After the damages were caused during the Thirty Years’ War including the fire of the half of the town, its thorough rebuilding is being done. There are the Baroque tenements built in the market square. In 1770 the Cystercians from Krzeszów build the estate of the wooden houses for the Czech weavers. Moreover, the estate is given the name of “the Twelve Apostles”. The aforementioned houses were built 200 meters east from the market square beside the old road to Mieroszow (at present it is called Sądecka). The houses form a monumental complex of the best preserved wooden buildings in Lower Silesia. Their walls, which are the example of the log type construction, were joined with the scarf joints (the dovetail pattern). Until the present day, there have been 11 households preserved, which are set in the ribben development with the characteristic arcades. Furthermore, the houses form a traffic route, which was used once as the place where the ready cloths were sold. All of the houses have gable roofs covered with shingle and are set with their tops facing the road. Within the tops and above the arcades, there were doors to the attic placed, which was used as the storage area. The attic was accessible from the hall due to the steep stairs’ placement, next to which, there was also the entrance to the small basement. Moreover, there is the entrance to the two-bay interior from the arcade and a small hall, which separates another small room from the kitchen. The other part of the building of the 34.5 m3 surface was used not only as the living area for the whole family but also as the workshop with one or two looms. Behind the houses, the terrain descends steeply into the stream, in which the cloths were soaked and bleached. On the other hand, the second sunny bank of the stream was used to dry the cloths.At present, the 300 years old houses are occupied. Furthermore, in the first house from the market square direction, there was the weaving room organized with all appropriate flax processing devices.

Weaver’s Houses in Chełmsko Śląskie
Photographer: stAn
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chelmsko-slaskie-12apostolow.jpg

Chełmsko Śląskie, zespół domów, tzw. Dwunastu Apostołów, 1707
Author: InnaIna
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Che%C5%82msko_%C5%9Al%C4%85skie,_ul._S%C4%85decka_DSC_0139.JPG