An Old Frisian farmhouse (German : Altfriesisches Bauernhaus) is a small unit farmhouse (Wohnstallhaus) that combined the farmer's living area and animals' stalls, and had limited space for storing harvest products. It was widely distributed across the North German Plain until the middle of the 17th century and was the forerunner of the Gulf house.
The Frisian languages are a closely related group of West Germanic languages, spoken by about 400,000 Frisian people, who live on the southern fringes of the North Sea in the Netherlands and Germany. The Frisian languages are the closest living language group to the Anglic languages; the two groups make up the Anglo-Frisian languages group and together with the Low German dialects these form the North Sea Germanic languages. However, modern English and Frisian are not mutually intelligible, nor are Frisian languages intelligible among themselves, owing to independent linguistic innovations and language contact with neighboring languages.
Friesland, historically and traditionally known as Frisia, named after the Frisians, is a province of the Netherlands located in the country's northern part. It is situated west of Groningen, northwest of Drenthe and Overijssel, north of Flevoland, northeast of North Holland, and south of the Wadden Sea. As of January 2023, the province had a population of about 660,000, and a total area of 5,753 km2 (2,221 sq mi).
het Bildt is a former municipality in the province of Friesland in the northern Netherlands; its capital was Sint Annaparochie. On 1 January 2018 it merged with the municipalities of Franekeradeel, Menameradiel and parts of Littenseradiel to form the new municipality Waadhoeke.
Low German is a West Germanic language spoken mainly in Northern Germany and the northeastern Netherlands. The dialect of Plautdietsch is also spoken in the Russian Mennonite diaspora worldwide.
West Frisian, or simply Frisian, is a West Germanic language spoken mostly in the province of Friesland in the north of the Netherlands, mostly by those of Frisian ancestry. It is the most widely spoken of the Frisian languages.
North Frisian is a minority language of Germany, spoken by about 10,000 people in North Frisia. The language is part of the larger group of the West Germanic Frisian languages. The language comprises 10 dialects which are themselves divided into an insular and a mainland group.
A terp, also known as a wierde, woerd, warf, warft, werf, werve, wurt or værft, is an artificial dwelling mound found on the North European Plain that has been created to provide safe ground during storm surges, high tides and sea or river flooding. The various terms used reflect the regional dialects of the North European region.
A farmhouse is a building that serves as the primary quarters in a rural or agricultural setting. Historically, farmhouses were often combined with space for animals called a housebarn. Other farmhouses may be connected to one or more barns, built to form a courtyard, or with each farm building separate from each other.
Middle Frisian was a language that evolved from Old Frisian around the year 1550 and was spoken until 1800.
The Low German house or Fachhallenhaus is a type of timber-framed farmhouse found in northern Germany and the easternmost Netherlands, which combines living quarters, byre and barn under one roof. It is built as a large hall with bays on the sides for livestock and storage and with the living accommodation at one end.
A "Head-Neck-Body farmhouse" or Head-Neck-Rump farmhouse is a typical Frisian farmhouse. It consists of a residence and a kitchen placed in line in front of a big shed. A striking fact is that the residence was never built in the centre front of the shed – this has to do with the origin of this type of farmhouse from a smaller type of farmhouse that has now disappeared. This original Old Frisian longhouse consisted of a residence with a cattle shed immediately behind it. The harvest was stacked in the attic or in open barns which were logically located near the livestock shed.
In architectural style, Bildts farmhouses are farmhouses where the main dwelling is placed at a right angle to the barn. The reason for this is unknown, yet these types of designs are common in many parts of The Netherlands.
Old Frisian longhouses were, as the name indicates, long-bodied houses which can be found in the Dutch province Friesland. This type of house had more than two different parts behind or beside each part. It is the forerunner of the "Head-Neck-Body farmhouse".
Waaxens is a small village in Noardeast-Fryslân municipality in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. It had a population of only 35 in January 2017. Before 2019, the village was part of the Dongeradeel municipality.
Dijken is a small village in De Fryske Marren in the province of Friesland, the Netherlands. It had a population of around 65 in 2017.
The Middle German house is a style of traditional German farmhouse which is predominantly found in Central Germany.
A Gulf house, also called a Gulf farmhouse (Gulfhof) or East Frisian house (Ostfriesenhaus), is a type of byre-dwelling that emerged in the 16th and 17th centuries in North Germany. It is timber-framed and built using post-and-beam construction. Initially Gulf houses appeared in the marshes, but later spread to the Frisian geest. They were distributed across the North Sea coastal regions from West Flanders through the Netherlands, East Frisia and Oldenburg as far as Schleswig-Holstein. This spread was interrupted by the Elbe-Weser Triangle which developed a type of Low German house instead, better known as the Low Saxon house.
A housebarn is a building that is a combination of a house and a barn under the same roof. Most types of housebarn also have room for livestock quarters. If the living quarters are only combined with a byre, whereas the cereals are stored outside the main building, the house is called a byre-dwelling.
The Geestharden house, also called the Cimbrian house, Schleswig house, Slesvig house or Southern Jutland house due to its geographical spread in Jutland, is one of three basic forms on which the many farmhouse types in the north German state of Schleswig-Holstein are based. The other two basic designs are the Gulf house and the Low German hall house. By far the best known variant of the Geestharden house is the Uthland-Frisian house, which is also referred to as the Frisian house (Friesenhaus).
There are several types of Frisian houses in the Netherlands as well as in Germany.