The material was prepared by Svetlana Ryabtseva based on a conversation held with the Shtakin family - Marina and Dmitry, on whose site a fathom bathhouse was designed and built. Moreover, Svetlana took an active part in the development of the bathhouse project according to the traditions of old Russian architecture. The owners willingly shared information about how the original project was brought to life. So, first things first.
In the south of the Moscow region in the Serpukhov district on the banks of the Oka River there is the village “N”. The mountainous landscape of this area allows us to call it Russian Switzerland. Before the revolution in the village there were large number yards. Prosperous peasants lived there, most of whom were skilled in working crafts: foundry, blacksmithing, and plumbing. Many of them were related, had large plots of land and beautiful houses. Before the revolution, it was a village with a wooden church. In this beautiful place, our ancestors also owned a plot of land. For more than 300 years they lived in this place and cultivated this land. During Soviet times, the plot was reduced to 24 acres. As expected, at the beginning of the site there is a good-quality five-walled hut, built according to Russian traditions in fathoms. Below in the ravine there gushes a source of magnificent mineral water, which has served the residents since the formation of the village.
Recently we have become the heirs of this land. Everything would be fine, but to modern man More comfort is needed - and we thought about building a bathhouse in this family nest. As usual, appetite comes with eating, and we wanted to build a bathhouse with a second floor, a balcony and a terrace on the first floor. As expected, you need to start with a plan, and not a simple one, but with a plan calculated in fathoms, ensuring harmony between the size of the house and the size of the owners. We were also attracted by the fact that a house built in fathoms is durable and has a beneficial effect on everyone living in it /1/. Immediately before construction began, the plan for the bathhouse was approved.

1st floor plan.
​

Attic plan.​

The plan of the bathhouse was made according to ancient Russian fathoms, restored by A.F. Chernyaev based on measurements of Russian churches /1/. Initially, the dimensions of the log house were assumed to be 6x6.4 m, that is, the width was 4 simple fathoms, the length was 4 masonry fathoms. The height of the entire bathhouse was assumed to be 7 m, that is, 4 national fathoms. The foundation was planned to be low, 40 cm, so it was not taken into account. Immediately before starting work, we made adjustments - we added steps with a canopy and roof overhangs. The final dimensions with the porch turned out to be 7.5 x 8 m or 4 church fathoms by 6 smaller fathoms.
The fathom plan was developed in accordance with all our wishes. All that remained was to find excellent builders. The first company we contacted was unable to produce a log house other than standard sizes 6x6m. We got lucky here. In the building materials market, we managed to get the phone number of a foreman from Chuvashia, who offered log houses for bathhouses with logs as much as 38 cm in diameter.
In May, work began to boil. An area opposite the old house was identified and cleared. Previously, a little below the bathhouse, on the side of the steam room, the builders made a septic tank with an overflow system - they dug 3 rings, cemented the bottom and added 2 rings for the overflow, and covered them with plastic hatches on top. On the other hand, higher up, they chose a place for a well. The foundation was planned according to all the rules: they provided not only ventilation holes, but also holes for pipes - for supplying well water and draining waste water. In the fall, after the construction of the bathhouse, a well was dug next to the bathhouse. In the future, we planned to supply water directly to the bathhouse and install a boiler so that we could take a shower in the summer without resorting to a preliminary fire to heat the water.
The first step was to mark the foundation.

Workers dug a trench under strip foundation size
6.0x6.5 m and depth 70 cm. 20 cm of sand was laid at the bottom - the so-called sand cushion.

From time immemorial, the peasant hut made of logs has been considered a symbol of Russia. According to archaeologists, the first huts appeared in Rus' 2 thousand years ago BC. For many centuries, the architecture of wooden peasant houses remained virtually unchanged, combining everything that every family needed: a roof over their heads and a place where they can relax after a hard day of work.

In the 19th century, the most common plan for a Russian hut included a living space (hut), a canopy and a cage. The main room was the hut - a heated living space of a square or rectangular shape. The storage room was a cage, which was connected to the hut through a canopy. In turn, the canopy was a utility room. They were never heated, so they could only be used as living quarters in the summer. Among the poor segments of the population, a two-chamber hut layout, consisting of a hut and a vestibule, was common.

Ceilings in wooden houses were flat, they were often hemmed with painted plank. The floors were made of oak brick. The walls were decorated using red plank, while in rich houses the decoration was supplemented with red leather (less wealthy people usually used matting). In the 17th century, ceilings, vaults and walls began to be decorated with paintings. Benches were placed around the walls under each window, which were securely attached directly to the structure of the house itself. At approximately the level of human height, long wooden shelves called voronets were installed along the walls above the benches. Kitchen utensils were stored on shelves along the room, and tools for men's work were stored on others.

Initially, the windows in Russian huts were volokova, that is, observation windows that were cut into adjacent logs, half the log down and up. They looked like a small horizontal slit and were sometimes decorated with carvings. They closed the opening (“veiled”) using boards or fish bladders, leaving a small hole (“peeper”) in the center of the latch.

After some time, the so-called red windows, with frames framed by jambs, became popular. They had more complex design, rather than volokovye, and were always decorated. The height of the red windows was at least three times the diameter of the log in the log house.

In poor houses, the windows were so small that when they were closed, the room became very dark. In rich houses, windows from the outside were closed with iron shutters, often using pieces of mica instead of glass. From these pieces it was possible to create various ornaments, painting them with paints with images of grass, birds, flowers, etc.

I'm reading now about the art and architecture of Ancient Egypt. You know me, I always get involved in little things and particulars, questions always arise: “How?” yes “What it’s made of.” I watched several films about temples and pyramids, everything is clear about this: perfectly even blocks carved out of stone, unfortunate builders with osteoarthritis, possible intervention of aliens and all that. But how did ordinary Egyptians live?

The picture above is actually a screenshot, you can watch the video itself here

But they simply lived very closely. The houses were built from adobe brick, which was sculpted from what the Nile brought in every year: a mixture of silt and clay.

Houses were built from such bricks in Ancient Egypt

The area of ​​the house could be 6-10 square meters(like my kitchen). True, in the house they only slept and raised children (apparently, right with existing children), the rest of the time was spent at work or in the yard, when dusk fell, they moved to the roof, where they could sit and drink beer (this is a very respected the lesson was in Egypt) and discuss the events of the day. It must be said that the pharaoh’s home was not much different from the “apartment” of a peasant.

The “anatomy” of the pyramids is clearly visible here

The palaces were surprisingly small and cramped, although, of course, larger than those of the poor, but significantly smaller than temples and funeral complexes. Wood was in short supply, so coastal clay completely solved the problem of building materials. Raw brick was short-lived, but cheap. Over time, it became limp or crumbled, so almost no dwellings reached us. ordinary people. In one program I saw that archaeologists managed to study one house only because it... burned down in a fire and was abandoned: clay under the influence high temperature sintered and acquired the properties of burnt, which allowed the walls, covered with sand, to “survive” to this day.

Reconstruction of an Egyptian home

So the entire imperial scope was embodied in the “near-funeral” architecture of the Egyptians: in the pyramids and temples. They were built where rocky mountains were closer, so as not to carry stone blocks far, but if necessary, they carried them. It is generally believed that the prototype of the pyramids were mountains. There was plenty of building stone - limestone, Aswan granite, porphyry and shimmering alabaster.

Ancient image of brick making

So it turns out that the entire historical architecture of Egypt had a very indirect relationship to the life of the Egyptians; its goal was to please the gods, exalt the pharaoh and provide him with a luxurious afterlife. And it doesn’t matter that most of the state budget was spent on this.

House of a modern Egyptian

It is interesting that in Ancient Palestine the dwellings ordinary people were very similar to the Egyptian ones

HARAPPAN CIVILIZATION

With Egypt everything is clear, but here’s how things were, for example, in Harappan civilization, little known to us? These guys were more practical, architectural megalomania was not typical of them, and the building material was more reliable - baked brick.

Reconstruction of a Harappan city

It seems that this was some kind of semi-utopian civilization of general welfare and prosperity, so they took care of their citizens: they paved roads, built artificial reservoirs, water supply and even sewerage were organized in the Harappan cities. True, from such luxury and comfort, citizens eventually became bored and degenerated. But if they had worked a little harder, building some kind of wall or pyramid, maybe they would have loved freedom more and held on to their property.

Harappan buildings. Ruins of Mohejo Daro

Raw brick was also used, but much less frequently. The climate in ancient times on the territory of what is now India was once different, much wetter, although now it is not particularly dry, so the raw material quickly spread. Brickwork they were held together with silty mortar, which was taken from the banks of local rivers.

Tower in Mohejo Daro

Lime was rarely used, only in the lower rows of masonry; the muddy mortar was not very strong and did not harden tightly, so if necessary, the building could be easily dismantled and the bricks could be reused. Interestingly, the Harappan builders used several different construction techniques, that is, they were very “advanced” for their time. Apart from the city walls and gates, nothing gigantic remained from the Harappans (or whatever they were called). There was nothing, nothing for the rulers to occupy the people with!

CHINA

But this message reached the Chinese rulers in time. They just occupied their citizens with such useful activities as the construction of the Great Wall of China, while the homes of the Chinese were very modest. Especially in comparison with the Wall, which is clearly visible even from space. Total length the walls exceed 5 thousand km. The walls are laid out in two rows, the outer parts are made of stone and brick, and the inside of the wall is filled with compacted clay, the total volume of which is about 180 million square meters. m.

Great Chinese wall. View from space

If we talk about Chinese dwellings, then the housing of the emperors did not look like a giant palace, but like a village of wealthy peasants - so, they covered it with foil a little for the sake of force and surrounded it with a wall. Beautiful and quite large buildings began to be erected relatively recently, in recent centuries. It must be said that both the Chinese Wall and the walls of the palaces had a very utilitarian meaning - defensive. The empire constantly suffered from invasions of barbarian tribes from the North, and China itself was constantly torn apart by internal conflicts, so there was no way without walls.

Reconstruction of the ancient Chinese city of Linzi, 7th century BC

Beautiful Chinese palaces and temples with curved roof corners are an echo of the times when all buildings were made of wood, and that’s how they were built. In general, it is quite difficult to talk about any single architecture in China - the country is huge, with a heterogeneous topography, lies in several climatic zones. They built from what was at hand: from bamboo huts on stilts in the water to caves in the rocks.

Reconstruction-museum of an ancient Chinese dwelling

It must be said that it was not only the Harappan citizens who were so literate that they came up with a water supply system. It was also in China; the Chinese used bamboo pipes to supply water. There was plumbing in both Ancient Egypt and Rome, and in the latter it was very advanced.

Modern home of a poor Chinese peasant in a deep province

Ancient cave city in China

How everything has something in common - the cave city in Petra, Jordan

... And also - a cave city in Chufut-Kale in Crimea

BABYLON

Babylonian Gate of the Goddess Ishtar in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin

Let's return to the brick. The Babylonians also used baked bricks. They have also made great progress in the art of building cladding. Everyone knows their beautiful images on a blue background, laid out from elegant glazed tiles. We also know about the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, although we can hardly imagine what it really was.

Current ideas about Hanging Gardens Babylon are very different: from quite traditional options...

...To the very unexpected. This is not a reconstruction, but a very real building in modern Japan.

It is clear that "Glory to Ishtar!" - this is sacred, but how did the simple Babylonians live, those who built and built a tower to the very sky, but did not finish it? Judging by the excavation materials, they lived closely and not particularly luxuriously. Like the Egyptians, and the Chinese, and the Harrapan guys.

Babylon

Ruins of Babylon, photo 1932

HITTES

We have also forgotten the Hittites. These were mainly built from stone, sometimes practically unprocessed, since they lived among the mountain ranges of Anatolia, there were even heaps of stone there. However, in the city of Karchemysh (XX-VIII centuries BC) buildings made of the same mud brick were discovered, albeit on stone foundations. The Hittites did not build large temples and tombs, but still some Cyclopean structures remained from them. For example, the famous Lion Gate. The fortress walls and towers were also quite massive - it was necessary to defend against restless neighbors. The stone blocks used for the walls were simply huge!

Lion Gate in the Hittite capital Hattusa.

To build living quarters, they used medium-sized stone and the aforementioned brick; the outside of all this beauty was coated with clay. Housing, as you may have guessed, like other nations, was usually quite small.

Ruins and partial reconstruction of Hattusa

Hattusa. Reconstruction.

So all the peoples seemed to live the same way: in small houses without amenities and TV, and in historical memory civilizations were imprinted with structures “for protection” and “for the idea.” This topic is far from exhausted, so we’ll continue later somehow.

Wood has been used as the main building material since ancient times. It was in wooden architecture that Russian architects developed that reasonable combination of beauty and utility, which was then transferred to structures made of stone and brick. Many artistic and construction techniques that meet the living conditions and tastes of forest peoples have been developed over the centuries in wooden architecture.

The most significant buildings in Rus' were erected from centuries-old trunks (three centuries or more) up to 18 meters long and more than half a meter in diameter. And there were many such trees in Rus', especially in the European North, which in the old days was called the “Northern Region”.

The properties of wood as a building material largely determined the special shape wooden structures.
The log - its thickness - became a natural unit of measurement for all dimensions of a building, a kind of module.

Tarred pine and larch were used on the walls of huts and temples; the roof was made of light spruce. And only where these species were rare, strong, heavy oak or birch was used for walls.

And not every tree was cut down, with analysis and preparation. Ahead of time, they looked for a suitable pine tree and made cuts (lasas) with an ax - they removed the bark on the trunk in narrow strips from top to bottom, leaving strips of untouched bark between them for sap flow. Then, they left the pine tree standing for another five years. During this time, it thickly secretes resin and saturates the trunk with it. And so, in the cold autumn, before the day began to lengthen and the earth and trees were still sleeping, they cut down this tarred pine. You can’t cut it later - it will start to rot. Aspen, and deciduous forest in general, on the contrary, was harvested in the spring, during sap flow. Then the bark easily comes off the log and, when dried in the sun, it becomes as strong as bone.

The main, and often the only tool of the ancient Russian architect was the ax. Saws, although known since the 10th century, were used exclusively in carpentry for interior work. The fact is that the saw tears the wood fibers during operation, leaving them open to water. The ax, crushing the fibers, seems to seal the ends of the logs. No wonder they still say: “cut down a hut.” And, well known to us now, they tried not to use nails. After all, around a nail, the wood begins to rot faster. As a last resort, wooden crutches were used.

The basis wooden building in Rus' it was a “log house”. These are logs fastened (“tied”) together into a quadrangle. Each row of logs was respectfully called a “crown.” First, lower crown often placed on a stone foundation - a “ryazh”, which was made of powerful boulders. It’s warmer and rots less.

The types of log houses also differed in the type of fastening of logs to each other. For outbuildings, a log house was used “cut” (rarely laid). The logs here were not stacked tightly, but in pairs on top of each other, and often were not fastened at all. When the logs were fastened “into a paw,” their ends, whimsically hewn and truly reminiscent of paws, did not extend beyond the outside of the wall. The crowns here were already tightly adjacent to each other, but in the corners it could still blow in the winter.

The most reliable and warmest was considered to be the fastening of logs “in a clap”, in which the ends of the logs extended slightly beyond the walls. Such a strange name today comes from the word “obolon” ​​(“oblon”), meaning the outer layers of a tree (cf. “to envelop, envelop, shell”). Back at the beginning of the 20th century. they said: “cut the hut into Obolon” ​​if they wanted to emphasize that inside the hut the logs of the walls were not crowded together. However, more often the outside of the logs remained round, while inside the huts they were hewn to a plane - “scraped into lass” (a smooth strip was called las). Now the term “burst” refers more to the ends of the logs protruding outward from the wall, which remain round, with a chip.

The rows of logs themselves (crowns) were connected to each other using internal spikes. Moss was laid between the crowns in the log house and then final assembly the log house was caulked flax tow cracks. Attics were often filled with the same moss to preserve heat in winter.

In terms of plan, the log houses were made in the form of a quadrangle (“chetverik”), or in the form of an octagon (“octagon”). Mostly huts were made from several adjacent quadrangles, and octagons were used for construction wooden churches(after all, the figure of eight allows you to increase the area of ​​the room almost six times without changing the length of the logs). Often, by placing quadrangles and octets on top of each other, the ancient Russian architect built the pyramidal structure of a church or rich mansions.

Simple indoor rectangular wooden frame without any extensions it was called a “cage”. “Cage by cage, veg by vet,” they said in the old days, trying to emphasize the reliability of the log house in comparison with the open canopy - vet. Usually the log house was placed on the “basement” - the lower auxiliary floor, which was used for storing supplies and household equipment. And the upper crowns of the log house expanded upward, forming a cornice - a “fall”. This interesting word, derived from the verb “to fall,” was often used in Rus'. So, for example, the upper cold ones were called “povalusha” shared bedrooms in a house or mansion, where the whole family went to sleep (lay down) in the summer from a flooded hut.

The doors in the cage were made as low as possible, and the windows were placed higher. This way, less heat escaped from the hut.

In ancient times, the roof over the log house was made without nails - “male”. To complete this, the two end walls were made from shrinking stumps of logs, which were called “males.” Long longitudinal poles were placed on them in steps - “dolniki”, “lay down” (cf. “lay down, lie down”). Sometimes, however, the ends of the beds cut into the walls were also called males. One way or another, the entire roof got its name from them.

Thin tree trunks, cut down from one of the branches of the root, were cut into the beds from top to bottom. Such trunks with roots were called “chickens” (apparently due to the resemblance of the left root to a chicken paw). These upward-pointing root branches supported a hollowed-out log—the “stream.” It collected water flowing from the roof. And already on top of the hens and beds they laid wide roof boards, resting their lower edges on the hollowed-out groove of the stream. Particular care was taken to block off the rain from the upper joint of the boards - the “ridge” (“princeling”). A thick “ridge ridge” was laid under it, and on top the joint of the boards, like a cap, was covered with a log hollowed out from below - a “shell” or “skull”. However, more often this log was called “ohlupnem” - something that covers.

What was used to cover the roofs of wooden huts in Rus'! Then the straw was tied into sheaves (bundles) and laid along the slope of the roof, pressing with poles; Then they split aspen logs onto planks (shingles) and covered the hut with them, like scales, in several layers. And in ancient times they even covered it with turf, turning it upside down and laying it under birch bark.

The most expensive coating was considered “tes” (boards). The word “tes” itself well reflects the process of its manufacture. A smooth, knot-free log was split lengthwise in several places, and wedges were driven into the cracks. The log split in this way was split lengthwise several more times. The unevenness of the resulting wide boards was trimmed with a special ax with a very wide blade.

The roof was usually covered in two layers - “cutting” and “red striping”. The bottom layer of planks on the roof was also called the under-skalnik, since it was often covered with “rock” (birch bark, which was chipped from birch trees) for tightness. Sometimes they installed a kinked roof. Then the lower, flatter part was called “police” (from the old word “floor” - half).

The entire pediment of the hut was importantly called “chelo” and was richly decorated with magical protective carvings. The outer ends of the under-roof slabs were covered from rain with long boards - “rails”. And the upper joint of the piers was covered with a patterned hanging board - a “towel”.

The roof is the most important part of a wooden building. “If only there was a roof over your head,” people still say. That is why, over time, its “top” became a symbol of any temple, house and even economic structure.

“Riding” in ancient times was the name for any completion. These tops, depending on the wealth of the building, could be very diverse. The simplest was the “cage” top - simple gable roof on the cage. Temples were usually decorated with a “tent” top in the form of a high octagonal pyramid. The “cubic top”, reminiscent of a massive tetrahedral onion, was intricate. The towers were decorated with such a top. The “barrel” was quite difficult to work with - a gable roof with smooth curvilinear outlines, ending with a sharp ridge. But they also made a “crossed barrel” - two intersecting simple barrels. Tent churches, cube-shaped, tiered, multi-domed - all this is named after the completion of the temple, after its top.

The ceiling was not always arranged. When firing stoves “black”, it is not needed - the smoke will only accumulate under it. Therefore, in a living room it was done only with a “white” fire (through a pipe in the stove). In this case, the ceiling boards were laid on thick beams - “matitsa”.

The Russian hut was either a “four-walled” (simple cage) or a “five-walled” (a cage partitioned inside with a wall - “overcut”). During the construction of the hut, utility rooms were added to the main volume of the cage (“porch”, “canopy”, “yard”, “bridge” between the hut and the yard, etc.). In Russian lands, not spoiled by heat, they tried to put the entire complex of buildings together, pressed against each other.

There were three types of organization of the complex of buildings that made up the courtyard. Single big two-story house holding several related families under one roof was called a “koshel”. If utility rooms were built on the side and the whole house took on the shape of the letter “G,” then it was called a “verb.” If the outbuildings were built from the end of the main frame and the whole complex was stretched out in a line, then they said that it was a “timber”.

A “porch” led into the house, which was often built on “supports” (“outlets”) - the ends of long logs released from the wall. This type of porch was called a “hanging” porch.

The porch was usually followed by a “canopy” (canopy - shadow, shaded place). They were installed so that the door did not open directly onto the street, and the heat in winter time did not leave the hut. The front part of the building, together with the porch and entryway, was called in ancient times “the sunrise.”

If the hut was two-story, then the second floor was called “povet” in outbuildings and “upper room” in living quarters. The premises above the second floor, where the maiden’s room was usually located, were called “towers”.

Especially in outbuildings, the second floor was often reached by an “import” - an inclined log platform. A horse and cart loaded with hay could climb up it. If the porch led directly to the second floor, then the porch area itself (especially if there was an entrance to the first floor under it) was called a “locker.”

Since the huts were almost all “smoking”, that is, they were heated “black”, the inside walls up to the height of a man were white, specially polished, and above them they were black from constant smoke. At the smoke border along the walls there were usually long wooden shelves- “Voronets” that prevent smoke from penetrating into bottom part premises.

The smoke came out of the hut either through small “volokok windows” or through a “smoke chamber” - wooden pipe, richly decorated with carvings.

In rich houses and churches, a “gulbische” was often arranged around the log house - a gallery covering the building on two or three sides.

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In ancient times, almost all of Rus' was wooden. Our ancestors settled in wooded areas, along the banks of rivers and lakes.

Russian wooden construction is a construction created by the labor and genius of the craftsmen.

In Rus', wood has always been the most available material. Everything was built from it - from simple huts, palaces, religious buildings to various utility rooms and fortresses. A Russian hut usually served two or three generations, although it could last for more than 100 years. Churches are longer - up to 400 years old.

Our ancestors were deeply aware amazing properties wood and used it everywhere both for housing construction and for making various items everyday life Wood gives a special feeling of life, acting as a conductor between man and nature. Being a conductor of Cosmic energies, trees have a beneficial effect on a person’s aura, and, accordingly, on his health. It is the tree that has long been a symbol of Life, its birth and continuation.

Ancient wooden construction is one of the most significant manifestations of the artistic and construction culture of the Russian people, an ancient, skillful and vibrant culture.

Already in the 10th century, magnificent residential buildings made of wood with carved platbands and decorations. In chronicles there is a lot of information about elegant ensembles of log houses, with golden towers of towers, which were genuine works of original Russian art. An example is wooden yard Princess Olga, which received the name “teremny” because of the unusual towers with a tent top.

Rus' is inseparable from the concept of a hut. In forest areas, huts were known already in the 4th-5th centuries. The ancient Slavs called an izba a heated log house, and grandfathers, fathers, sons, and grandsons lived under its roof as one family. All outbuildings are collected under one roof and you can carry out all the outbuildings for a long time without leaving your home.

The first types of huts were similar to the simplest forest dwellings. Gradually, from century to century, the appearance of the hut was improved, its layout became more complicated, and its size increased. Only its structural basis remained unchanged - the log house.

Cutting down a hut is not an easy task. The Russian peasant built his house firmly, to last for centuries. The tools are simple - an axe, a staple and a chisel. He will fold the entire hut without single nail. From the outside it seems as if one log has been passed through another.

From one village to another, from city to city, artels of Russian carpenters walked with axes in their belts. Their labor, their talent, their hands created monuments of the art of construction.
What kind of house did our ancestors, who lived 500-1000 years ago, build for themselves and their family?

The basis of house construction in the old days was a wooden log hut.

Traditions were largely determined by climatic conditions and the availability of suitable building materials. And on the lands of our ancestors there was a lot of timber and therefore a ground house with a floor, even slightly raised above the ground, appeared very early.

Despite the fact that the traditions of housing construction among the Slavic tribes (Krivichi and Ilmen Slovenes) cannot be traced far back in time, scientists have every reason to believe that log huts were erected here as early as the 2nd millennium BC. And at the end of the 1st millennium AD, a stable type of log dwelling had already developed here.

The residential hut of the 9th-11th centuries was a square building with a side of 4-5 m. Often the log house was erected directly on the site of the future house, sometimes it was first assembled in the forest, and then, after being dismantled, transported to the construction site and folded “completely”. The craftsmen put notches on the logs - “numbers”, in order, starting from the bottom. The builders took care not to confuse them during transportation: a log house required careful adjustment of the crowns. To make the logs fit closer to each other, a longitudinal recess was made in one of them, into which the convex side of the other fit. Modern builders prefer to make a recess in the top log so that less moisture is absorbed and the house does not rot. Ancient craftsmen made a recess in the lower log, but they made sure that the logs turned up with the side that faced north in a living tree. On this side the annual layers are denser and smaller. And the grooves between the logs were caulked with swamp moss, which, by the way, has the property of killing bacteria, and often coated with clay. But the custom of sheathing a log house with planks is historically relatively new for Russia. It was first described in the 16th century.

Until recently, the main tool of the Russian carpenter remained the ax. Saw in wood construction was also known, but our builder ancestors did not consciously use the saw! The fact is that an ax, cutting a log, compacts and flattens the vascular tissue of the wood. The cut made with an ax is shiny and smooth, and water hardly penetrates into it. But the saw breaks down the wood fibers and makes them easy prey for rot. That is why Slavic carpenters so stubbornly preferred the ax. No wonder they still say: “cut down a hut.” And, well known to us now, they tried not to use nails. After all, around a nail, the wood begins to rot faster. Archaeological excavations have established: in ancient Russian wooden construction, up to fifty (!) cutting methods were used!

In different regions of Russia, huts were built in different ways. There were many methods for their construction. Structure and optimal sizes peasant households have changed over the centuries.

At the same time, since ancient times, wooden architecture in Rus' interacted with stone architecture, and interpenetrated, without violating the traditional directions of either one or the other.

The growth of cities and the development of temple construction after the adoption of Christianity predetermined the rise of architecture in the 10th century. XII centuries. Civil construction was predominantly wooden. There were Christian churches in Kyiv even before the baptism of Rus' by Vladimir. Novgorod, Pskov, and Tver woodworkers were famous. Unfortunately, from the wooden architecture of the period Kievan Rus and nothing has survived from the time of the Mongol-Tatar yoke.

Plan of the hut, 18th century.
1 - barn; 2 - canopy;
3 - hut; 4 - cage

Furnace diagram:
1 - underbowl;
2 - basket;
3 - stove column;
4 - hexagonal;
5 - pole;
6 - furnace mouth;
7 - forehead;
8 - roast;
9 - bunk;
10 - stoves;
11 - Voronets;
12 - mother.

Bench with flip back

Wooden peasant hut for many centuries it became the predominant dwelling of 90% of the Russian population. This is an easily worn out building, and the huts that have reached us are no older than mid-19th V. But in their design they preserved ancient building traditions. They were usually built from thin-layered pine, and in some areas of the Mezen and Pechora rivers from larch.

The main tool in the construction of all Russian wooden structures was the ax. Hence they say not to build, but to cut down a house. The saw began to be used at the end of the 18th century, and in some places from the middle of the 19th century.

Structurally, the huts were designed in the form of a square or rectangular frame made of rows of horizontally placed logs forming the walls, connected at the corners by notches.

The solution to the hut plan is simple and concise. The hut is combined under a common roof with outbuildings. The external appearance of the hut is characterized by a picturesque asymmetry in the placement of the porch, gates, entrance, courtyard and windows, which gives special comfort and intimacy to the Russian peasant home.
The peasant's dwelling consisted of a cage, a hut, a passage, an upper room, a basement and a closet. The main living space is a hut with a Russian stove. The interior furnishings of the hut were based on the stability of the traditions of the domestic and economic life of the peasant, which, in turn, was determined by the centuries-old static nature of the economy and life: motionless wide benches, tightly attached to the walls, shelves above them; adjacent to the furnace wooden elements; an open dish cabinet, a cradle and other details of home furnishings have a history of many centuries. In the hut setting there is not a single unnecessary random object; each thing has its strictly defined purpose and a place illuminated by tradition, which is characteristic feature people's home.

Particularly interesting in the interior of a Russian hut is the arrangement of the stove. United by its wooden parts with the internal architecture of the hut into one whole, it embodies the idea hearth and home. That is why folk craftsmen put so much love into the architectural processing of the stove and its wooden parts. The protruded ends of the thick bars of the oven, supporting the heavy hearth of the stove in front and the bench-bed on the side, were processed with an ax in expressive forms corresponding to their purpose as supporting a large load. The stove bunk, which fenced off the hearth near the stove post, was hewn with an ax in the shape of the bold curves of the horse’s neck.

The stone bulk of the stove does not grow directly from the plank floor, but has a gradual transition in its wooden parts. The desire to give wooden parts beautiful shapes, as well as expressing aesthetic inclinations in the masonry itself leads to the creation of the artistic integrity of the entire structure.

Sometimes a corner for cooking was set up near the stove, separated by a brightly painted wooden paneled partition that did not go all the way to the top. Often this partition was turned into a double-sided and painted built-in wardrobe. The painting was either geometric in nature (sun motif) or depicted flowers. The predominant colors in the painting were green, white, red, pink, yellow, and black.

Fixed benches were usually arranged along the walls of the entire room. On one side they were tightly adjacent to the wall, and on the other they were supported either by stands cut from a thick board, or by carved and turned pillars-legs. Such legs tapered towards the middle, which was decorated with a round, chiseled apple. If the stand was made flat by sawing out of a thick board, then its design retained the silhouette of a similar chiseled leg. A piece of wood decorated with some simple carving was sewn to the edge of the bench. A bench decorated in this way was called pubescent, and its legs were called stamishki. Sometimes sliding doors were installed between the stashishkas, turning the wall benches into a kind of chests for storing household items.

A portable bench with four legs or with blank boards replacing them on the sides, on which the seat was installed, was called a bench. The backs could be thrown from one end of the bench to the opposite. Such benches with a flip-up back were called saddle benches, and the backrest itself was called a saddle bench. Carvings were mainly used to decorate the backs, which were made blind or through - through carpentry, latticework, carving or turning. The length of the bench is slightly longer than the length of the table. The benches in the upper rooms were usually covered with a special fabric - a shelf cloth. There are benches with one side - a carved or painted board. The side was used as a support for a pillow or was used as a spinning wheel.
Chairs in peasant homes spread later, in the 19th century. The influence of the city was most noticeably reflected in the design of the chair. In folk art, the stable symmetrical shape of a chair with a square plank seat, a square through back and slightly curved legs predominates. Sometimes the chair was decorated with wooden fringe, sometimes with a patterned back. The chairs were painted in two or three colors, for example blue and crimson. Chairs are characterized by some rigidity and geometricity, which makes them similar in shape to a bench.

The table was usually of considerable size for a large family. The table cover is rectangular, it was made from good boards without knots and carefully processed until particularly smooth. The underframe was designed in different ways: in the form of plank sides with a recess at the bottom, connected by a leg; in the form of legs connected by two legs or a circle; without a drawer or with a drawer; with one or two drawers. Sometimes the edges of the table board and the edges of massive legs, ending in their lower part with carved interceptors, were covered with carvings.

In addition to lunch ones, they made kitchen tables for cooking - suppliers who were placed near the stove. The suppliers were higher dining tables so that it is convenient to work behind them while standing, and have shelves at the bottom with closing doors and drawers. Small tables on which stood a casket or a book were also common; they had a more decorative solution.

Chests are a mandatory part of the hut. They stored clothes, canvases and other household utensils. Chests were made large - up to 2 m long and small ones - 50-60 cm (laying). The supporting part was designed either in the form of low legs or in the form of a profile plinth. The lid was straight or slightly convex. Sometimes chests were lined on all sides with short-haired animal skin (elk, deer). The chests were reinforced with metal parts, which also served as decorations. A carved ornament was made in the metal strips, clearly protruding against the background of the chest painted in a bright color (green or red). Handles placed on the sides of the chest, locks and keys were intricately decorated. Locks were made with a ringing sound, even a melody, and a cunning method of locking and picking. The inside of the chests was also decorated with carvings and paintings; the most common theme was a floral pattern. Wedding chests were especially richly and brightly painted. Chests made of cedar wood were highly valued, the specific smell of which repels moths.

Shelves were widely used in the hut, tightly fixed to the wall. Shelves adjacent to the wall along the entire length were called hanging (from the word hang), shelves supported only by the ends were called voronets. Vorontsy shelves divided the hut into independent parts: at one end they rested on a post or beam near the stoves, and at the other they entered between the logs of the wall. Shelves can also include hanging flooring - flooring that was made above the front door; between the stove and the wall. They fastened the floors to the walls and on pillar supports. Above the benches there was a shelf-overhead, which was located slightly above the windows. Such shelves were supported by shaped brackets.