Home barn

The barn is the prime agricultural building whatever the size of the farm. The most modest smallholding needs a dry space for working with produce and storage. The basic barn design has remained unchanged for centuries right across Europe. My reference book was written and published in England (JEC Peters, discovering traditional farm buildings, Shire publications, 1981, ISBN 0 85263 556 7) but describes a typical barn in rural Transvlvania perfectly. The village barn in Turnu Rosu has a central threshing floor between two bays, each with a loft. It is stone built so dates from before 1950 and has a small door opposite a wide one. This door layout is supposed to imporve the draught across the threshing floor. The familiarity of a Transylvanian barn to an Englishman is a reminder of how broad is the stamp of Europeaness in our souls.