University of Virginia Library

EARLIEST EXTANT MEDIEVAL
CORNER FIREPLACES

The earliest extant Continental chimneys date from the
twelfth century. They form niches in the masonry walls and
are surmounted by conical hoods often braced at the sides
by pillars and brackets. They are usually constructed on a
full circular plan, the heating chamber forming the rearward,
and the hood the forward, segment of the circle. Two
typical examples of this species, dating from the twelfth
and thirteenth centuries, respectively, are found in Le Puyen-Velay
(Haute-Loire), France (fig. 373)[253] and the so-called

[ILLUSTRATION]

379.A SAALBURG, HESSE, GERMANY. FORTIFIED ROMAN FRONTIER CAMP

"PILLARED" HYPOCAUST [after Fusch, 1910, pl. xv]

Although slow in making warmth felt in the rooms served
by the system, the hypocaust had the great advantage,
once the building was warmed by convection and
conduction, of providing through radiation from walls and
floor an even temperature for long periods of time, in
relatively large spaces, using only a small amount of fuel.
Ideally suited for the large warm and hot rooms of
Roman baths, the hypocaust was used in the northern
provinces of Rome almost universally in private homes.

Römerturm in Frankfurt a.M., Germany (fig. 374).[254]
This hooded circular fireplace, in my opinion, is the type
that the draftsman of the Plan had in mind when he used
ovoid symbols for the private heating units of the leading
monastic officials and the monastery's distinguished guests
(fig. 375). In this connection attention must be drawn to
certain oven-shaped corner fireplaces still in use today in
rural buildings of Sweden, two typical examples of which
are given in figure 376 and 377.[255] Both of these are, in fact,
oven and fireplace combined.

I do not doubt that the corner fireplaces of the Plan of
St. Gall were intended to be built in masonry, although
there is evidence for the existence in the Middle Ages of
fireplaces with wooden hoods. A group of wooden chimneys,
mounted on frames of oak and filled with wattle and
daub, was published in Nathaniel Lloyd's History of the
English House.[256] We may assume that fireplaces constructed
entirely of wood or of both wood and stone were equally
common on the Continent, because of their appearance in
late medieval manuscripts and paintings. A typical example
of this mixed technique is the fireplace of the farmer's
house in the charming winter landscape of the February
representation of Jean de France's Très Riches Heures (fig.
378),[257] and an example of a fireplace built entirely of wood
is the one at the rear wall of a wooden cottage in the Livre du
Cuer d'Amours Espris of René, Duke of Anjou.[258] These
medieval wall and corner fireplaces with wooden chimneys
were, in my opinion, not an original conception, but rather
an adaptation to Northern building materials, performed on
a relatively humble social level, of a heating device that
formed no part of the Northern building tradition.