Vierkanthof, St. Ulrich near Steyr

Upper Austria

Built: 1577/1892
Year of transmission: 1966

Vierkanthof, St. Ulrich bei Steyr, Oberösterreich

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The Upper Austrian Vierkanter is one of the largest and most striking farm buildings in Austria and is still found today in impressive sizes. The building in the Austrian Open-Air Museum is comparatively small, but fulfils all the criteria of this type of farmstead.

The so-called ‘Schwarzmaier-Hof’, which dates back to the 18th century, was farmed until 1966, but had to make way for the construction of a reservoir. The four wings of the two-storey building are built around an enclosed inner courtyard.

The living area forms the front of the building. Next to the tiled parlour is a smoke kitchen with an open cooker and oven. Opposite is a pressing room for making cider. On the upper floor are the bedrooms with the ‘Hohe Stube’ - with a simple stucco ceiling and specially painted furniture. There is also a bedroom for the parents and the ‘Menscherkammer’ (maids' room), the bedroom for the female servants.

The so-called ‘Schüttboden’ was used to store threshed grain, flour and food supplies. The exterior walls of the house are decorated with a sgraffito or scratched plaster on the ground floor and feature so-called Roman masonry or opus spicatum on the upper floor, which gives the building its unusual and beautiful façade.

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