211 – Dwelling from Villnachern, Argovia, around 1635

A conflagration in Villnachern in 1633 destroyed 24 buildings. During the general reconstruction this house was built in a style which has rarely survived, a late gothic “stock”. That means a masonry building which can stand alone. This one may have been part of a row of stone houses. This means of construction was expensive but fire-resistant.

The later occupants were less wealthy. They operated a small farm and were labourers. A family of eight weavers and farmers is recorded here around 1839. In the 1850’s thirteen people, farm hands and day labourers, lived in the house. In 1897 a butcher and a shoemaker are recorded. The final occupants also earned their living with a mixture of small farming and home industry: in the 1940’s Kaspar Spillmann repaired soldiers’ shoes. He hammered in the imposing iron shoenails in a workshop on the ground floor.