Rural mazovia buildings

This is a very typical cottage of the region. The smallest houses consisted of one main room which contained the cooking, sleeping, living and working facilities for all the family plus another smaller room that served partly as an entry and partly as a store for agricultural implements etc. As winters can be so cold and sometimes a lot of snow, it was important that there was not a direct entry from the outside to the main room, otherwise vital heat would be lost every time the door was opened. If the family were more affluent or practised a profession then the cottage may have been longer to accommodate more living space or rooms for special work purposes.

The usual place for the extra room was to build it on the opposite side of the entry hall. Thus many cottages have a central hall going from one side of the cottage to the other. There were other layouts, but the 2 above were probably the most common.


Village Turów

An original stove, made of brick or stone with iron fittings. This would be in the centre of the house, in the main room, with one side forming part of the wall of the next room. Thus one sove could be used to heat a whole house. It was quite common to have a separate small building with another stove in it, or a stove outside. This would be the summer kitchen, thus avoiding making the house unpleasantly hot during the summer. Wood was the most common fuel due to its easy availability.

The above shows possibly the most common layout and usage of a cottage, but there are many exceptions. smaller cottages omit the barn and storage area, larger ones have just 2 similar sized main rooms, dwors often had 4 main rooms with inter-connecting doors that allow you to walk in a circle through all the main rooms. If the cottage was part of a farm, then the barn part became another store room, if the cottage was a shop then the front storage room was the shop and the barn became the store room. Other common reasons for differences were if trades were practiced - a potter may of had the main room divided with half as a workshop and the other as a bedroom, the stove being large enough to both cook and fire pots. Sometimes the barn and storage area were just one room, forming a large barn with access from the outside.

do góry