Historical Fences in Mösern
Fences are an important element of our cultural landscape and an integral part of our identity. They bear testimony of the oldest farming customs and are an expression of legal and property rights, and a sign of how the land was managed.
Fences leave their imprint on the face of the earth. They structure the cultural landscape and thus provide the viewer with certain visual borderlines. They have grown and evolved through centuries. They are the work of our own hands - they are a skilled craft.
Fences fence in and keep out, they maintain and they protect. They have long served to surround properties, to protect the herds, the crops or neighbouring fields. Specific rights have regulated the height, the type of construction, the use and maintenance obligations, as well as the right of passage ever since the Middle Ages. These rights and obligations are still recorded today in the property registers of the country.
Why were the old fence construction forms abandoned? Why did they disappear from the landscape? There are a number of reasons for this. To begin with, the high cost in labour, materials and time is prohibitive. Today, time is saved by purchasing the actual materials used in fencing, such as nails and boards, something that would have been unthinkable 100 years ago, when hardly any cash money was in circulation. Another reason is the reduction of manpower available on farms.
The construction of historic fences is intended to revive the traditions of fence building, to preserve the related knowledge and craftsmanship, to highlight the rural character of our village, and to increase its importance as an element that shapes our countryside. However, fences also remind one of borders. How do we deal with this? Do we occasionally look over a fence? How do we deal with personal limits? What importance do bodily, spiritual and moral limits have for us? Do we use them to create a homeland, security and a community? Or do we misuse them to exclude and obstruct?
The historical fences erected in Mösern are notintended as show-pieces only. They are still used by the owners and were built through communal effort. The property owners provide the timber and the construction is currently financed by a three-year project of the Tourism Association of the Olympiaregion Seefeld. The Homeland Protection and Maintenance Club of North and East Tyrol assumes part of the cost.
What a fence-builder must know
Fence timber should be felled in the period between St. Michael’s Day (29 September) and St. Sebastian’s Day (20 January) when the moon is waning. Of course, it would be ideal if the moon were also in the zodiac sign of Capricorn. The location of the tree also plays an important role in its selection of fence wood. A regularly growing tree from groves in quiet areas is especially suitable. Wind and steep slopes both cause irregular trunk cross-sections and varying widths of age rings. Wood from mixed forests is more resistant to storms, snow, fungi and insects. For the individual parts of the fence, different types of wood are selected. In general, those parts which are stuck into the earth, i.e. load-bearing parts, are made from larch, which is highly resistant to moisture, while the crossbeams and slats come from spruce. The crossbeams and the “pillars” of larch are all split from the trunks by the same method, after the branches have been removed and the trunk has been de-barked. The prepared trunks are then cut to the right length: the crossbeams being 400 cm long, the vertical posts 180 cm , and then, with the help of wedges, wood hammers, and axes the trunks are split, then quartered, then split again, until the crossbeams have reached just the right thickness. The posts are then sharpened at one end with a hatchet. To weave the fence rings and produce the weaving structure of such a fence, long, young spruce branches are used. After cutting, they are soaked in water and then carefully heated over a fire before they are woven., This procedure makes the branches extremely pliable and realtively easy to weave, while they are still hot.
The woven “slat” fence – the “steckenring” fence
For this type of fence, first larch posts are set into the ground 3 - 4 meters apart. These are then held in place, about 1 meter above the ground, by a transverse stick which is placed through a hole in each post. The slats in between are then jammed into the ground, about 5 - 10 cm apart, along the transverse stick. They are then ‘woven’ into the transverse staff with 150 cm long spruce branches which have been carefully heated. There are a number of different ways to weave these branches. We have chosen the “crossover” method.
The Ring Fence
For this type of fence, posts are only set into the ground at corners, gaps and at points where the fence sharply changes direction. The slats are then set onto wooden pegs and fixed with a thin stick which is tied to the posts with a large ring. In between, pairs of larch posts are pounded into the ground 2 - 3 meters apart. Finally, one begins to build the fence upwards. Six to eight layers of slats are laid horizontally between the pairs of vertical larch sticks, afixed occasionally with prepared branch rings.
- For further informaiton:
Mösern Information Office
Tel.: +43 (0)5 0880-20
Fax: +43 (0)5 0880-21
E-Mail: info.moesern@seefeld.com
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