Zprávy památkové péče 2019, 79(3):316-328 | DOI: 10.56112/zpp.2019.3.10

House No. 5 in Trávníček; the survey of a homestead in the Českodubsko area

Tereza Konvalinková, Martin Ouhrabka

NPÚ ÚOP v Liberci

The rural homestead No. 5 in the village of Trávníček is another example of a specific form of a timbered house in the area of Českodubsko and Pojizeří which, by its constructional design, refers to a very conservative building tradition associated with the development of heating equipment and storeyed houses. Previous surveys have shown, among other things, that houses in this form, i.e. with a high room with a half-storey structure and a connected storeyed agricultural part, comprise one of the oldest preserved layers of folk architecture dating back to the 17th century. The results of newer documentation of house No. 5 in Trávníček brought new findings, however, which change our current view of the buildings in certain respects.
The village of Trávníček is located approximately 4 km south of Český Dub. It is situated in the valley of the Mohelka River for a length of about 1.5 km. The village is divided into two enclaves - upper Trávníček in the east, on the way to Sedlíšťka, and lower Trávníček in the west at the intersection of the roads to Libíč and Hradčany. The first evidence of the village's existence dates back to 1546. The name Trávníček (Cz: little grassy area) probably refers to its existence as an irrigated valley floodplain that served as a significant source of forage for the surrounding villages. The village was spared from modern construction interventions, and its appearance and conservation status bear the values of a potential village heritage zone. The homestead structure No. 5 is one of the oldest root homesteads in Trávníček. The history of the homestead is not linked to a single family; on the contrary, the land was sold several times outside the direct hereditary line.
The partially timbered house has a rectangular ground plan, and the southern entrance of its longitudinal facade faces a non-demarcated yard and the slope above the vehicle passageway. The building is storeyed in its agricultural part, while the height of the chamber floor is evened out by the high living room and the reinforcing perimeter ring of the half-storey in the residential part. The interior layout on the ground floor is based on a three-part layout, with a hall and a brick shed, accessible from the porch of the southern longitudinal faćade ties into the living room. In the second wing of the house, the deeper ground plan of the shed in the north lines up with the addition of the chamber and the side living room. The masonry niche of the smoke kitchen has been preserved in the northeast corner of the hall. On the first floor, the narrower space of the upper hall, as well as a triad of chambers accessible through the gallery, ties into the structure of the timbered residential part. The cellar is recessed longitudinally with the ground plan of the house under the southern part of the living room and hall. A simple shed with a shed roof adjoins the western gable faćade.
Given the typical appearance of the timbered half-storeyed house and the connected agricultural storey, as well as a number of other details consistent with hitherto known analogies, the initial estimation of the construction of homestead No. 5 in Trávníček was assumed to be around the middle of the 17th century. The oldest construction elements that were dated by dendrochronological analysis to 1680-1685, were present only in relics of contemporary constructions. Most of the other dated elements belonged to the later construction phase from the end of the 1780s. It is therefore evident that the present house was built onto its predecessor, a large part of which originated in the 1680s. From the beginning of the 18th century, fully-fledged storeyed houses were built in the immediate vicinity; and the situation in which a variant of the house, whose construction form may have been understood as an archaic relict already in the 17th century, was simply repeated, cannot be satisfactorily explained. An explanation of these questions, as well as others, arising from the survey of house No. 5 will hopefully bring about a progressive knowledge of other buildings of the same constructional design.
It should not be overlooked that this historically credibly preserved house is undoubtedly becoming an important material source documenting the form and development of rural architecture from the 17th to the 20th century, which is currently threatened by an invasive building doctrine.

Keywords: folk architecture, Českodubsko, Trávníček, Liberec region, area survey, heritage care, dendrochronology

Published: September 1, 2019  Show citation