The Lorraine house (german: Lothringerhaus) or Lorraine farmhouse (German: ''Lothringer Bauernhaus'') is a vernacular, agricultural

house A house is a single-unit residential building. It may range in complexity from a rudimentary hut to a complex structure of wood, masonry, concrete or other material, outfitted with plumbing, electrical, and heating, ventilation, and air condi ...

type found in Lorraine in

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

and the western part of the

Saarland The Saarland (, ; french: Sarre ) is a state of Germany in the south west of the country. With an area of and population of 990,509 in 2018, it is the smallest German state in area apart from the city-states of Berlin, Bremen, and Hamburg, and ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It is a byre-dwelling, with the living and working quarters of a farming business combined under one roof. Lorraine houses developed after the devastating wars of the 17th century and took the place of individual scattered farmsteads.

Overview

The Lorraine house stands with its

roof ridge A roof ( : roofs or rooves) is the top covering of a building, including all materials and constructions necessary to support it on the walls of the building or on uprights, providing protection against rain, snow, sunlight, extremes of tempe ...

parallel to the village street, an

eaves The eaves are the edges of the roof which overhang the face of a wall and, normally, project beyond the side of a building. The eaves form an overhang to throw water clear of the walls and may be highly decorated as part of an architectural styl ...

side is therefore the front of the house. Neighbouring houses adjoin each other so that a solid row of houses is formed along the road. The Lorraine house is divided at right angles to the roof ridge, i.e. from front to back, into a living area on the one side and a working area on the other; this is referred to as a transversely divided single unit house (German: ''Quereinhaus''). The living area is on two storeys. Typical of the Lorraine house is a triple room layout, whereby the middle room has no windows if it adjoins a neighbouring house. On the ground floor the kitchen is located between the parlour (front) and chamber (rear). The open hearth in the kitchen acts as heating for the other rooms. Above the first floor there is often an extra half-storey forming a

mezzanine A mezzanine (; or in Italian language, Italian, a ''mezzanino'') is an intermediate floor in a building which is partly open to the double-height ceilinged floor below, or which does not extend over the whole floorspace of the building, a loft ...

floor (known in German as a ''Drempelgeschoss'' or ''Kniestock''), recognizable from the ventilation hatches over the windows of the upper storey. Given the same height of roof ridge this meant that the roof pitch was shallower. The working area consisted of a livestock stall and barn. The stall was located in the middle between the living area and the barn. Carts from the street were able to get to the yard behind the farmhouse through the barn. The masonry of a Lorraine house is made of irregular stones and is plastered. The

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...

s, jambs and sills of the windows and doors are picked out both in terms of relief and colour; they are made of local sandstone or limestone. The windows are fitted with wooden shutters. The roof is usually covered with wooden monk and nun tiles. Renovated Lorraine houses, several turned into museums, may be seen on either side of the Franco-German border between Lorraine and the Saarland. Examples include: * ''Haus Saargau'' a museum in Gisingen from the 18th century with Lorraine furniture * Several renovated Lorraine houses in Hemmersdorf * ''Maison Lorraine'', a Lorraine house museum in Oberdorff * ''La Vieille Maison de 1710'', an eco-museum in Gomelange {{commonscat

External links

"Saar-Mosel-Dorf Das Saargauhaus"
– Description of a

Saargau The Saargau was a Frankish Gau county (''Gaugrafschaft''). Today the name is given to the ridge between the rivers Saar and Moselle in Germany and, in the south, the region between the Saar and the French border. County of Saargau The Saa ...

house in the Roscheider Hof open-air museum, accessed on 11 August 2013
Gerhild Krebs: Farmhouse types in the super-region of Saar-Lor-Lux
(pdf; 37 kB), accessed on 10 August 2013 Buildings and structures in Grand Est Buildings and structures in Saarland Vernacular architecture Farmhouses