Finsterau Open-Air Museum

Bohemian Forest house like on either side

A house unique in Bavaria – the Schanzer-Häusl – has found a safe home at the open-air museum. Bohemian Forest houses of this type were found in the inner Bavarian Forest as well as in the higher elevations of the Bohemian Forest. Except for very few monuments, the Bohemian Forest house – which fits in this austere landscape like no other – has been lost due to deterioration, alteration or demolition.



The elongated half-hipped roof with shingle covering is characteristic. Dwelling, cowshed and barn are combined under this roof. A wind-protected balcony – an elevated loggia – is mounted in front of the gable.
The house secured for Finsterau – called “Schanzer-Häusl” after the last owners – contains a quaint smoke room with masonry baking oven and open hearth, and a tiled hearth oven with bench in the parlour..

The floor plan with dominating parlour and the block construction technique characterise the Lower Bavarian farmhouse, just as well as the style of mountain house ranging of the Bavarian Alpine region from South Tyrol and Western Austria to Upper Bavaria.
The distribution of this block construction house with parlour extends as far as the Bohemian Forest, where German and Czech farmers inhabited similar houses. In the Bavarian Forest, this type of house with the flat, overlapping shingle roof is called a “Waldlerhaus”, and with the steep, thatched or nailed shingle roof hipped on the gable sides it is called a “Böhmerwaldhaus” (Bohemian Forest house)..

Built between 1826 and 1840, in Riedelsbach near Neureichenau inhabited until 1963 – documentation and removal in 2000, rebuilding with reconstruction of the half-hipped roof in 2006/07

The reconstruction of the Schanzer-Häusl at the Finsterau Open-Air Museum was sponsored by der European Union within the framework of the LEADER+ Community Initiative, and also supported by funds from the Bavarian Cultural Foundation (Kulturfonds Bayern).