ID Reisverk Viking stronghold

November 30, 2005 3:02 PM

Can you identify this Viking stronghold in the Netherlands? The caption for the picture is "Reisverk Viking stronghold in the Netherlands (Zeeland) ca. 1000 A.D."

This pic was taken from the book The Craft of Modular Post & Beam: Building log and timber homes affordably by James Mitchell. Reisverk in the caption refers to the style of post and beam construction. Any information would be appreciated, especially sites with more info and pictures. I think it's a pretty neat looking building.

Sorry the quality isn't great. Had to take a pic as I don't have a scanner.

posted by 6550 to society & culture (9 comments total)

What exactly are you looking for? Where the building (assuming it still exists) is located?
posted by luneray at 3:41 PM on November 30, 2005

Any info on the building at all. Where it's located, history, pictures of it, size, etc.
posted by 6550 at 4:25 PM on November 30, 2005

As you may have guessed, Zeeland is a province of the Netherlands, it's the watery one in the south west.

Aren't any sources listed for the image in the book (check the page with copyright and editing information in the front or somewhere in the back after the index).
posted by fvw at 4:41 PM on November 30, 2005

Looks like it's at the fortress of Trelleborg, on the island of Zealand (Sjaelland) in Denmark. Check out the photo of the reconstructed building at that link and at this one. The author probably made a mistake and thought it was the Dutch Zeeland.
posted by gubo at 5:31 PM on November 30, 2005

Excellent find gubo - it looks like the same building to me too. Here are some more photos of the Viking building in Trelleborg.
posted by wannalol at 6:18 PM on November 30, 2005

Thanks! Being in Denmark, no wonder my searches didn't turn up anything. From the caption I was under the impression the building dated to 1000 A.D., not that it was a reconstruction.
posted by 6550 at 7:00 PM on November 30, 2005

OMG it's a pre-fab house!

"Curiously enough, during the late Viking Age a strikingly severe standardization of house-types sometimes occured, when individual houses were all built according to one standard pattern and show a quite amazing resemblance to one another. Such houses are found in the great Danish military camps excavated at Trelleborg, Aggersborg, and Frykat. ... In Trelleborg, the houses are exactly a hundred Roman feet long. At the widest point they measure 26 feet across. The gables are straight, and the long sides are sections of an extremely regular ellipse."

The Viking. pg 171-173. Almgren, Blindheim, Eldjarn. Crescent Books/Nordbook 1975.

(a coffee table book inherited from my Norwegian grandfather)
posted by Triode at 10:28 PM on November 30, 2005

Along similar lines, have a look at the Stave Churches of Norway. (Stavkirke) Several originals still stand, now 800 years old. I dig your username, 6550
posted by Triode at 10:43 PM on November 30, 2005

I requested that book from my library. Triode is also a cool username.
posted by 6550 at 10:36 AM on December 1, 2005