OPEN FIRE & SMOKE-HOLE CALL FOR A HOUSE
OPEN TO RIDGE OF ROOF
A third important feature that the St. Gall house shares
with the timbered Germanic all-purpose house is that both
are ground-floor structures. The open fire (locus foci) that
burns in the middle of center floor and the smoke hole (testu)
in the roof above preclude the partition of the inner
space by the insertion of floors or ceilings (figs. 396 and
392). Of all the buildings that can be classified as guest and
service structures, only one has an upper story, viz., the
House for Horses and Oxen (see fig. 474). But there the
draftsman makes sure by the inscription, supra tabulatum,
that it is clearly understood that the space above the stables
for the horses and oxen is taken up by a hayloft. In the
other guest and service buildings no mention is made of an
upper level. This, in the language of the drafter of the Plan,
can only mean that there were no upper levels.
[163]
A last conspicuous trait of this house type is that it was
in general not provided with windows but received its light
from an opening in the roof which also served as smoke
outlet. We shall return to this point in more detail below.
Considering these distinctive similarities, the conclusion
is inescapable that the St. Gall house is a variant of the
Germanic all-purpose house discussed in the preceding
pages. There are some differences, to be sure, but they are
not of a kind that would weaken this conclusion or force
us to qualify it in any essential point.
