The diminished world of historic roof trusses

The tour presents the buildings in the area of the town's farmyard, which served as a granary and armoury. The historic courtyard is an important part of the Cheb Municipal Conservation Area. Both buildings have exceptionally well-made roof trusses, which demonstrate the high level of carpentry of the time, in direct relation to the town of Cheb and its economic activity.

The roof of the granary

According to dendrochronological dating, the High Baroque hamble roof truss with three levels of hambles longitudinally tied by recumbent stools on two levels and a simple central standing stool on the first level was built around 1704/05. The truss is a typical Baroque structure which, with the help of a pair of recumbent stools, is able to bear the weight of the roof and the load of storage use.

The roof of the armoury

A remarkable roof truss that combines the more archaic late medieval elements of pendant columns connected to a ridge-top stool at the axis below the ridge with a progressive system of space-bound Renaissance recumbent stools. Moreover, the relatively very early dating of 1498-1500 (d) is surprising for the Czech Republic, which places this truss among the earliest known recumbent stools in the Czech Republic.

Exhibition in the granary: The diminished world of historical roof trusses

Author of the models: Josef Hauer
Art and spatial design and realization by RCNKSK s.r.o. - MgA. Filip Kosek, MgA. Jan Říčný
Text authors: Josef Hauer, Michal Panáček, Petr Růžička
Description of exhibits, translations: Josef Hauer, Jaroslav Strach, Gűnther Juba
Graphics design of exhibition: Kryštof Doležal
Technical cooperation Truhlářství Kyselák
Acknowledgements:: the exhibits were donated to the city of Cheb by master carpenter Josef Hauer

Josef Hauer, master carpenter

Josef Hauer was born on 5 July 1937 and in 1960, as a member of the fifth generation of carpenters, he took over his ancestral business in Parkstein, Bavaria. He was awarded the Golden Master Certificate in 1994 for his outstanding work. When he retired in 2005, he made sure that his successor, whom he had trained himself, ran the business. Even then, however, he did not take a well-deserved retirement. He began building scale replicas of historic roof structures in the form of scale models.

Since 2005, he has created more than 30 models of historic roof trusses. He worked for 12 months on his largest model of the roof trusses of Munich's St. Mary's Cathedral, consisting of a total of 3,071 elements. His widest model is a replica of the Amber church of St. Martin, whose self-supporting truss bridges a space of 28 metres. He modeled the oldest truss after the Franciscan monastery church in Cheb, built in 1319. This model, together with the model of the roof of Gabler's house, was donated in 2018 to the city of Cheb, or rather to its Historical Cheb Foundation. The donation was received as "an excellent example of warm neighbourly relations with Germany".

When he worked on a model of the roof of the Cheb granary the following year, the idea of using this authentic historical setting to present the models that Mr. Hauer had until then stored in various places was born. Therefore, he donated 25 of his models to the city and this exhibition was created.

The value of this donation is significant for the town, which is now firmly linked to the phenomenon of historic roof trusses. The town of Cheb would like to thank Mr. Josef Hauer.

The Tourist Information Centre of the town of Cheb invites you to visit the town courtyard in Hradební Street in Cheb. We will introduce you to the buildings and historical roof trusses of the former town granary and armoury and a completely unique collection of roof truss models.The tour of the armoury building and the 1st floor of the granary with the exhibition of truss models is only possible with a guide. The tour lasts about 1 hour, a maximum of 17 people can be in one group.

Book a date