The most common building material in Lithuania was wood. Wood was used extensively in building –even the roofs of brick houses were often made of wood called “gont”. Stone buildings became popular only during the 13th century and these were mainly for defence rather than for ritual or residential purposes.
The Wooden Architecture of Lithuania
The earliest architecture of Lithuania is wooden. Wood was available in plenty from the surrounding forests. Individual farm houses of peasants, Wooden estates and small towns with wooden buildings are constructions that are typical in Lithuania ethno culture.
Numas
The oldest wooden peasant house known as “Numas” has survived the ravages of time as it continued to be used. The buildings have a rectangular shape with a hip roof covered with thatch. There is an open porch at the entrance and a hearth is situated in the centre of the main room. Directly above the hearth there were holes in the roof to let out the smoke. The back of the house was designated as premises for cattle with doors leading to the outside.
Upland houses
The upland house is a one storey building. It was made of single or double end logs and was covered with a saddleback roof. In the western half of Upland the houses had half hip roofs or with chips and small boards. One end of the building was used by the family and the other end was the guest room. The antechamber and store were located in the centre of the building.
The bread baking oven made of clay was located at the family’s end of the building. It provided the required heat and cooking equipment for the family. It had no flue and smoke was directed out of the house through a hole in the ceiling. Later a plate stove was attached to the bread backing oven and the stoves were built into the guest areas too.
Sometimes Boards were used to divide the rooms into smaller dwelling areas. The front of the house faced the Main Street or “good yard”. The entrance had a porch. The porches, windows ledges and frames, doorways, cornices and gable windows were ornamented. Ornamentation is more pronounced in the eastern parts of the uplands than in the central parts.
Many of these buildings had cattle sheds yards, barn yards and good yard bearing trees. Flower gardens were grown below windows.
Lowland Houses
The lowland houses called Troba is a one storied log building with a hip roof or half hip roof. During the early phase the roofs were covered with thatch and later with chips or small boards. The house had double ends and up to 14 rooms. The main living room was for the family. The guest room, the kitchen and small bedrooms for guests and owners were all located in the main part of the building. At the other end of the building the rooms were allocated for the elders of the family and the pantry. The centre of the building had two ante chambers and the kitchen. The main ante chamber faced the Main yard while the other chamber faced the back yard. The kitchen had a chimney with an open fireplace and a bread baking oven. The chimney kitchen gradually narrowed upwards to form an outlet to the air.
The family rooms, the guest rooms and the living rooms were heated by stoves heating the walls. The stores and the bedrooms at the end of the building are not heated.
The facades of the building are asymmetrical with one end of the house more developed than the other. The log walls had vertical panelling and were ornamented. The entry porch was attached to the main façade. Noble houses were based on the architecture of the locality.
Manor houses
Wooden Estates consisted of up to forty buildings for different purposes. The buildings have not survived the ravages of time. However, it can be seen that these buildings were constructed to blend into the landscape and were used as outbuildings for cattle, the barnyard, manufacture yard etc. The gentry’s main house dominated the landscape. The front of the house was enclosed by a park and a yard. The structure was traditional modified with technical equipment or stylistic innovations and the houses were individualistic. Master builders were pressed into service for the construction of these houses. These houses were rectangular in shape and one storied with an attic. They are symmetrical and were classified for “usefulness” “strength” and “beauty”.
Classical and Boroque styles impacted the architecture of these houses. The houses were built on a stone plinth and the walls were fir or pine flat hewn logs. The walls were panelled or plastered with clay and painted white. The roof was rafter type with post and truss. They were covered with thatch, shingles or tiles.
The rooms were arranged in two or three lines on both sides of the long walls and join in an enfilade way. The state room, the drawing room and dining room were located along the centre of the house. The bedrooms were along the back wall of the house. The houses had big chimneys—made of brick and stone. The kitchens were located in a separate building.
Apartment buildings
Multi storied blocks of flats are being put in Lithuania. This is because there is a huge demand for housing and decisions to buy are being made quickly. Residential flats are being constructed in closed residential areas or in development areas. However, estates form very slowly in Lithuania due to the lack of appropriate plots and difficulty in redefining the purpose of land. Moreover, the flats are extremely expensive and almost equal that of individual houses. |
