Špýcharový dům a řešení jeho problematiky v české etnologii
The granary house and the solution to its problems in Czech ethnology

Author(s): Miroslav Válka
Subject(s): Cultural history, Architecture, Middle Ages, Rural and urban sociology
Published by: Masarykova univerzita nakladatelství
Keywords: Folk house typology; house with double-storeyed chamber; granary (špýchar); Czech lands;
Summary/Abstract: In the Middle Ages, the above-ground house with three-part arrangement developed in rural environment in the Czech lands. Its arrangement included residential area (room), communication area (hall) and farm and storage area (cowshed, larder). The researchers explained the genesis of such an arrangement by autochthon development or foreign cultural influences. Pursuant to the function of the houses´ farm area, the ethnographer V. Pražák defined three basic types of Bohemian folk house, which he related to the main settlement waves (Slavic settlement, great medieval colonization, colonization of Walachia and Kopanice in the Carpathian Mountains). The so-called “granary-style house” with two-storeyed storage room (larder) was designated as a larder type variant. The architect V. Mencl enlarged upon the theory of the granary-style house, dating its origin back to the Slavic period. As later shown by the research (J. Škabrada), the two-storeyed storage room of the house could have been connected with the fume-hood operation in the room. The title “granary-style house” is not fully correct because the term granary (špýchar from German Speicher) was used only in a part of the Czech language territory and predominantly for an independent building (granary) situated outside the house in its yard. In Moravia, where the two-storeyed larders as a part of residential houses are documented by recent finds in the regions of Haná and Slovácko (Central and South-East Moravia), the term “granary – špýchar” does not appear at all. Therefore the term “a house with a two-storeyed larder” seems to be a better name for the mentioned variant of village houses.

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