Massing Open-Air Museum

It is almost a miracle that this little house survived

The Freilinger Häusl from the Rott Valley is one of the oldest farmhouses in Lower Bavaria. Its upper floor is dated 1611 by an inscription.



The little wooden house is built in block construction. The walls made of spruce beams are propped on cornice of oak sleepers.

The corners are zinc-coated. All walls are featured in a continuous box bracing, an early example of elaborate block construction. The ceiling beams are extended on the gable side over the block wall, and thus serve as a support for a balcony in front of the upper floor.

“Austragshäuser” (separate houses for retired farmer & wife)were often not used for decades as a dwelling. The Freilinger Häusl also as a wagon shed; workshop and bee house has served other purposes for many years. The overlapping shingle roof, which around 1930 was only to be found on insignificant outbuildings, embodies this in the museum.

Since the little house – which was transferred in large whole parts in 1988/89 – is almost unique as a building of historical importance, it is presented in the museum as austerely as it was preserved. The open hearth is one of only three preserved in Lower Bavaria. It was transported un-dismantled with its perimeter walls.

"Austragshaus” (separate house for retired farmer & wife) from Freiling near Wurmannsquick – dated (concealed) above the balcony door: 1611; removed in 1988; opened in 1989