Medieval Roof Trusses in the Swedish landscape of Västergötland
Channel: Recording Archaeology
Date: 2017-01-13

This paper deals with the methods and results of an inventory made 2014–2015 with the aim to survey what is preserved of medieval roof constructions in church attics in the Diocese of Skara in the landscape of Västergötland of western Sweden. More or less intact roof trus-ses from the 12th century up until the first half of the 13th century are scarcely preserved outside Scandinavia, which add up to the importance of mapping this quite unknown heritage in Sweden. Similar surveys have been made in the dioceses of Lund, Skara, Stockholm, Strängnäs and Västerås during 2013–2015 and are about to be made in Linköping, thus giving us a more complete view of the grade of preservation.
It has been as-sumed that the Swedish material may consist of some hundred Romanesque roof structu-res and probably almost a hundred Gothic structures. Until the conduct of above mentioned surveys our knowledge of the number of preser-ved objects was scarce and more or less random. In the present stand it seems that the early med-ieval roof structures of churches in the landscapes of Götaland may comprise the largest preserved corpus of this kind in Northern Europe. This heritage is about to attain its proper importance as a source for the dating of churches and for understanding the proces-ses behind their erection. 164 churches in the Diocese of Skara have medieval origins. They are all situated in the old landscape of Västergötland. The survey has identified whole or partly preserved medieval roof constructions or traces of such in the attics of almost 70 of these churches. 28 roofs can be regarded as well preser-ved roof trusses with tie beam, dating from the 12th century and the first half of the 13th century. Ten are only partly preserved and 18 remains as reused parts in later constructions. Some of the early medieval churches have been dated with dendrochronology and span from the 1110s up until around 1250. A group of roof trusses with two canted struts (often meeting the rafters and tie beam with tenons) seems to belong to the oldest ones, though these are only partly preserved in a few geographically concentrated churches. The most common type of roof trusses has crossed struts, the most advanced of them boasts six and the most simple two. Some of these roof trusses have decorative features or mountings for liturgical bells, which clearly shows that the earliest stone churches in the diocese did not have ceilings or vaults. Four early medieval tower roofs have been preserved. From the end of the 13th century up until the beginning of the 16th century, very few construc-tions are preserved. Probably there never existed any great number because of the economic and political decline for Västergötland after the plague and agrarian crisis in the mid- 14th century. Roof trusses from these centuries exist today in 13 churches.

Author - Master Gullbrandsson, Robin, Västergötlands Museum, Skara, Sweden (Presenting author)