros.

The interior of the church is also valuable, including: the baroque main altar of the late 17th century, vessels from the 17th-18th centuries, Gothic sculptures from the 15th century, a stone font from the 16th century, and Gothic portals. In addition, the interior is decorated with unique polychrome from 1494. This is probably the oldest polychrome of this type in Europe.

10. Church of the Resurrection of Lazarus
Kizhi, Russia

The exact date of construction of the church is unknown, but it is believed that it was built before 1391. The building was erected by the venerable monk Lazar, who lived 105 years and died in 1391. The church became the first building of the future Murom Monastery. After the revolution, on the site of the Murom Holy Dormition Monastery, the authorities organized an agricultural commune named after. Trotsky, after 1945 - a home for the disabled, and in the 1960s the place was abandoned. In 1959, the Church of the Resurrection of Lazarus was dismantled and transported to Kizhi, where it was restored in 1960.

The church has preserved an iconostasis consisting of 17 icons of the 16th-18th centuries and representing the oldest type of two-tier iconostasis.

XV CENTURY

11. Het Houten Huys
Amsterdam, Netherlands

Not counting the suburbs that later became part of the city, two wooden buildings remain in Amsterdam. The oldest of them is Het Houten Huys, built in 1425.

12. Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Kolodny
Kolodnoye, Transcarpathia, Ukraine

The church was built in 1470. This is the oldest wooden temple in Ukraine and one of the oldest monuments of wooden architecture in Europe. In 2007-2008, restoration work was carried out, as a result of which the roof was replaced, the arcade in the bell tower was covered with a bird net, the doors were repaired, and all the holes and cracks in the log houses were plugged with wooden stakes.

13. Church of the Laying of the Robe from the village of Borodava
Kirillov, Russia

The Church of the Deposition of the Robe is the oldest precisely dated surviving monument of wooden architecture in Russia. The building was built in 1485 in the village of Borodava, located near the famous Feropontov Monastery. In 1957, the church was moved to the city of Kirillov. Currently it is located on the territory of the New Town of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery.

14. Rothenburgerhaus
Lucerne, Switzerland

The Rothenburgerhaus was built around 1500 and is the oldest residential wooden building in Switzerland.

15. Huis van Jan Brouckaerd (House of Jan Brouckaerd)
Ghent, Netherlands

In the Netherlands, medieval houses with wooden facades have been preserved. One of them is Huis van Jan Brouckaerd, built in the 16th century.

16. De Waag and De Steur
Mechelen, Belgium

The buildings De Waag and De Steur were built on the Salt Quay in the first half of the 16th century. They can be seen on the old postcard in the center of the frame.

The buildings were restored in 1927.

17. Church of St. Catherine
Ostrava, Czech Republic

The building was the oldest wooden church in Central Europe. The church was originally built in 1543. However, in 2002, a misfortune happened - due to a short circuit in the electrical wiring, the church caught fire and burned down in a few minutes. Thus Ostrava lost one of its oldest buildings.

Residents of the Ostrava region are considered people indifferent to religion. Nevertheless, more than two million Czech crowns were collected for the restoration of the temple. There were also donations from businessmen, parishioners from other cities of the country, and even from Polish believers. Rector Jiri Strnishte says that an old woman from Ivano-Frankivsk came to him, who came to visit her daughter, who works at a construction site in Ostrava, and donated two hundred crowns for the restoration of the church.

Construction lasted about two years. When restoring the church, ancient wood that survived the fire was used so that the Church of St. Catherine would not be removed from the list of architectural monuments. According to the abbot, they had to “literally use sticks, pieces of wood and planks, almost crawling on their knees, to collect pieces of unburnt wood.” The temple was restored using traditional methods of constructing wooden buildings. The grand opening took place on October 30, 2004.

18. De Duiveltjes
Mechelen, Belgium

The house was built in 1545-1550 and restored in 1867.

The building has a unique wooden facade, decorated with carved monsters - satyrs and devils, which gave the house its nickname.

19. Oude Huis
Amsterdam, Netherlands

As mentioned above, only two wooden buildings remain in Amsterdam. One of them is Het Houten Huys, and the second is Oude Huis, located at Zeedijk 1. The building was built in the 1550s.

XVII CENTURY

20. Pittstone Windmill
Pitstone, Buckinghamshire, UK

The mill was probably built in 1627 and is considered the oldest windmill in England. In 1902, the building was seriously damaged by a terrible storm. In 1922, the destroyed mill was purchased by a farmer whose land was located nearby. In 1937 he donated the building to the National Trust, but it was not until 1963 that renovation work began. Moreover, they were carried out by volunteers at their own expense. The mill is currently open to the public on Sundays in the summer.

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The house has been rebuilt over the centuries; the central part of the building is the oldest.

24. Wurleser's House
Staten Island, New York, USA

The Dutch word "voorlezer" (reader) was used among Dutch colonists to refer to active people who took on semi-official responsibilities associated with active participation in local legislation, education and religious life. After the British captured the Dutch colonies, the Wurlesers continued to maintain economic records and documentation. The last person to be given this title retired in 1789. His successor already held the title of clerk.
The building, located on Staten Island, was built around 1695 and is the oldest wooden school building in the United States. On the ground floor there was a living room and a large hall for church services. The second floor was occupied by a bedroom and another large hall, which is believed to have been intended for school activities.

25. Spaso-Zashiverskaya Church
Baryshevsky village council, Novosibirsk region, Russia