Open-Air Museum de Locht (NL)
The open-air museum “de Locht” is an agricultural open-air museum, focusing on the life of farmers on the North-Limburg sandy soils. This includes the growing of asparagus and mushrooms. They collect, archive and present, also in person, about older ways of life, traditions, crafts and folk culture, looking back at the past, but also with a view on the future of North Limburg.
Archaeological research in 2009 led to the discovery of a farm on the grounds of the open-air museum, dating to about 1320 AD. It was decided to reconstruct this farm on site by placing new posts in the exact old postholes. Volunteers then constructed a fully furnished farm.
It is a so called hall house, measuring 18X10 metres. The ridge beam is supported by two upright posts of about 50 centimetres in diameter. The roof is thatched with straw and the walls consist of posts which are dug into the soil, with wattle and daub walls. Around the house, one would find the yard with a well and manure heap, and some fields where flax, oats and rye were grown.
At the excavations, no precious artefacts were found. But for the open-air museum, this farm is a little gem which enables them to tell the story of their region in an even better way.