How attics are used in Monschau, Germany

Arriving in Monschau, I realized: the towns with the same half-timbered houses, which are usually painted on Christmas cards, were not invented by artists - they really exist.

Friends invited me to stay for a month in the Ardennes. At first I simply lost the gift of articulate and meaningful speech - I just mooed and groaned, fascinated by the beauty. Then she moved away and became interested in everything. Two of my questions related to attics: why are they in every residential building and how are they used?

Answers and research

First, as they explained to me, the attic floor is an architectural feature of the German half-timbered house. Secondly, since this is a full-fledged room, its utilitarian purposes are different. For example, my friends turned it into a bedroom - cramped, but cozy.

Here is their house - right behind bars in the foreground. It can be seen that there is a window on the left on the roof through which light enters this small room.

Then we often went to visit, and everywhere I was allowed to inspect the attics. So, for example, the Lange spouses adapted the space under the roof to store dried mushrooms, of which there were unthinkable quantities, since the slopes of the Ardennes are covered with mixed forest, generous on them. Picturesque beams served as the ceiling in the pantry.

Another neighbor, Eric Schäuble, departed from the generally accepted domestic canons in Germany and moved the laundry from basement area to the attic: I installed a washing machine there and hung several brackets with ropes for drying clothes. He has stove heating. The brick pipe here is warm enough so that the wet fabric does not melt, and the excessive heat does not harm the technique.

Junk warehouse

The local Plyushkin was also found in the district. His cramped attic was a real antique shop. Genuine rarities coexisted with relatively modern, but outdated things: an antediluvian coal-heated iron, silver glasses of the 19th century, a pre-war snuffbox.

“I don’t look here,” said Herr Beer. - I just come in sometimes to take another obscene little thing.

“But some of them will give good money at the flea markets, and they’re just lying around,” I said.

- Sell the family heirlooms that my family owned for decades?! - this elderly gentleman was indignant. - We Germans are, of course, practical, but not blasphemous. How can you exchange for a handful of euros a tureen, which my mother was holding in her hands, or her sister's favorite casket, Aunt Gertrude?

Intrigue

Until the very departure, walking along the streets of Monschau, I lifted my eyes up, trying to look into windows under the rafters and guess what is hidden behind them among those people in whose housing I did not happen get there.

And I also began to think about how I would arrange my attic if I had at least a tiny house in these places. Can you tell me the original options?

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