Although several dozen rural fieldstone churches from the Middle Ages and early modern period have been preserved in West Pomerania, Poland, they have rarely been the subject of architectural research. The roof structures of these churches have not been considered at all by researchers. The author of this article made a first attempt to fill this research gap by studying the roof construction of the church in Mieszewo. The research showed that the builders opted for a collar beam roof with hanging posts in each pair of rafters for a span of about 9.0 m and a central longitudinal frame. The timber connections used included cogged joints, mortise and tenon, and lap joints in various forms, the latter being the most common. To avoid confusing the timbers during construction, the carpenters used simple carpenter's marks that increased in number from west to east: semicircular notches on the right-hand side of the joinery and in the centre longitudinal bracing, rectangular notches on the left-hand side of the joinery. Only oak timbers were used, which had been pre-treated with an axe and then smoothed with an adze. Preliminary research suggests that the solution adopted in Mieszewo was widely used in medieval and early modern rural fieldstone churches in Western Pomerania. Research is continuing.

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Medieval and Early Modern Roof Structures of Rural Fieldstone Churches in West Pomerania, Poland. A Case Study of the Collar Beam Roof with King Posts from 1583 of the Church in Mieszewo

  • Ulrich Schaaf

摘要

Although several dozen rural fieldstone churches from the Middle Ages and early modern period have been preserved in West Pomerania, Poland, they have rarely been the subject of architectural research. The roof structures of these churches have not been considered at all by researchers. The author of this article made a first attempt to fill this research gap by studying the roof construction of the church in Mieszewo. The research showed that the builders opted for a collar beam roof with hanging posts in each pair of rafters for a span of about 9.0 m and a central longitudinal frame. The timber connections used included cogged joints, mortise and tenon, and lap joints in various forms, the latter being the most common. To avoid confusing the timbers during construction, the carpenters used simple carpenter's marks that increased in number from west to east: semicircular notches on the right-hand side of the joinery and in the centre longitudinal bracing, rectangular notches on the left-hand side of the joinery. Only oak timbers were used, which had been pre-treated with an axe and then smoothed with an adze. Preliminary research suggests that the solution adopted in Mieszewo was widely used in medieval and early modern rural fieldstone churches in Western Pomerania. Research is continuing.