How to become a real estate agent?

Einbeck, the city of 400 half-timbered works Einbeck, a German town famous for its 600-year-old brewery, is home to around 400 half-timbered houses. It is located in Lower Saxony, where the half-timbering is characterized by numerous ornamental motifs. The city also speaks of half-timbered art. Its hundreds of buildings date from the 16th century, since it was in 1540 that the city of Einbeck suffered its last devastating fire. Since then, the buildings have been able to be preserved, although other fires and wars have followed. The 400 houses still standing belong to the Gothic style, and are part of the tourist circuit of the city.© losch, CC by-sa 3.0

In Germany, a typical Rathaus town hall In Germany, more than a million half-timbered buildings still stand. They permeate many historic centers of towns and villages, including that of Treffurt, located along the Werra river. All of Treffurt’s half-timbered buildings were restored in the 1990s, after the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989. Identical to the originals, they make the old town a real architectural gem. Its town hall, Renaissance style, stands in the center of the village, proudly displaying its timber framings. It has the particularity of having a tower and a bell tower, which is typical of the “Rathaus”. These are historic administrative buildings erected in countries that adopted Magdeburg rights (a form of urban law), such as the Holy Roman-Germanic Empire or the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.© Formplus, Adobe Stock

The Little Moreton Hall, typical of the Elizabethan era Little Moreton Hall, located in Cheshire in the United Kingdom, is a fine example of a timber-framed Elizabethan mansion. Its construction began in 1504 under the aegis of Sir Richard de Moreton, and ended in 1610. Like the half-timbered houses of the Elizabethan era, the beams are not very straight, the roughing consists of cob white, and the building is topped with a thatched roof. The house remained in the Moreton family for five centuries. But, since 1938, it has been the property of the National Trust, an association which preserves and highlights monuments of collective interest.© Christine-Ann Martin, CC by-sa 3.0

Rennes, jewel of half-timbered houses On the Place du Champ Jacquet, in Rennes, you can admire several half-timbered houses. One houses a creperie, another a restaurant, and yet another next door is a clothing store. They are part of the historical heritage of Rennes, and more particularly of Breton architecture. In this city, there are 286 half-timbered houses, some of which are classified as historical monuments. And this, despite the great fire that devastated Rennes in 1720, carrying in its path between 850 and 900 of these works. From the 14th to the 18th century, the Bretons used oak, massively present in their forests, to build dwellings and stalls. If the style has varied over the centuries, a common point unites these buildings: the color. None of these structures would stand the grayness, so natural pigments were used to bring some cheerfulness to the streets. Mainly red and yellow, with a little blue for the decorative elements.© Rixie, Adobe Stock

Führich Chrastava’s house Führich Chrastava’s house is in the Czech Republic, more precisely in the region of Liberec, in the north of the country. The first reference to this region dates from 1352. But it was only during the last decades of the 19th century that it experienced its boom, since it became one of the main centers of the textile industry within the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The regional relief is dominated by a chain of mountains: the Jizera Mountains, whose name is inspired by the Jizera, a river. Mainly made of granite, this chain is located on the Polish-Czech border.© JanHubik, CC by-sa 3.0

The Bishop’s House, a house with an uncertain past The Bishop’s House, literally “house of the bishops”, is one of three half-timbered houses in Sheffield, a city in the north of England. The other two are Old Queen’s Head and Broom Hall. Built around 1500, during the Tudor or “English Renaissance” period, the building is listed as a historical monument. It opened as a museum in 1976, to exhibit English life in the 16th and 17th centuries. It would take its name from its supposed builders, John and Geoffrey Blythe, who would both become bishops. But the first known inhabitant of the house was William Blythe, in 1627. More than a century after its construction…© Chemical Engineer, CC by-sa 3.0

Villa Kalinčiak, two names, one story Villa Kalinčiak, formerly known as Villa Aeskulap, was erected in 1884 in the Low Tatra Mountains, Slovakia. Its architect, Gedeon Majunke, is an eminent figure in Tatra architecture. He built the villa out of wood and bricks, and decorated the whole with drawings telling the story. The first name of the building comes from the Greco-Roman god of medicine, Aesculapius. This one holds a stick around which a snake is wrapped, which has become a symbol of medicine in many countries. A reproduction of it decorates the villa. Moreover, its second and current name is a tribute to the Slovak writer and poet Ján Kalinčiak, also a literary critic and teacher. The name change was made when the first Czechoslovak Republic was founded. Today, the Swiss-style building has become a hotel. © Pavol Sveton, CC by-sa 3.0

The majestic church of Lutikon In Switzerland, there is a small hamlet called Lutikon. Within its main street, it houses a “eglihaus” dating from 1666. Ten years later, in 1676, the coat of arms of the town, in which Lutikon is located, was hung on the bell tower of the church. It represents a bale of straw on a red background. Which makes sense since 61% of the town, named Hombrechtikon, is devoted to agriculture. The rest is split between 14% residential and 15% forest. Of the approximately 9,000 inhabitants of Hombrechtikon, 38% are Protestant and 28% Catholic.© Roland zh, CC by-sa 3.0

The Atländer Farm on Museum Island In Germany, the half-timberings of the Land of Lower Saxony are characterized by their numerous and rich ornamental motifs. This is illustrated on the old country farm Atländer. It is located in the city of Stade, not far from Hamburg, and more precisely on a small island near the city center. For more than 100 years, this island has been home to an open-air museum, with farmhouses, historic workshops and a mill, to show how the inhabitants lived and worked at the time.The Atländer farmhouse was erected for the first time in 1733, and renovated since. The museum island on which it stands is part of an old fortress built by the Swedes when they occupied the town of Stade (1645-1712), following the Thirty Years’ War (1618-1648). Indeed, the Treaties of Westphalia, which also conclude the Thirty Years’ War, stipulate that two territories are offered as fiefs to Queen Christina of Sweden: the Duchy of Bremen and the Principality of Verden. On these is the city of Stade.© Oldiefan, CC0

Hjerl Hede, the reconstructed Danish village The Hjerl Hede is an open-air museum depicting an old Danish village, during the 16th century until the early 1900s. It was established in 1930 by Hjerl Hansen, and contains over 50 buildings as well as a host of ‘farm animals. Among these constructions, there are half-timbered houses. These are not based on the same techniques as French half-timbering. In Denmark, the woods used are much shorter. And, like the building photographed here, the roofs can be vegetated. Indeed, if revegetation is more and more popular nowadays, humans had implemented it long before the problems of global warming.© Ingvard Pedersen, CC0