What do the houses look like in your neck of the woods?
Do you have thatched-roof houses in the region where you live?
In Kampen, a small but popular village on the Norht Frisian Island of Sylt, most of the houses wear reeds on their head.
In bygone days it was the one and only available construction material to roof a house along the North Sea or Baltic Sea coast, especially on the islands.
Nowadays it's sign of wealth to use this material to roof the housetop of a Frisian house. Because more than 95% of all the reeds has to be brought from Romania, Hungary or Ukraine.
In some locations like Kampen or districts of Keitum or Wenningstedt (all on the island of Sylt) there's a bylaw that compels the house owners to have a "soft roof" made from reeds.
So these houses are named according their significant type of roof, we call them "Reetdachhaus / thatched-roof house".
Some
of these houses really came to fame, like the "Springerburg / Springer
castle", officially named Klenderhof, formerly owned by Axel Springer, a German journalist and the
founder and owner of the Axel Springer AG publishing company.
My favourites are some of the rare original Frisian houses from the "ancient times" of Sylt. Old captain's houses, some of the (more or less) still in the original state.
Most of the thatched-roof house from nowadays in Kampen are state-of-the-art mansions, having the roof made from reeds as a kind of nostalgic touch and as a sign of wealth on their top.
My favourites are some of the rare original Frisian houses from the "ancient times" of Sylt. Old captain's houses, some of the (more or less) still in the original state.
Most of the thatched-roof house from nowadays in Kampen are state-of-the-art mansions, having the roof made from reeds as a kind of nostalgic touch and as a sign of wealth on their top.
