Tailer's Family - journeying!
Project: Germany - Lubeck
No. 1 of 5
Germany - Lubeck: Mediaeval Courtyards and Alleyways.
Lübeck's day-laborers and porters once lived in small houses crowded together in courtyards surrounded by residential blocks. Access was through small alleyways.
Similar to other big cities in the late Middle Ages and the early modern age, Lübeck had its share of day-laborers and porters. They mostly lived in "Buden" - small houses, often little more than huts - that were crowded together on corner lots, behind town houses or in the yards surrounded by residential blocks. There are hardly any medieval Buden left today, as they were not built out of stone until the mid-19th century.
As the general population grew in the second half of the 15th century, the number of residents in Lübeck increased by about a quarter as well. The merchants, the well-to-do middle class and the church were quick to realize the fountain of wealth that a house with a built-up yard represented. It was left up to the landlord just how many families he would squeeze into the tiny flats, and how many Buden he would have built behind his house. The smallest of these buildings, at Hartengrube No. 36, was barely 10 feet wide, 13 feet deep and 15 feet high (to the roof ridge). There were more than 180 passageways in Lübeck at the close of the 17th century. Today, some 90 passageways still exist. www.historicgermany.com/3505.html
(Flickr Explore Interestingness no.492 on 9th August, 2008.)
Project: Germany - Lubeck
No. 1 of 5
Germany - Lubeck: Mediaeval Courtyards and Alleyways.
Lübeck's day-laborers and porters once lived in small houses crowded together in courtyards surrounded by residential blocks. Access was through small alleyways.
Similar to other big cities in the late Middle Ages and the early modern age, Lübeck had its share of day-laborers and porters. They mostly lived in "Buden" - small houses, often little more than huts - that were crowded together on corner lots, behind town houses or in the yards surrounded by residential blocks. There are hardly any medieval Buden left today, as they were not built out of stone until the mid-19th century.
As the general population grew in the second half of the 15th century, the number of residents in Lübeck increased by about a quarter as well. The merchants, the well-to-do middle class and the church were quick to realize the fountain of wealth that a house with a built-up yard represented. It was left up to the landlord just how many families he would squeeze into the tiny flats, and how many Buden he would have built behind his house. The smallest of these buildings, at Hartengrube No. 36, was barely 10 feet wide, 13 feet deep and 15 feet high (to the roof ridge). There were more than 180 passageways in Lübeck at the close of the 17th century. Today, some 90 passageways still exist. www.historicgermany.com/3505.html
(Flickr Explore Interestingness no.492 on 9th August, 2008.)