RESTORATION OF THE BUILDINGS

The fundament of the manor Manský dvůr is composed of a set of buildings in the typical „Cheb style“. The basic feature of the Cheb style is the ground plan of the buildings. The buildings are usually arranged in a rectangle around a farmyard but they are not linked. There are rather broad carriageways or narrower passages between the buildings. As it is usual, the lore bears in itself always some deeper sense. Therefore we suppose that the gaps between the buildings insured then the most efficient protection against fire spreading.
Another element typical for the Cheb style is half-timbered walls with painted decorations and special wooden pillars with doubled inclined struts. When looking for their purpose, we can again find a rational explanation. The Cheb region is up to this day a seismically active area. The resistance of buildings against the effects of earthquake can be reached the best when their construction elements are the most possibly adaptable to the deformations of the ground without losing its load capacity. These properties are satisfied by the wooden structures.
All the buildings of Manský dvůr at the moment of restitution were in a very bad state. The roofs were leaking and the wooden structures were affected by fungus and rot. It was necessary to act immediately and do essential repairs of the roofs and of the wooden structures. The works began in 2001 on the building where the nucleus of the future pensions came into being. Uncovering the structures revealed that their damage was far more important than had been supposed. Concerning the largest building of the manor it had been supposed, that only some parts of the timber framing would need replacement. However, having pulled down the filling it showed that such a small amount of the healthy wood had remained that it made no sense to attempt its preservation. The work progress is documented by the photographs.