Gatehouse from Erda

Built: circa 1800, relocated 1887
Dismantled: 1978
Reassembled: 1978 to 1980

The floor plan of this two-storey timber-framed building is divided into a gateway and a stable part. A beam above the rear of the passageway reads: God with us. On the ground floor, there are two pens for keeping small livestock, and hay was stored on the upper floor. This building became part of the Brück Farmstead in Grafenstraße 3 in Erda in 1887 only, its predecessor having been destroyed in a fire that same year. The then-owner, a cooper called Peter Brück, is said to have bought this replacement gatehouse in Weipoltshausen, ten kilometres away, taken it down and carted it to Erda in many, many trips with his cart and team after the fire.

Such relocations of timber-framed buildings, gatehouses in particular, were not uncommon. The Gatehouse from Betziesdorf, too, which completes the farmstead of the House from Nieder-Gemünden, had been relocated once before it was moved to the museum. The Barn from Erda, which shared a farmstead with the Gatehouse from Erda at their original location, was reconstructed in the museum’s farmstead around the House from Launsbach.