SC - Iceland-houses

[Decker, Margaret]

These are wonderful pictures. Thank you so much for sharing. Margarite

 
No. We just didn't use durable materials. Houses were built not of stone but
mostly of turf, or a mixture of turf, peat and stone, with a timber frame
construction on the inside. Such a structure, made of organic materials,
will deteoriate fairly quickly and needs yearly maintenance. It is also
easily damaged by earthquakes. Only a few such structures, out of many
thousands, now remain but in some cases no one can really say how old they
are since they need constant renovation - some parts may be really old but
no one knows for sure. You can see photos of some old Icelandic houses here:

http://sunwagon.com/turf/realold/old.html

(the guy is a nutcase but these were the only photos I could find online in
a quick search). Not all depict Icelandic houses or churches but most of
them are. My mother grew up in a house rather like the one in the third
picture from top (although not as grand, this is the house of a wealthy
farmer) and the second one from top could just as well have been taken at
the family farm. The old house was still standing when I lived there and was
used for storage. At the two closest neighbouring farms, people were still
living in turf houses in the mid-1960's.

The only large wood buildings were the cathedrals at the two bishop seats,
Hólar and Skálholt, and they usually burnt to the ground fairly regularly.
The oldest large stone buildings in Iceland were built in the mid- or late
18th century.

Nanna