What a day! Located in this quaint village of Svaté Pole, house # 15 is the birthplace of Steve & his 4 brothers great,great,great,great-grandmother, Barbora Plavcova. As we drove up this winding road in this very small village my little heart was definitely going pitter, patter. The car came to a stop in front of this home, which is at least over 200 years old & unfortunately falling apart, Steve and I both looked at each other in amazement at this incredible find.
This building appeared to once be the barn. Homes that had owners who were doing well usually had a dwelling cottage, shed, & at least a barn.The log structure closest to us was the house and the white building that is attached, Dagmar thought could have been an additional dwelling for the extended family or shed.I wanted to climb over the wall to get a closer look inside but Steve & Dagmar thought I could get in trouble….(insert upset face)Looks like the chickens are the new owners.This was the barn and a goat is guarding the garbage, which is sadly tossed everywhere.
To give us some frame of reference of what life was like back then, we started the day with an open-air museum in the village of Vysoky Chluec. Dagmar, our guide, suggested that visiting this museum would give us a perspective of how Steve’s ancestors lived in the small villages of the area. For this particular open air museum, old buildings which were getting close to ruins have been rescued, preserved, and then moved to this site. The buildings that are found here, document the evolution of folk buildings from the middle of the 18th century to the beginning of the 20th century. And perhaps, Barbora Placova’s parents home looked like these buildings 200 years ago.
This view is taken from the barn, which a prosperous family would have. Our families history suggests that we were farmers in the beginning and hopefully prosperous to be able to live like this. The building on the left is a dwelling cottage, the buildings on the right are a shed & stable.The main room would sleep up to 5-7 people. The bed sleeps 2-3 people and children would sleep near the stove.This room is the second room and would house possibly the grandparents. This room also had a stove and area for sleepingThese containers were used for clothes, grains, and other storage needs.BeehivesThese guys were too cute to pass up.
Food, travel, and such.... 