Old Frisian longhouse

An old Frisian longhouse (German: Altfriesisches Bauernhaus) was a long-bodied byre-dwelling (Wohnstallhaus) or longhouse that was widespread in the Dutch and Frisian North Sea coastal marshes from the Later Middle Ages until the 18th or 19th century. It combined the farmer's living area with a byre or animals' stall, and had limited space for storing harvest products. It is the forerunner of the "head-neck-body" or Frisian farmhouse, the gulf house and the "stolp farmhouse" or haubarg. Sometimes an existing byre was incorporated into a newly erected Frisian barn, which was built over the old structure. In that case, the horse stable was placed against the rear gable.

The longhouse probably developed — like the Low German hall house — from the prehistoric and medieval byre-dwelling. Archaeologists have uncovered such houses not only in the Frisian marshes, but also in Holland and Zeeland. Counterparts can be found along the French Atlantic coast (maison longue or longère), in England (longhouse), Scotland (blackhouse), Scandinavia, and Iceland. Longhouses also occur in other parts of the world.

The Frisian longhouse was characterized by the fact that people and livestock lived under one roof. In contrast to the Lower Saxon hall house, which was organized around a single central space, the longhouse consisted of several interconnected rooms. Both longhouse and hall house were three‑aisled and had a continuous timber frame. In other regions, where natural stone was used as a building material, this wooden skeleton was absent.

The longhouse was not the only farmhouse type in the Frisian regions. There were also Frisian districts (mainly upland) where the longhouse was absent and the hall house prevailed. Where arable farming predominated, the farmhouses were in any case broader and the central section more spacious.