Budwiecie – Mazurian wooden architecture, 1st half of the 20th century

The Mazurian region, valued mainly for its lakes and forests, does not contain many monuments of brick architecture.

On the other hand, there are many wooden structures to be found.

Structurally and visually, the Mazurian hut has much in common with the huts of the neighbouring Kurpie region. The walls of the buildings were constructed using a corner-post arrangement i.e. piece sur piece, with carefully finished logs: never rounded, always rectangular. The beams were finished and joined so precisely that even today, 60 years after the last Mazurian hut was built, the gaps between the logs can only be noticed up close. As a general rule, the walls were covered with pine tar, and in modern times – with various impregnating agents, or even burnt motor oil, which gives the walls a dark, almost pitch-black colouring.

The roofs of Mazurian houses were invariably gabled and usually pantiled – the latter as a result of the ban on thatched roofing introduced by the Prussian government at the end of the 19th century due to fire safety concerns.