Wooden Architecture
Until the turn of the 19th century end-fitted log framework construction dominated rural architecture in Silesia. This technique for constructing buildings was characterized by building walls out of horizontally piled wooden logs, whose ends, at a building’s corners, were joined and connected with the use of dovetails. Depending on the shape of the dovetails, such joints were variously referred to as: “a saddle notch,” “a fishtail,” “a sparrow’s tail,” “a halved joint,” “a locked joint.”
Such a construction method developed as a result of natural geographic and climactic conditions. The dense forests that covered the territory of Opolan Silesia supplied the necessary raw materials that carpenters were then able to easily transform into building blocks. The structures built from wood were also perfectly suited to the region’s climate. The fact that the inhabitants of Silesia were strongly tied to these types of structures, and that such architecture achieved a dominant position in the region, is evidenced by the age-old tradition of using this construction method: the fundamental structural elements that characterized 19th century buildings were practically identical to buildings discovered at an ancient medieval settlement in Ostrówek in Opole. While the buildings uncovered at the ancient settlement were quite primitively constructed, even then (during the 10th and 11th and centuries) the same end-fitted log construction framework was used as in more contemporary times.
The largely homogenous picture of folk architecture in Opolan Silesia begins to change as a result of transformations that last from the 2nd half of the 18th century to the middle of the 19th century. As a result, Opolan villages are differentiated into two basic regions divided by the Odra River: the area situated on the right-bank of Opolan Silesia (which retains and continues to cultivate wooden architecture) and the territory located on the left-bank of Opolan Silesia (where brick and timber-framed architecture quickly developed). The period of colonization initiated by the Prussian King Fredrick the Great brought with it new construction methods: timber-framed structures. The process of establishing new villages, known as Fredrician colonization, was dictated by political and economic factors. It was necessary to settle the large forested regions of northeastern Opolan Silesia, create a foundation for the development of the metallurgical industry, and economically and demographically strengthen a region that had been recently annexed by Prussia as a result of war with Austria.
Timber-framing – simple and economical – uses vertically embedded poles connected by horizontally placed beams (girders) in order to erect walls. Diagonally placed beams that connect the posts and girders can be used to additionally strengthen the structure. The space created by the structural frame is then filled in by any number of different materials: clay mixed together with straw, bricks, or, conversely, boards can be used to cover the frame. Considering the fact that of the 471 colonies established in Silesia up until the middle of the 19th century 225 were situated in the Opole district, and that the construction method recommended by the authorities was timber-framing, it is easy to understand how the architectural image of Opolan villages was fundamentally changed. During the colonization period several construction, fire-safety, and insurance regulations were introduced that further served to propagate timber-framing – and later on: brick construction – whilst traditional wooden architecture slowly went into recess. This process intensified in particular during the middle of the 19th century when Silesia underwent substantial architectural development as a result of the economic progress of the post-enfranchisement period.
There are two other wooden construction techniques that were used in Opolan Silesia: the vertical-post log construction technique, and the Lusation half-timbered construction technique. The former relied on fixing vertical posts in the structure’s corners and filling the space in-between with horizontal beams that would slide into specially made grooves in the posts. This technique was mainly used in the construction of farm buildings as well as in the construction of structures with long walls. The areas where one can see such structures are limited to the southwestern parts of Opolan Silesia. This construction method is often used together with an end-fitted log framework: vertical posts are added to the building’s walls in order to carry the weight of the structures roof or second-story.
The previously mentioned division of Opolan Silesia into two areas was caused by a number of different factors. The northern and eastern regions, with less developed settlements and agriculture (worse land, large forested tracts) served to support the survival of more archaic forms of folk culture. Being a peripheral region of the Prussian state, the local inhabitants did not lose their sense of Polish identity and continued to cultivate age-old traditions, including – also – material culture – evidence of which is the wide-scale predominance of wooden log architecture in the area. The part of Opolan Silesia situated on the left-bank of the Odra River, which had much better soil, less forests, and a dense network of settlements, experienced more rapid and earlier economic development, and among other things, that is why timber-framing and brick architecture developed and spread more quickly in this part of Opolan Silesia. The scarcity of wood in the area also substantially contributed to such developments.
Wooden churches, many of which have survived to this day, constitute a unique type of wooden architecture in Opolan Silesia. Most of them were built in the 17th and 18th centuries, and their perfect proportions and artistic mastery, which can be admired to this very day, are testament to the great qualifications and skills of village carpenters.
