Farm yard |
Farm buildings were built
around a spacious yard. In Southern Estonia it was called a "yard
lawn". The most important building, the barn-dwelling,
faced the yard. It was usually built on higher ground in a north-south
direction with the living rooms at the southward end. With this orientation
it was possible to open the barn doors and use the prevailing easterly
or westerly winds to dry the corn.
In the 19th Century the usual out-buildings included a barn, summer kitchen, animal sheds\stables and, in South, East and North Estonia and on the islands, also a sauna. South Estonian farms had the most out-buildings (5-6). In West Estonia there were usually only 2-3 since the corn drying room was often also used as a sauna and the threshing barn as an animal shed\stable. |
|
|
Barn-dwelling. In the regions near the Latvian
border and on Hiiumaa and Saaremaa the so called southern
type barn-dwelling was common. This had a threshing room and a drying
room that were of the same width and height.
|
Store rooms
|
Animal sheds
|
The buildings of Hurda farm were erected in the second half of the 19th Century. The cow'shed has been rebuilt later and the roof replaced. The model buildings were made by H. Pärnik between 1962 and 1965 on the basis of the surviving buildings and peoples descriptions. Hurda farm had 44 Hectares of land, 18 Ha of this was ploughed field. In the 1890s the farm kept 8 cows, 3 horses, 6-7 sheep, 5 pigs and chickens.
