Fences and roofs

Fences were and are erected to mark property boundaries, to separate certain areas or, for example, to keep animals from entering a fenced area, such as a house garden, and causing damage. Only a fenced garden was once legally protected as property. There are fourteen different forms of wooden fences in the ÖFM.In total, there is a fence length of 5.5 km.The fences enclose both the various courtyards and the house gardens in the 65 ha museum area.They not only give the museum valley a varied fence landscape, but also demonstrate how the need for fencing, which existed everywhere, was implemented in the most varied ways in the different regions of Austria. A wide variety of wood species and wood qualities were used. The holistic use of the forest in a sustainable cycle was thus a given.

The roof gives a residential house or a commercial building its very special appearance. It provides protection from sun, rain, cold and other weather-related influences. The material used was always what was found nearby.The majority of the historical buildings on the grounds of the Austrian Open-Air Museum are wooden and especially shingle roofs, because wood was the most important building material here, as it was available in abundance.The shingle roofs characterise the different types of houses, which form so-called house landscapes according to their occurrence. Depending on the region, there are therefore also different shingle types and roofing variants.Straw roofs and, more rarely, reed roofs can also be found in the museum grounds.