A masterpiece of Russian masters that has amazed and delighted the whole world for many centuries. The Church of the Transfiguration of the Lord was built in 1714 on the site of the previous one, which burned down. Its height is 37 meters, it is one of the tallest wooden buildings on the planet.
The church is crowned with 22 domes arranged in tiers. It is interesting that it stands without a foundation - the rocky soil of the island allows it not to fall through. The church was originally built without nails. And according to legend, it was built with one ax, which the master threw into the lake after finishing the work.
Since 1990, the Kizhi complex has been included in the list world heritage UNESCO.
2. The pinnacle of Russian wooden architecture. Palace of Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich (Russia, Kolomenskoye)
This royal palace was built in the village of Kolomenskoye near Moscow in the seventeenth century. It was a mansion consisting entirely of many towers and chambers, connected by vestibules and passages. Many researchers consider it the pinnacle of Russian wooden architecture. The palace invariably aroused admiration among all foreigners who saw it, but a century after its construction it was demolished. This is what he looked like in those days (antique engraving):
In 2010, the entire complex was completely recreated based on the surviving layout. It is a life-size model of Alexei Mikhailovich's palace. Construction was carried out according to drawings made at the behest of Catherine II before its complete dismantling. However, the new building is not entirely wooden: all structures are monolithic, reinforced concrete, covered with logs. Modern view of the restored palace:
3. Tallest wooden building in the world. Tianning Pagoda ( Changzhou, Jiangsu Province, China)
This Buddhist pagoda is the tallest existing wooden structure in the world. Pagoda height153.79 meters, and it consists of 13 tiers. It's a pretty modern building– It was built only at the end of the last century.
On the top floor there is a 30-ton bell, which can be heard several kilometers away from the temple complex.
4. Notoriety. Radio tower (Gliwice, Poland)
This tower is tall 117.95 meters – The only surviving wooden radio tower today. Now it is not used for its intended purpose, and a museum is located at its base. It is interesting that there are 365 steps leading to the top of this radio mast - the number of days in a year.
The tower was built in 1935, and what brought it tragic fame was that the staging of the capture of this particular tower on September 1, 1939 became the reason for the outbreak of World War II.
5. The oldest wooden building in the world. Mosque without nails (Charshamba, Türkiye)
Not a single nail was used during the construction of the 800-year-old mosque in Samsun Province, Turkey. It was built in 1206, during the Seljuk times. It is unknown which craftsman erected this rare architectural monument. According to folk legends, the building was built by followers of Islam who came to this region. Being a kind of bridge between the past and the future, it consists of wooden structures, only the roof surface is covered with ceramite. The wooden pillars of the mosque are approximately 10 cm thick, 50-70 cm wide and 12 to 20 meters long.
The mosque once had a minaret, but over time it collapsed. It still functions as a place of worship to this day. Daily prayers are performed here, and visitors to the mosque note that they experience a special feeling from being in such an ancient structure.
Despite its 800-year history, the mosque without nails still surprises everyone today with its stable construction. The reason for the preservation of the building is that each tree was cut down in its own season and according to certain rules.
6. Construction that will never end. Temple of Truth (Pattaya, Thailand)
Since 1981, when the temple began to be built, the process of its construction has never stopped. And now, despite the fact that the temple is operational, the construction of the temple continues daily. His idea is simple – This is the combination of all world religions into one. The creation of the temple began on the initiative of a certain Thai, who was predicted that he would live as long as the palace was being built.
The walls of the building, literally every square centimeter, are covered with ancient carvings – ornament on religious and mythological subjects. Many masters create this beauty day after day and year after year. And even when, contrary to the prophecy, the founder of the temple died in 2000, his son continued his work.
The height of the palace is 105 meters.
7. Memorial complex in Romania. Church of the Archangels Michael and Gabriel (Surdesti village, Maramures region, Romania)
This is one of the tallest (72 meters) and oldest (1721) wooden buildings in the world. The church was erected in memory of the Tatar-Mongol invasion, which completely devastated the country. Norwegian pine was used to create such tall buildings almost four hundred years ago. No nails were used during construction. The church is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
In Japan, the most striking wooden buildings have always been temples. Thus, Daibutsuden, which is located in the city of Nara, is considered one of the largest buildings in the world. The scale of the temple is truly amazing; its height is 48 meters. The architecture of the building fully corresponds to the classical Japanese style: massive walls mounted on strong stilts have a traditional roof with a large canopy.
9. Temples without nails. Church of the Epiphany (Paltoga, Vologda region, Russia)
Many churches in Russia were built using a special nailless technology. For example, St. Nicholas Church in Suzdal, built in 1720-1739, the Church of the Transfiguration in the village of Spas-Vezhi in 1628 and many others. Among them is a unique temple, the wooden Epiphany Church of 1733, located in Paltoga, Vytegorsky district, Vologda region, also built without a single nail.
Solombal, Arkhangelsk region, Russia)
Until now we have been talking about religious buildings - pagodas, churches, mosques, temples. But mostly residential buildings are built from wood.
One of the most famous wooden houses not only in Russia, but also in the world was the 13-story house of Sutyagin in Arkhangelsk. He was recognized as the sensation of the year at the conference “Wood Construction in northern cities", held in the Norwegian city of Trondheim. It was even planned to be included in the Guinness Book of Records as the tallest private residential wooden building in the world. Its height reached 38 meters.
The building was built alone by entrepreneur Nikolai Sutyagin over twenty years, starting in 1992. But in 2012 the house burned down, and now this wooden giant no longer exists. So all that remains is to admire this amazing creation in the remaining photographs. To the left of the house is a bathhouse, which in itself is a unique structure.
11. “Mastodon” without nails. Kondratyuk Granary (Kamen-on-Obi, Soviet Union)
In the Novosibirsk region in 1927, the famous engineer Yuri Vasilyevich Kondratyuk built the famous mechanized granary-elevator “Mastodon” with a capacity of 13 thousand tons, which at that time was considered an incredible structure, without a single nail. "Mastodon" stood for more than 60 years and burned down in the mid-1990s. This is what he looked like (old photo):
It is interesting that Yuri Kondratyuk (Shargei) became famous not only for “Mastodon”. He is one of the founders of world astronautics. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the scientist calculated the optimal flight trajectory to the Moon. It was the “Kondratyuk route” that was used by NASA in the Apollo lunar program.
12. Modern technologies of wooden house construction. Residential building "Murray Grove" (London, UK)
The first of the modern residential buildings, built of wood (from five-layer wood glued panels), has 9 floors and 30 meters in height. The building has 29 residential apartments and offices on the ground floor.
It is amazing that the entire above-ground part of this house was built in 28 days by just five people, armed with only one mobile crane and electric screwdrivers.
13. The most beautiful serial houses. "Natural log houses" (New Zealand)
There may be nothing extravagant in these houses, but it is not for nothing that they are considered one of the most beautiful wooden buildings intended for housing.
These houses are built in New Zealand by Natural Log Homes, which prefers construction from logs. The buildings are distinguished by amazing precision: all grooves and recesses are cut out by hand and carefully selected in size. The company prefers construction from logs. 650 mm is the largest diameter of the logs used in construction.
The Gagripsh restaurant, which is a symbol of the city of Gagra, was built from Norwegian pine and assembled without a single nail. In 1902, the Prince of Oldenburg brought it from Paris. Since then, this restaurant has been visited by such famous personalities as Ivan Bunin, Anton Chekhov, Maxim Gorky and Fyodor Chaliapin. Stalin loved this restaurant and was its regular guest. The filming of the film “Winter Evening in Gagra” took place in the Gagripsh restaurant.
15. In unity with nature. "Forest House" (Portland, USA)
Maybe not the most beautiful, but certainly the most original house made of wood can be found in Oregon. Architect Robert Harvey Oshatz worked there for seven years, creating a house with an unusual design. It's right in the middle of the forest and blends surprisingly well with the wild forest scenery.
16. The most expensive wooden house in the world (Montana, USA)
Yellowstone Club is the world's only indoor ski and golf club for billionaires, located in southwest Montana.
A wooden mansion with an area of 4,900 square meters is being built here. It will have ten furnished rooms and a stocked wine cellar. The house is designed in such a way that a special sliding wall in one of the rooms can be removed if desired and turned into a cozy courtyard with a home theater and a swimming pool. The cost of the project is estimated at $155 million - this is the most expensive wooden house in the world! However, this price also includes a private golf course and a ski slope with a lift.
17. Rrestaurant inside a tree. Baobab Sunland (South Africa)
It is one of the largest baobab trees in Africa with a diameter of 33 meters and a height of 20 meters. The tree is so large that an entire restaurant and bar fit inside it, and is now one of the most popular attractions.
The Sunland baobab was not specifically gutted; the trunk of this variety is naturally hollow. The restaurant here was created back in 1933, and it still operates successfully today. The bar can comfortably accommodate 15 people. Research has shown that this baobab is already more than 6 thousand years old, and the tree is going to live for at least several more thousand years.
18. Tree House (British Columbia, Canada)
Such a house can be seen, for example, in a Canadian forest in British Columbia. The designer took as a basis the idea of a children’s “headquarters” in a tree and built a multi-level dwelling between the trees. Rooms on different levels are connected using a spiral staircase.
But this is far from the only tree house.
19. The dream of children and teenagers. Tree houses
Watch and remember your childhood. But don't forget that there is still No. 20 to come.
Now just enjoy the amazing grace and perfection of Russian wooden carving. The “wooden lace” of Russian craftsmen has always delighted the whole world.
Our native Irkutsk, one of the oldest Siberian cities, is also famous for its wooden houses covered with unique and elegant carvings - real monuments of history and architecture. For example, this is our pride– House of Europe:
Photo: http://www.photosight.ru and others.
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There are a huge number of old buildings in the world that have served people for centuries without changing their original purpose. For example, in Japan there is a hotel that has been providing overnight rooms for guests for more than 1,300 years. And in Russia there is a small stone house built in the 16th century, and there are still people in it.
website delved into reference books and found out what some of the oldest buildings in the world look like, which have been used by man for the same purposes for many hundreds of years.
Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan and Hoshi Ryokan Hotels
Japan has two of the oldest hotels in the world, which are still in operation. Nishiyama Onsen Keiunkan Hotel & Spa opened in Hayakawa City in 705. The hotel has been owned by a family for over 1,300 years, which has run it for 52 generations. The building was last reconstructed in 1997 and now has 37 rooms.
And in the city of Komatsu there is the Hoshi Ryokan hotel, which was founded a little later, in 717. The hotel has been continuously owned by 46 generations of the same family. The hotel features hot baths, a garden and a ceramics gallery. Hoshi Ryokan was popular even among emperors, as well as wealthy Japanese and creative individuals.
The Bridge Tea Rooms
In this building, built in 1502, The Bridge Tea Rooms is located. It has been voted the best tea in the UK by the British Tea Council four times now.
Trier St. Peter's Cathedral
In the Faroe Islands, in the southern part of the island of Streymoy, the village of Tsirchyubevur is located, with a population of 75 people (as of 2009). In the settlement there is the so-called King's Farm, which was supposedly built V XI century. This structure is considered one of the oldest residential wooden buildings in the world. Previously, it served as the residence of a bishop, and since 1550, all property of the Catholic Church in the Faroe Islands was confiscated in favor of the King of Denmark. Since then, the “mansion” received its classic name. By the way, the farm has been managed by the Patursson family for almost 500 years.
Residential building Maison de Jeanne
In French city Aveyron is one of the oldest stone residential buildings. It was built at the end of the 13th century, and people still live in it. The building was built in such an unusual way because at that time all residential buildings in France were taxed based on the number of square meters only on the first floors.
Hairdresser Truefitt & Hill
In London there is the oldest hairdressing salon in Europe, which is perfectly preserved and still functions. It was founded in 1805 William Trufitt, the best hairdresser of the English court at that time. Her clients were Byron, Wilde, Churchill, Hitchcock. It is noteworthy that the establishment is still visited by members of the royal family, parliament, representatives of the financial elite, as well as monarchs of European countries.
Windmill Doesburgermolen
In the city of Ede in the Netherlands, approx. in 1630 a windmill was built, which is now considered the oldest structure of its type. The mill is run by volunteers and is still used to turn grain into excellent flour.
Hotel Het Houten Huys
Cellar of St. Peter's Monastery
This building, located in Salzburg, Austria, is considered the oldest catering establishment in Europe, and possibly in the world. The restaurant is located within the walls of St. Peter's Monastery. Its existence was mentioned in the chronicles in 803. This means that this establishment is already more than 1,200 years old! According to legend, Johann Faust, Christopher Columbus and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart dined at the restaurant.
School of Pythagoras
The School of Pythagoras is the oldest building that is part of the large-scale complex of the University of Cambridge. The structure was built approximately in 1200, even before the university itself was founded. At first it was a private house, but three centuries later the premises were sold to the University of Cambridge. The school is currently used by the college's dramatic theater group for their rehearsals and performances.
Town Hall Pharmacy
The sensational discovery of a German archaeologist in Anatolia allows us to take a fresh look at the ancient history of human civilization. On a mountainside in southeastern Turkey, not far from the Syrian border, an expedition led by Klaus Schmidt unearthed a magnificent ancient temple, which is 12 thousand years old.
The oldest religious building found to date, Gobekli Tepe, built in the early Neolithic era, was discovered in the middle of the twentieth century. However, scientists became interested in this cultural monument only after massive stone walls and T-shaped columns covered with paintings were found in the 1990s.
It is estimated that the total number of temples at Göbekli Tepe must have reached 20. Each of the buildings probably marked the ascension of Sirius in the sky at different times.
The star Sirius first appeared in the earth's sky about 11,300 thousand years ago. In terms of brightness, it ranks fourth right after the Moon, Venus and Jupiter, so it probably made an indelible impression on a person of the early Neolithic era.
Let's study it in more detail...
Photo 2. 
Klaus Schmidt, privatdozent at the German Archaeological Institute in Berlin, is studying ancient history humanity. When Schmidt began excavations at Gobekli Tepe in 1994, he was sure that these excavations would become the main work of his life. The archaeological complex in this area can be compared to Stonehenge in England, with the only difference being that the ruins in Anatolia are 6 thousand years older.
As a child, Klaus Schmidt haunted caves in his native Germany, hoping to find prehistoric drawings there. Thirty years later, already representing the German Archaeological Institute, he discovered something infinitely more important - temple complex, almost twice as ancient as all similar structures on the planet.
Photo 3. 
“This place is a supernova,” says Schmidt, standing under a lone tree on a windswept hill 55 kilometers north of Turkey's border with Syria. “Already in the first minute after its discovery, I knew that I had two options: either leave here without saying a word to anyone, or spend the rest of my life here, on these excavations.”
Photo 4. 
Behind him, the first bends of the Anatolian Plateau open up. Ahead, the Mesopotamian plain stretches hundreds of miles all the way to Baghdad and further south, looking like a sea the color of dust. Directly ahead, hidden behind a hill ledge, are the stone circles of Gobekli Tepe. In those days when people had not yet built permanent dwellings for themselves, did not know how to make a simple clay bowl, and obtained food by hunting and gathering, the inhabitants of South-Eastern Anatolia erected a monumental sanctuary for their gods.
Photo 5. 
Compared to Stonehenge - the most famous prehistoric monument in Great Britain - they are not striking in their grandeur of scale. None of the excavated round structures (and there are currently four out of twenty of them) exceed 30 meters in diameter. What makes these finds completely unique are the carvings of boars, foxes, lions, birds, snakes and scorpions on them, as well as the age of the finds themselves. They were created 9.5 thousand years BC. They are 5.5 thousand years older than the first cities of Mesopotamia and 7 thousand years older than Stonehenge.
Photo 6. 
In Gobekli Tepe, archaeologists discovered a gigantic complex of round buildings and stone pillars with carved reliefs on a hill. Currently, only a small part of the buildings has been excavated, but if you take into account the age of the ruins, it immediately becomes clear that this is a unique archaeological site.
Photo 7. 
The ancient ruins of Nevali Keri, which have been located at the bottom of the Ataturk reservoir since 1992, are almost as old as Gobekli Tepe, their age is 10,500 years. But the pillars there are much smaller, and the decoration is more modest. Jericho can compete with the temples of Gobekli Tepe in age, but there are no large sculptures there, no architectural decorations. All other ancient archaeological sites belong to a different era - they arose about 2 thousand years later. The people who created these rounded monuments and stone bas-reliefs, this entire complex, did not even have pottery and did not grow cereal crops. They lived in settlements. But they were hunters, not farmers.
Photo 8. 
Judging by the age of the Gobekli Tepe complex, it was in this area that hunters and gatherers switched to a sedentary lifestyle. In Gobekli Tepe, what is most striking is the intellectual abilities of the Stone Age people, their hard work and knowledge of construction. But until now, scientists were confident that the implementation of such gigantic projects as the construction of a temple presupposes a sedentary lifestyle and a high degree of organization.
“It has always been assumed that only complex societies with hierarchical structures could build such monumental structures, and that they only appeared with the advent of agriculture,” says Stanford University anthropology professor Ian Hodder, who has led the excavations since 1993. in Çatalhöyük, the most famous Neolithic settlement in Turkey. – Gobekli changed all ideas. This is a complex structure and dates back to the era before the birth of agriculture. This fact alone puts it among the most important archaeological finds over a very long period of time."
Photo 9. 
The archaeological site at Gobekli Tepe was first surveyed in 1963. However, then archaeologists underestimated its importance, and for a long time they did not work there at all. On the hill, in the thickness of which the temple complex is located, there was a field of oats. The peasants continually removed the bulky stones that were in their way from the fields, so the upper part of the temple was destroyed before scientists could examine it.
Based on the excavated areas, we can conclude that people stayed here for a very long time. Near the round building of the sanctuary, several smaller buildings were found, in which, apparently, some kind of ritual meetings took place. But in all these buildings there is not the slightest sign of human habitation.
Excavations have been ongoing for ten years. As a result, only a small part has been cleared so far, but the purpose of Gobekli Tepe for the people who built it remains unclear. Some believe that this place was intended for fertility rituals, and the two tall stones in the center of each circle symbolize a man and a woman.
Photo 10. 
But Schmidt is skeptical about the fertility theory. He shares the opinion that Gobekli Tepe could be “the last flowering of a semi-nomadic society, which was about to be destroyed by the advancing era of agriculture.” He points out that if the site remains in nearly perfect condition today, it is only because its builders soon buried their creation under tons of earth, as if their wildlife-rich world had lost all its meaning.
“From my point of view, the people who carved them were asking the greatest questions of all,” the scientist continues. – What is the universe? Why are we here? But the fertility symbols that have been found at other Neolithic sites are missing here, and the T-shaped pillars, while clearly semi-human, are asexual. “I think here we are faced with the earliest images of gods,” says Schmidt, stroking one of the largest blocks with his hand. “They have no eyes, no mouths, no faces. But they have arms and they have palms. These are the creators."
Photo 11. 
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Gobekli Tepe is its last days. The buildings were undoubtedly filled up, and this is what explains their good preservation. All the ancient religious buildings were simply abandoned, abandoned, but the temple on the Anatolian hill was literally buried in the ground. A massive building with monolithic giant pillars covered with magnificent reliefs was covered to the top with stones and soil, so that it literally disappeared underground.
Photo 12. 
Although archaeologists have liberated only part of Gobekli Tepe from under the mound, the unusually large size of the sanctuary can already be appreciated. It consists of four different temples, surrounded by a low stone fence. Particularly interesting are the T-shaped monoliths with partially preserved reliefs. They depict birds, gazelles, and bulls very naturalistically. Next to the image of a donkey and a snake, you can make out the head of a fox. There are even spiders and a three-dimensional wild boar with a frowning, blunt muzzle.
The fact that the builders of the temple attached great importance to the animal world is not surprising in itself. But they depicted wild animals, and this confirms the assumption that the creators of the sanctuary were not settled farmers. Another interesting thing is that in the vicinity of Gobekli Tepe there are all kinds of wild cereals, which were later cultivated as grain crops.
Photo 13. 
Perhaps Gobekli Tepe is the missing link in the chain - the connecting element between primitive nomadic hunter-gatherers and sedentary farmers. The production of monolithic stone pillars with reliefs requires certain professional skills - this requires stonemasons. This means that other people supplied artisan stonemasons with everything necessary for life, that is, they had a society based on the division of labor.
Photo 14. 
There are pictograms on some of the pillars. Some archaeologists have suggested that these icons may have influenced sign systems that emerged at a later time, but it is difficult to see whether there is a connection between them. Hieroglyphs were not common in neighboring Mesopotamia, but in Ancient Egypt, that is, far from Gobekli Tepe. In addition, the time interval between Ancient Egypt and the Gobekli Tepe culture is very large.
Photo 15. 
The end of the Gobekli Tepe sanctuary occurred at the beginning of the 8th millennium BC. At this time, agriculture spread to neighboring Mesopotamia. The soil in the vicinity of Gobekli Tepe is poor, perhaps for this reason the sanctuary lost its significance. The most important centers formed much further south, on fertile plains and river valleys. At least this may partly explain why people abandoned the temple where their ancestors had worshiped the gods for hundreds of years. They covered the sanctuary with stones and left there forever.
The lessons of Gobekli Tepe encourage us to reconsider the idea of the so-called Neolithic revolution. Until now, historians thought that the transition of nomadic tribes to a settled way of life created the preconditions for the construction of large urban centers and huge temples. But the experience of Gobekli Tepe proves that, in all likelihood, it was just the opposite: the very existence of a grandiose sanctuary, where the main rituals took place, encouraged people not to move away from it, but to stay close to the holy place and arrange permanent homes for themselves. This means that first there was a temple, and then a house, a village and a city.
Photo 16. 
The mystery of Gobekli Tepe is no less amazing than the secrets of the pyramids, but much older. Scientists can only assume that it was a ritual structure, but it is not known for certain what made the ancient people get together and build such a truly colossal structure.
Among researchers and enthusiasts, a variety of assumptions are emerging: from the mundane to the incredible. Some believe that Gobekli Tepe was not a temple, but only a place where people lived, while others put forward ideas about the intervention of alien races in the history of the Earth and the construction of this complex by aliens. There are opinions that Gobekli Tepe was the Garden of Eden or a prototype of Noah's Ark.
RUSSIAN HISTORIAN GENNADY KLIMOV BELIEVES, that Gobekli Tepe and similar buildings on Russian territory were built by the same race. He confirms his theory by the fact that in the 9th millennium BC. There was no Black Sea yet and the path from the Russian periglacial steppes to these regions was clear.
We are accustomed to the idea that agriculture appeared first, and then settlements, but Gobekli Tepe globally changes our understanding of ancient people in this matter. Scientists have found that to build such a monumental structure, it was necessary to gather at least 500 people at the same time. That is, all these people lived together.
Photo 17. 
Scientists suggest that it was the construction of this temple that played an important role in the process of transition to agriculture, and therefore to the emergence of civilization as we are familiar with it. As soon as the ancient people gathered together and began to live in one place, it became difficult to feed so many workers and pilgrims. And perhaps this is what prompted them to domesticate wild plants and animals.
All conclusions regarding the Gobekli Tepe temple complex are preliminary, since excavations are being carried out only on 5% of its territory. Archaeologists believe that research will continue for about 50 years. The dating of the studied part dates the end of layer III to the 9th millennium BC. e., and its beginning - by the 11th millennium BC. e. or earlier. Layer II dates back to the 8th-9th millennia BC. e.
Photo 18. 
Since the complex appeared before the Neolithic revolution, the origin of agriculture and cattle breeding in this region should apparently be attributed to the era after the 9th millennium BC. e. At the same time, the construction of such a grandiose structure required the efforts of a large number of people and a certain social organization. This is not typical for the Mesolithic. According to rough estimates, the production and delivery of columns weighing 10-20 tons from the quarry to the building, which are separated by up to 500 m, in the absence of draft animals, required the efforts of up to 500 people.
In fact, some columns weigh up to 50 tons, so even more people were needed. It is even suggested that slave labor was used in such work, which is also uncharacteristic of hunter-gatherer communities. Such work required systematic effort and a social hierarchy in which many people were subordinate to a single religious or military leader, and the religious leader then had to supervise the rituals. In this case, the very existence of the temple complex in such a distant historical era indicates social stratification at a very early stage in the development of Neolithic culture.
Photo 19. 
Photo 20. 
Original taken from d_popovskiy to 25 ancient wooden buildings in the world
I already wrote about the surviving wooden buildings in Manhattan. Today I propose to look at ancient wooden buildings from different parts of the world. Many of them have already been mentioned by me on Facebook. I didn’t have a special method for selecting buildings for a post; everything that accidentally came across the field while surfing the Internet and seemed interesting to me was immediately sent to my wall. The only restriction is that the buildings had to be built no later than 1700, i.e. late XVII century. Thus, the post contains 25 buildings representing 10 centuries of wooden architecture. Not being able to actively travel around the world and photograph all these objects myself, I had to resort to the help of Wikipedia and Flickr.
7th CENTURY
1. Pagoda and condo in Horyu-ji
Ikaruga, Nara, Japan
The temple was founded by Prince Shotoku in 607. In 670, due to a lightning strike, the complex was completely burned down and was rebuilt by 700. The temple was repaired and reassembled several times. The work took place at the beginning of the 12th century, in 1374 and 1603. Despite this, it is believed that 15-20% of Kondo's structures retained the original temple materials during reconstruction. This makes Horyu-ji (the pagoda and kondo) the oldest surviving wooden buildings in the world.
XI CENTURY
2. Kirkjubøargarður
Faroe islands
Kirkjubøargarður is one of the oldest inhabited wooden houses in the world, dating back to approximately the 11th century. In 1100, the episcopal residence and seminary were located here. After the Reformation, which took place in the Faroe Islands in 1538, all the properties of the Catholic Church were seized by the King of Denmark. Today this land is owned by the government Faroe Islands. The Patursson family has rented the land since 1550. The house is a museum, but the 17th generation of Patursson still lives in it.
3. Grinstead Church (St Andrew's Church)
Grinstead, Essex, UK
Grinstead Church is the oldest surviving timber church in the world and one of the oldest timber buildings in Europe. It was originally believed that the church was built in 845, but recent dendrochronological studies have rejuvenated the building by two hundred years. The brick extension dates back to the 1500s and the white tower dates back to the 17th century.
The church is an example of the traditional Saxon construction method.
4. Shakyamuni Pagoda at Fogong Temple
Shanxi, China
The Shakyamuni Pagoda at Fogong Temple is the oldest wooden pagoda in China. It was built in 1056-1195. It is claimed that during its 900-year history, the pagoda has survived at least 7 major earthquakes, and one of them almost completely destroyed the main temple complex. Until the twentieth century, the building underwent 10 minor repairs.
XII CENTURY
5. Stavkirka in Urnes
Urnes, Luster, Norway
Stavkirka is the most common type of wooden medieval temple in Scandinavia. From the 11th to the 16th centuries. About 1,700 bets were built in Norway. Most of the buildings were demolished in the 17th century. In 1800, there were 95 such churches, but only 28 buildings have survived to this day. In Norway, the people’s attitude towards stavkirks and the replication of their image is twofold. On the one hand, the government is pursuing an active protectionist policy in relation to cultural heritage; the majority of the population reveres them as shrines. On the other hand, militant representatives of youth subcultures, pagans and Satanists are methodically destroying these ancient architectural monuments. The only thing the Norwegian government can do to prevent arson is to install expensive systems tracking and fire fighting.
The Stavkirka in Urnes is the oldest surviving Stavkirka in Norway, built around 1130, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Ornament on one of the walls of the Urnes headquarters:
6. Hopperstad Stavka
Vikoyri, Norway
Stavkirka was built in 1140.
Interior:
XIII CENTURY
7. Headquarters in Heddal
Heddal, Notodden, Telemark, Norway
The Stavkirka in Heddal is the largest surviving frame church. The exact year of construction is unknown, the building dates back to the beginning of the 13th century. The church was rebuilt and reconstructed many times.
The last major reconstruction, carried out in the 1950s, returned the headquarters to an appearance as close as possible to the original. The church building still contains about a third of the wood used in its construction in the 13th century.
XIV CENTURY
8. Kapellbrücke Bridge
Lucerne, Switzerland
The Kapellbrücke Bridge was built in 1365 and is the oldest wooden covered bridge in Europe. Under the roof ridge along the entire bridge there are 111 triangular paintings telling about the most important moments in the history of Switzerland. In 1993, Kapellbrücke was badly damaged in a fire believed to have been caused by an unextinguished cigarette. 78 of the 111 paintings were destroyed. The bridge and some of the paintings were restored according to the surviving inventory.
9. Church of the Ascension Holy Virgin Mary and St. Archangel Michael in Khaczów
Haczow, Poland
The Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St. Michael the Archangel is a Gothic wooden church in the village of Chaczów, which, together with other wooden churches in southern Lesser Poland and Subcarpathia, is included in the UNESCO World Heritage List. The church was built in the 14th century, probably in 1388. In 2006, work began on updating the shingles. The cost of the work is more than 100 thousand euros.
The interior of the church is also valuable, including: the baroque main altar of the late 17th century, vessels from the 17th-18th centuries, Gothic sculptures from the 15th century, a stone font from the 16th century, and Gothic portals. In addition, the interior is decorated with unique polychrome from 1494. This is probably the oldest polychrome of this type in Europe.
10. Church of the Resurrection of Lazarus
Kizhi, Russia
The exact date of construction of the church is unknown, but it is believed that it was built before 1391. The building was erected by the venerable monk Lazar, who lived 105 years and died in 1391. The church became the first building of the future Murom Monastery. After the revolution, on the site of the Murom Holy Dormition Monastery, the authorities organized an agricultural commune named after. Trotsky, after 1945 - a home for the disabled, and in the 1960s the place was abandoned. In 1959, the Church of the Resurrection of Lazarus was dismantled and transported to Kizhi, where it was restored in 1960.
The church has preserved an iconostasis consisting of 17 icons of the 16th-18th centuries and representing the oldest type of two-tier iconostasis.
XV CENTURY
11. Het Houten Huys
Amsterdam, Netherlands
Not counting the suburbs that later became part of the city, two wooden buildings remain in Amsterdam. The oldest of them is Het Houten Huys, built in 1425.
12. Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker in Kolodny
Kolodnoye, Transcarpathia, Ukraine
The church was built in 1470. This is the oldest wooden temple in Ukraine and one of the oldest monuments of wooden architecture in Europe. In 2007-2008, restoration work was carried out, as a result of which the roof was replaced, the arcade in the bell tower was covered with a bird net, the doors were repaired, and all the holes and cracks in the log houses were plugged with wooden stakes.
13. Church of the Laying of the Robe from the village of Borodava
Kirillov, Russia
The Church of the Deposition of the Robe is the oldest precisely dated surviving monument of wooden architecture in Russia. The building was built in 1485 in the village of Borodava, located near the famous Feropontov Monastery. In 1957, the church was moved to the city of Kirillov. Currently it is located on the territory of the New Town of the Kirillo-Belozersky Monastery.
14. Rothenburgerhaus
Lucerne, Switzerland
The Rothenburgerhaus was built around 1500 and is the oldest residential wooden building in Switzerland.
15. Huis van Jan Brouckaerd (House of Jan Brouckaerd)
Ghent, Netherlands
In the Netherlands, medieval houses with wooden facades have been preserved. One of them is Huis van Jan Brouckaerd, built in the 16th century.
16. De Waag and De Steur
Mechelen, Belgium
The buildings De Waag and De Steur were built on the Salt Quay in the first half of the 16th century. They can be seen on the old postcard in the center of the frame.
The buildings were restored in 1927.
17. Church of St. Catherine
Ostrava, Czech Republic
The building was the oldest wooden church in Central Europe. The church was originally built in 1543. However, in 2002, a misfortune happened - due to a short circuit in the electrical wiring, the church caught fire and burned down in a few minutes. Thus Ostrava lost one of its oldest buildings.
Residents of the Ostrava region are considered people indifferent to religion. Nevertheless, more than two million Czech crowns were collected for the restoration of the temple. There were also donations from businessmen, parishioners from other cities of the country, and even from Polish believers. Rector Jiri Strnishte says that an old woman from Ivano-Frankivsk came to him, who came to visit her daughter, who works at a construction site in Ostrava, and donated two hundred crowns for the restoration of the church.
Construction lasted about two years. When restoring the church, ancient wood that survived the fire was used so that the Church of St. Catherine would not be removed from the list of architectural monuments. According to the abbot, they had to “literally use sticks, pieces of wood and planks, almost crawling on their knees, to collect pieces of unburnt wood.” The temple was restored using traditional methods of constructing wooden buildings. The grand opening took place on October 30, 2004.
18. De Duiveltjes
Mechelen, Belgium
The house was built in 1545-1550 and restored in 1867.
The building has a unique wooden facade, decorated with carved monsters - satyrs and devils, which gave the house its nickname.
19. Oude Huis
Amsterdam, Netherlands
As mentioned above, only two wooden buildings remain in Amsterdam. One of them is Het Houten Huys, and the second is Oude Huis, located at Zeedijk 1. The building was built in the 1550s.
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20. Pittstone Windmill
Pitstone, Buckinghamshire, UK
The mill was probably built in 1627 and is considered the oldest windmill in England. In 1902, the building was seriously damaged by a terrible storm. In 1922, the destroyed mill was purchased by a farmer whose land was located nearby. In 1937 he donated the building to the National Trust, but it was not until 1963 that renovation work began. Moreover, they were carried out by volunteers at their own expense. The mill is currently open to the public on Sundays in the summer.
Flickr
The house has been rebuilt over the centuries; the central part of the building is the oldest.
24. Wurleser's House
Staten Island, New York, USA
The Dutch word "voorlezer" (reader) was used among Dutch colonists to refer to active people who took on semi-official responsibilities associated with active participation in local legislation, education and religious life. After the British captured the Dutch colonies, the Wurlesers continued to maintain economic records and documentation. The last person to be given this title retired in 1789. His successor already held the title of clerk.
The building, located on Staten Island, was built around 1695 and is the oldest wooden school building in the United States. On the ground floor there was a living room and a large hall for church services. The second floor was occupied by a bedroom and another large hall, which is believed to have been intended for school activities.
25. Spaso-Zashiverskaya Church
Baryshevsky village council, Novosibirsk region, Russia
Hello 
Every day, walking through the center of St. Petersburg, I pay attention to the sights of our city, which, of course, are familiar to everyone:
Saint Isaac's Cathedral,
Alexandria pillar,
Marble Castle,
Engineering castle.
All of them were built a very long time ago; they cannot yet be classified as the most ancient buildings, but a lot of time has passed, and they have not lost their attractiveness and beauty.
At the same time, if you just go deeper into the city, you can see buildings that in appearance can be called the most ancient buildings, although they were erected several decades ago.
You don’t even have to go far, every day, almost everywhere you can hear about dilapidated housing. It happens that even when buying an apartment in a new building, the very next year flaws appear, because of which it is simply life-threatening to stay in these apartments.
I was wondering what the most ancient buildings in the world?
The most ancient buildings in the world
First of all, I want to express my gratitude to Alexander (his blog), the reader of my ““.
It was discovered in 1975; bronze bracelets and ceramic buttons were found in it.
Currently, it has been completely restored and is open to the public. This is one of the symbols and main attractions of the city of Menorca.
The most ancient buildings - 8th place!
The Treasury of Atreus or the Tomb of Agamemnon, built in the ancient city of Mycenae (Greece) during the Bronze Age around 1250 BC, which is more than 3250 years ago and ranks 8th in the ranking of the most ancient buildings in the world.
The Treasury of Atreus, thanks to its grandeur and monumental form, is one of the most impressive monuments surviving from Mycenaean Greece. For example, lintels over passages weigh more than 120 tons!!!
The most ancient buildings - 7th place!
The city of Coral was inhabited approximately between 2600 BC. and 2000 BC - this is more than 4600 years ago. And on its territory of 60 hectares there are 19 pyramids.
The most interesting thing is that during archaeological excavations, beads, necklaces, musical instruments and much more were found, but there were absolutely no weapons. This means that this one of the most ancient cities was peaceful and most likely its inhabitants were engaged in trade
The most ancient buildings - 6th place!
The Pyramid of Djoser in Egypt is the oldest stone structure in the world.
It was erected before 3000 BC. - this is more than 4,700 years ago and consisted of six steps located on top of each other. The total height of the Djoser pyramid is 62 meters.
The most ancient buildings - 5th place!
And again the mound. On the 5th line of the top 10 ancient buildings in the world, I placed the Hulbjerg mound, located on the southern tip of the island of Langeland.
The most interesting thing is that the Hulbjerg Tomb was built 5000 years ago. Moreover, it is completely assembled from 13 stone blocks precisely fitted to each other.
The most ancient buildings - 4th place!
Newgrange is a UNESCO-protected prehistoric site located in County Meath, in the eastern part of Ireland, approximately one kilometer north of the River Boyne.
It was built around 3200 BC - more than 5,100 years ago.
Today, Newgrange is a popular tourist attraction.
The walls of the passages are composed of large stone slabs, twenty-two of which are on the western side and twenty-one on the east. The height of the stone sides is on average about 1.5 meters in height; decorates many blocks.
The most ancient buildings - 3rd place!
With each line we are getting closer and closer to first place. And we dive deeper and deeper into history.
Built Monte d'Accoddi in the north of Sardinia, between Sassari and Porto Torres around 2700 - 2000 BC - that's about 5,200 years.
The most ancient buildings - 2nd place!
Knap of Howar - on the island of Papa Westray in Orkney (Scotland) approximately 5500 years ago in the period from 3700 -2800. BC. a manor was built - This is the oldest stone house in Northern Europe.
The walls of the Knap of Howar still stand and support a 1.6m cornice, and the stone furniture also remains, giving a vivid insight into life in the house. Fireplaces, beds, and shelving were found in almost their original condition. Just imagine - more than 5,000 years have passed, and they are intact!
The most ancient buildings - 1st place!
Now, in fact, we have reached the oldest building in our rating.
And it's right up there with the Megalithic Temples of Malta, a series of prehistoric monuments in Malta, seven of which are on the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Surprisingly, they were built (just think!) more than 5.5 thousand years ago.
Archaeologists believe that these megalithic complexes are the result of local innovations in the process of cultural evolution. The temples were built between 3600 and 3000. BC, which were fully functional and in use until 2500 BC.
Perhaps you can suggest your options in the comments?
