House & Garden 
TYROLESE ARCHITECTURE.' 
VI-DWELLINGS. 
I N examining the domestic architecture of 
the Tyrol, one cannot but notice that its 
results have been arrived at under conditions 
not entirely unlike our own. During the 
early vears of American life, when many 
buildings were reared from an urgent ne¬ 
cessity for shelter, and architectural feeling 
was derided as a thing esoteric and useless, the 
houses of our middle-class rural population 
expressed hu¬ 
man traits simi¬ 
lar to those 
which enter in¬ 
to the nature ot 
the Tyrolese. 
Both peoples 
were freedom- 
loving Anglo- 
Saxons, dwell¬ 
ing in the same 
climate and 
winning their 
livelihood b v 
thesamemeans. 
Both in their 
struggle for ex¬ 
istence freely 
showed a scorn 
of rigorous for¬ 
mality, and a 
rugged impa¬ 
tience of the 
superfluous. 
Utilitarianends 
had full sway 
and the quick¬ 
est and easiest 
means of hous¬ 
ing himself and his family were followed alike 
by the early American and the Tyrolese. The 
love of home was strong in both peoples ; so 
much so, indeed, that removals from one house 
to another were rare events, to be avoided as 
much as possible, and always regarded as 
momentous. A Tyroler, for example, forced 
to emigrate, never fails to carrv with him a 
home-baked crust; and prayers for his safety 
are continually offered in his absence. And 
1 See House and Garden for December, 1901, January, March, 
May and July, 1902. 
this is but one way in which the mountaineer’s 
love for his fireside is bound up with the 
deepest superstitions of his heart. 
The Tyrolese love of house and home is 
no better exemplified than in the portentous 
preparations for a removal. When a family 
must, at last, change its place of abode, the 
daily prayers and devotions increase in fervor, 
with the hope of preventing any evil spirits 
from hovering over the dire occasion. The 
day arrives to vacate the old home, and all 
members of the family solemnly gather in 
front of the 
hearth, and the 
eldest prays. 
Then all fileout 
in the order of 
their ages, and 
taking great 
care to step over 
the th res hold 
and notupon it. 
As an emblem 
ofgoodfortune, 
a slip or root 
from a tree or 
vine is taken to 
the new abode. 
There the eld¬ 
est of the family 
carries before 
him a crucifix 
and prayer- 
book, and he 
knocks t h r ic e 
on each door. 
The rest of the 
family follow, 
and all finally 
assemble before 
the new hearth¬ 
stone. The prayer-book is then laid upon the 
window-sill. If the sun shine upon it, a good 
omen is found; but if it rest under a cloud, 
there springs a fear of bogies lurking about 
the house at night in the light of the moon. 
With the exception of the feudal structures 
we have already considered and which were 
comparatively small in number, Tyrolese 
domestic building is the architecture of the 
common people, and it is not modified by 
great differences of personal wealth of owners. 
The houses, as a whole, represent a fair aver- 
HOUSE AT ST. LORENZEN IN THE I’USTERTHAL 
445 
