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👉 Want to actually build this, not just watch it?
The guide: https://medieval-wisdom.com
A backstuga could be a home its occupants owned on land they did not. This video explores that uncertain position through Sweden’s small rural cottages, their hillside construction, and the lives documented around them.
At Öna in Östergötland, the recorded population of twenty belonged to the whole settlement of two farms and a backstuga; it does not establish how many people lived in the cottage itself. Åsle tå and Skrape-Fina’s small stone home offer other examples of how limited means, local materials and land rights shaped rural housing.
Sources and further reading:
Östergötlands museum, Öna: https://ostergotlandsmuseum.se/besoek/museigaardar/oena/
Åsle tå: https://kulturvagen.se/asle-ta/
Backstugusittare: https://skoghistoria.se/backstugusittare/
If you could own the cottage but not the ground beneath it, would it still feel like a secure home?
0:00 Livet på ofri grund
0:58 Vägen till fattigstugan
2:45 Backstugusittare och torpare
4:01 Befolkningstryck och potatis
8:55 Konsten att bygga i en backe
12:28 Skrap-Finas sista hem
