Historical Wooden Ceilings in Waidhofen an der Ybbs, Austria

What is it about?

Wooden ceilings are one of the earliest wooden constructions – in wooden houses as well as in buildings made out of stones and bricks. In Austria, a special type of wooden ceilings, the so called Riemenbalkendecke is known. In the region of Waidhofen an der Ybbs these constructions are decorated with chip carvings, year numbers and letters. No systematic exploration of these ceiling constructions in Austria has been done so far. In this study all houses in Waidhofen an der Ybbs built prior 1900 were explored and the ceiling constructions described. Here, the Riemenbalkendecken decorated with chip carvings and mouldings occur in 1465 CE and last for almost 300 years. The validity of the carved year numbers was verified by dendrochronological dating. The time span of the ceilings comprises the period of Late Gothic, the Renaissance and the Early and High Baroque (approximately 1400 to 1740 CE). Different patterns of chip carvings have been identified. The letters on ten ceilings could be attributed to the initials of the house owners at the time of the installation of the ceiling. None of the chip carvings can be attributed to ornaments usual at these periods. The art of the chip carvings on the wooden ceilings represents therefore a special language of form.

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