How old is the oldest building in the town you live in?
To those from the Western hemisphere, it's always fascinating to hear that some homes and businesses from the times of the Greek philosophers still have inhabitants, and then you remember that the Western hemisphere is itself not without its own examples, for example some Mexican villages still have temples from the times of the Mayans.
The western hemisphere isn't just the Americas. It includes half of europe...
There are quite a few people in the western hemisphere that don't even bat an eye when they walk past a 1000 year old building on their way to work every day.
For me the oldest building is just a random house from the 13 century.
I know what you mean. The oldest building i pass every day is from dates from 1250, but compared to the parts of Europe rich in architecture that's not really very old...
A local church is about that old (or it's at least that old, the oldest record of it is from 1262). But there might just be a barn or a windmill that's much older and nobody knows because at that point it's actually medieval and record keeping wasn't great back then.
I live in New England and I'm gonna guess either the 1700s school house or one of a couple buildings I suspect are log cabins. Those could go back to around 1650
The oldest building in/around Vienna is believed to be the Roman stone quarry in Leithaprodersdorf. It dates back to the Roman era, around 43 AD.
The oldest continuously inhabited building in Vienna is generally considered to be the Griechenbeisl, a historic restaurant located in the Innere Stadt district. It has been in operation since the 15th century.
Well there's a park with some ruins from the Roman occupation, which founded this settlement in 79AD. If you count them, that's 1945 years... if not, apparently there are some churches between 800 and 900 years old that still contains some parts of the original Norman construction, although they have been altered since
I actually don't know. The area I now live in was partially wiped out by the tsunami in 2011 closer to the coast. We definitely have some buildings that are a few hundred years old that are still in use. Different parts of Japan have older, but it's almost always a Ship of Theseus sort of situation.
If you're talking white people, technically cooks cottage (built 30 years before the first fleet) but it was brought over and reassembled in the 1930's lol
Indigenous, probably the eel traps / farming system. That's 9,000 years old iirc
Or if you're up in the top end, there's Nawarla Gabarnmung which dates to about 44kya. Some natural rock pillars in the shelter, others modified and others still constructed or relocated.
Budj Bim eel farm and accompanying stone huts. Massive aquaculture farm / village the Gunditjmara people built that not only secured their own food supply, but is so large and effective for trade the term 'industrial level' has been used
Normal people houses don't survive much longer that 500-600 years bc on fire and bombing, but town hall, temple, fort, palace and other administration building can be much much older.
My dad lives in a house that the oldest rooms date from around 500 years ago lol. It would be very had to tell by just looking at the house, since it's been updated and expanded over the centuries.
We don't even know if it really is that old, but from figuring it out from some renovations and the position in the town, it's a good guess.
I live around the Yorkshire moors. There are dry stone walls up there which are up to 600 years old. I love walking up in the hills and thinking about that.
True story - I moved from Scotland to Perth when I was 6. A few months later I visited Tranby House, one of the oldest buildings in Perth at around 1830. I remember thinking to myself that our house in Scotland before we moved was older than that (circa 1800)
Canberra actually - it's an old dairy building that's part of Duntroon (one of the original homesteads of the region but more well known for being where RMC/ADFA is). It pre dates Canberra by a good bit though since development of the city only really began to gain traction in the 1920s.
Domtrapphuset, the cathedral staircase house, built sometime between 1280 and 1330 AD. The cathedral the staircase (currently) leads to was finished in 1435.
1310 it's a small house (max. 10m wide) in the town centre.
Today it's part of the library of the University hosting different exhibitions.
It's called Günter Grass Archiv in Göttingen, Germany.
There are archaeological finds of buildings from more than 9000 years ago (oldest in the region).
There's a church that was finished sometime during the 1200s and is preserved in its original form in the municipality, but technically it's not within town limits.
The main church was also initially built around that time but was rebuilt in the late 1700s - nothing of the original remains.
The cellar of a royal farm still remains, which was built in 1552, though it's more a ruin than a building.
A castle/royal manor was built in 1652, and although it has been renovated and expanded in the early 1700s, parts of the structure are still from the original.
So, I suppose it depends on what you're looking for.
Bremen Cathedral's oldest part is from 1044, but there was a wooden church structure there in 789 until it was completely burned down by raiding Saxons.
I think the oldest building would be the castle that eas first officially mentioned in 1004 AD and the first parts of the castle were built way before that.
The town I live in burned down almost completely in 1787, so most historic buildings in the city were built after that. The city wall is probably the oldest structure, but it's unknown when it was originally built. The oldest building with a known year of construction is most likely the church that was built in 1246.
I live in the western hemisphere, but a church…Late 1200s.
There was a shop, but that was allowed to fall in to disrepair, as the heritage order on it meant it couldn’t be changed, that was built around 1600s and knocked down a few years ago.
The oldest building would be the cathedral built between 1628 and 1633 although the city walls were built between 1613-1618 and are still standing and complete
I'm in a California suburb, and the oldest building we have is an old adobe barn from 1852, which is pretty old for California. We actually have a lot of historical buildings, too.
it's a bit hard to tell. of the buildings still standing and in use, the cathedral comes to mind, with was consecrated in 1238, but it stands on the site of the old mosque. this was torn down apparently in 1262, at which point construction on the cathedral began, but it would take centuries to finish everything.
there is another church that was named a parish in 1245 and so was probably already standing then, so perhaps that building is the oldest? I don't knoe how much of that original building is still standing though
An old church going back to the early 1800s, though that's misleading.
The old part of the church is still there, but it's been updated and expanded over the years so that the foundation under one part is all that's original now.
Proper building was built at the end of 19th century. There is an old well that is a few hundred years old and the ruins of a Roman villa from about 2000 years ago.
Late 1800’s is when the town was established. Lots of houses from then are still standing, but a good number of them have had additions built, so they’re not 100% original.
The oldest local church was constructed in the 13th century, but has undergone renovations over the centuries.
Not a lot of very old houses have remained because they were mostly built out of wood and the occasional fire and the tendency to build newer homes rather than patch up the old rotten ones meant that most houses didn't make it past the 18th-19th century, when stone overtook wood everywhere except in remote farms.