# Oldest Wooden Building. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 9, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731 "2014-07-09T23:05:20Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jim\_B](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jim_b/32/4338_2.png) [@Jim\_B](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jim_B)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731/1 "2014-07-09T23:05:20Z")
A while back, I was watching this cable show on King Arthur. Apparently, there really was such a man. But his times were nothing like those depicted in the movies. For one thing, castles and other structures were made of wood, not stone and mortar. But (the host assured us), wooden structures are just as sturdy and long-lasting as stone. To which, I say, **BS**. For one thing, there are no wood structures around today from hundreds of years ago. Anyways, I am not going to make this a debate about the longevity of wood structures. That would belong in GD. My question is really quite simple: **What is the oldest wooden structure (in the world) that is still around today?** 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731/2 "2014-07-09T23:17:41Z")
A couple of lists give the pagoda at Hōryū-ji as the oldest. > **[Hōryū-ji](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%8Dry%C5%AB-ji)** > > Hōryū-ji (法隆寺, Temple of the Flourishing Dharma) is a Buddhist temple that was once one of the powerful Seven Great Temples, in Ikaruga, Nara Prefecture, Japan. Its full name is Hōryū Gakumonji (法隆学問寺), or Learning Temple of the Flourishing Law, the complex serving as both a seminary and monastery. > The temple was founded by Prince Shōtoku in 607, but according to the Nihon Shoki, in 670 all buildings were burned down by lightning. However, reconstructed at least 1,300 years ago, the Kondō (main ... > **[Horyuji Temple, Japan: The world's oldest wooden building](https://www.timetravelturtle.com/horyuji-japan-oldest-wooden-building/)** > > Horyuji Temple near Nara in Japan might not be so famous - but its history makes it very important. Here's what to expect when you visit. ---
**Author:** ![dolphinboy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dolphinboy/32/330_2.png) [@dolphinboy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dolphinboy)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 11:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731/3 "2014-07-09T23:17:45Z")
[Woodhenge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodhenge)? ---
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731/4 "2014-07-09T23:39:14Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > To which, I say, **BS**. For one thing, there are no wood structures around today from hundreds of years ago. Norway has lots of wood structures that are still around despite having been constructed hundreds of years ago. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731/5 "2014-07-09T23:48:42Z")
Like non-Ship of Theseus oldest? ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731/6 "2014-07-09T23:49:10Z")
The Wyckoff Farmhouse in Brooklyn was built in 1635, so it’s about 350 years old. ---
**Author:** ![Erdosain](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/erdosain/32/7284_2.png) [@Erdosain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erdosain)\ **Post date:** [July 9, 2014, 11:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731/7 "2014-07-09T23:52:44Z")
And here I thought the stave churches of Norway were the oldest. > **[Urnes Stave Church](https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Urnes_stave_church)** > > Urnes Stave Church (Norwegian: Urnes stavkyrkje) is a 12th-century stave church at Ornes, along the Lustrafjorden in the municipality of Luster in Vestland county, Norway. > The church sits on the eastern side of the fjord, directly across the fjord from the village of Solvorn and about five kilometres (3 mi) east of the village of Hafslo. It is among the oldest stave churches in Norway, with parts of the lumber construction dating from the latter half of the 11th century. The church was built in ... Obviously, only a percentage of these wooden buildings will still be the original wood. The wiki said the Japanese shrine was about 15% seventh century wood. Still very impressive. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731/8 "2014-07-10T00:01:15Z")
The [Engyo-ji](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Engy%C5%8D-ji) group of temples in Japan (setting for the film [The Last Samurai](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Last_Samurai)) are so old that several of the buildings were\* rebuilt\* more than 500 years ago. ---
**Author:** ![robert\_columbia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e79b87/32.png) [@robert\_columbia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robert_columbia)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731/9 "2014-07-10T01:46:21Z")
The [Dome of the Rock](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dome_of_the_Rock), on the Temple Mount, dates from the seventh century and is partly made of wood, though Ship of Theseus arguments certainly cast doubt on how many pieces of wood actually date from its initial construction. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731/10 "2014-07-10T01:47:29Z")
> [@Jim\_B](#): > > For one thing, castles and other structures were made of wood, not stone and mortar. Weeell, not entirely true. Wood, wattle and daub, and a thatched roof made up the finest homes and halls in post-Roman Britain, including “Arthur’s” at Cadbury Castle, in Somerset. A bit (whole lot? entirely?) more _Beowulf_ than _Excaliber._ There was some use of mortared stone, like the Romans used, but mostly it was set dry. The walls of a fort were usually soil and/or rubble fill, tied together with an embedded wooden framework, with a wooden palisade on top and a dry stone facing if they got fancy, much like the Murus Gallicus that impressed Caesar with its strength. Some forts had more dressed and fitted stone, but were nothing that Bavaria’s Mad King Ludwig would recognize as a castle. Wow, reading Alcock’s “Arthur’s Britain” at lunch (he ran the dig at Cadbury) has paid off with TWO posts! The first being a minor rant about how he spent the first 120 pages trying to assemble a chronology from two or three sources that he demonstrated were totally unreliable and contradictory. Still, it was more interesting than my job. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 2:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731/11 "2014-07-10T02:01:05Z")
As for what is thought to be the earliest surviving balloon-frame (2x4 frame with siding; held up by the strength of the frame, not heavy cornerposts) house from about 1840 can be visited in the western suburbs of Chicago. A prototype for most homes built today in the US. [http://www.saltcreekgreenwayassociation.org/files/benfuller.html](http://www.saltcreekgreenwayassociation.org/files/benfuller.html) ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 11:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731/12 "2014-07-10T11:58:58Z")
The church in [Greensted-juxta-Ongar](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greensted_Church), in England, is still in use and has oak walls that are almost 1,000 years old. It was thought to date from 845AD, but later studies revised that to around 1050AD. Heck, just about any English village, at least round my parts, has wooden-framed buildings that are 300 or 400 years old. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [July 10, 2014, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731/13 "2014-07-10T21:15:37Z")
There’s a bunch of Elizabethan pensioners’ cottages in Stratford-on-Avon, so dating from the 1500’s IIRC. As for wood pieces on mixed-construction buildings, a number of medieval churches still have the original roofs, as far as I can tell. yes, they are stone, but the roofing is original wood - all the classics like Notre Dame, York, Salisbury, Sienna, etc. I’m not clear how much of, say, the Tower of London’s central White Tower flooring and roofing is original wood dating back to the Norman conquest. The Doge’s palace in Venice has a large audience room with an incredibly wide flat roof, no doubt much of it original. (The islands of Venice are stabilized, since the 800’s, by tall trees pounded in as piles into the lagoon mud.) The trouble with wood is that it is singularly more flammable than stone. In a world where candles provided light and open fires provided heat, the wood bits disappeared faster than the rock bits (see “London, Great Fire of”). Flaming arrows might eventually work to bring down a fortification, but only if the besieging forces could wait things out a while. Many medieval castles were built originally on small artificial hills originally topped with a wood palisade until the lord could afford rock construction, so even if you burned a hole in the palisade, it was still an uphill battle… ---
**Author:** ![Northern\_Piper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/northern_piper/32/5304_2.png) [@Northern\_Piper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Northern_Piper)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731/14 "2014-07-11T06:21:07Z")
> [@dolphinboy](#): > > [Woodhenge](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodhenge)? The wood is long gone. It’s now just a series of post holes, marked by modern concrete pillars. ---
**Author:** ![APB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@APB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/APB)\ **Post date:** [July 11, 2014, 9:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731/15 "2014-07-11T09:30:54Z")
> [@md2000](#): > > I’m not clear how much of, say, the Tower of London’s central White Tower flooring and roofing is original wood dating back to the Norman conquest. The Doge’s palace in Venice has a large audience room with an incredibly wide flat roof, no doubt much of it original. The wooden floors and roofs of the White Tower are all much later, although there are a few bits of wood elsewhere in the structure that do date from the late eleventh century. [http://dendrochronology.net/london.asp](http://dendrochronology.net/london.asp) The ceilings in most of the major rooms in the Doge’s Palace date from after the serious fires in 1574 and 1577. Which is why they are decorated with paintings by the likes of Tintoretto and Veronese. ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2014, 2:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731/16 "2014-07-13T02:50:04Z")
> [@KneadToKnow](#): > > A couple of lists give the pagoda at Hōryū-ji as the oldest. > > [Hōryū-ji - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C5%8Dry%C5%AB-ji) > > [How to visit Horyuji Temple in 2025: Oldest wooden building!](http://www.timetravelturtle.com/2013/05/horyuji-japan-oldest-wooden-building/) Japan is really to place to look for very old wooden buildings. Under the right conditions, not only does wood last a long, long time, but its structural strength improves with age. It’s not quite a Ship of Theseus problem, but all the oldest Japanese buildings have been completely taken apart and rebuilt. Is it still the same building if it’s (mostly) the same pieces of wood in the same configuration? Extent buildings built before the 9th century are: Horyu-ji Sanctuary Hall (Kondo) c. 670 Was damaged by fire in 1949 during restoration work. About 15-20% of the wood is original, so this might not fully qualify. Horyu-ji Pagoda c. 670 This is the oldest wooden building in the world. It was fully deconstructed in the 1930s and rebuilt after WW2. Analysis of the wood showed it was felled in the late 6th century, though it might be a bit later, as outer rings were likely shaved off. Hokki-ji Pagoda 638 Built around the same time as the Horyu-ji pagoda, this smaller tower was unfortunately rebuilt and modified in 1678. However, it was again deconstructed in 1970 and in 1975, using the 7th century wood was rebuilt to its original shape. Or something close to it. Does it count? Certainly a lot of the wood in it is very old. Yakushi-ji Pagoda 730 A bit more recent than Horyu-ji’s pagoda, it was recently deconstructed and is undergoing restoration work. There are many more “recent” buildings from the 9th century onward. I can’t think of anywhere else in the world where you can see so many millennial wooden buildings. Not only are these buildings extremely old, because they’ve been taken good care of, they look _great_. ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [July 17, 2014, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oldest-wooden-building/692731/17 "2014-07-17T16:58:41Z")
There is also a building at the base of the Great Pyramid housing the Solar Boat. This boat was found in a pit beside the pyramid; it was disassembled, and has been reassembled and put on display. it’s 143 feet long, 20 feet wide. I suppose technically, since it has a little cabin on board, it might qualify for this thread. (Which occurred to me as my wallpaper cycles through pics of my Egypt trip). Of course, sitting in a ready-to-assemble state for 2600 years might not qualify. The wood is about 4600 years old, dating back to the Pyramid of Khufu, 2500BC. Apparently there’s another one in a second pit which has been left 'as is" for now. The museum building also has on display neatly coiled and knotted ropes from the original boat. If you want to know what it takes to preserve wood - a sealed, extremely dry pit above the water table is probably your best bet for preserving wood, or pickled and dried pharaohs. Oxygen with water are probably what does in most wood over time.