What is a gatehouse? This word has come to us from past centuries. Just the room in which the watchman works, rests, and sometimes lives. Usually a small house - wooden or brick.
As soon as they call a gatehouse: a checkpoint, a checkpoint, a security booth, a hut, a chicken-house, a guardhouse, a kennel. The names are different, but the essence is one. And it doesn’t matter where this room is located: in the workplace, in the woods, near the railroad tracks, in the cemetery or church compound. It's a gatehouse anyway.
But there is an unusual gatehouse. She saved more than one human life. And according to its purpose it differs from others. This is a forest gatehouse. A haven for lost and tired travelers, hunters and foresters.
Zimovia - forest gatehouses - kushni
From time immemorial, our ancestors built small huts in impassable taiga, huge forest areas. They built it because they understood: in the taiga, there is no other way to survive. And where else to hide in the sultry summer, when the vulture eats "alive"? Or in severe winter frosts?
What are forest gatehouses? And what are the ranger’s gatehouses? This is not the same thing. The latter were built near villages near the edge of the forest or on the edge of the village. In such a gatehouse there lived a forester with his family, raised children, kept the household. Nobody lived in the forest gatehouses constantly. They only stayed for a few days - "recover, " relax and warm up.
Where were the winter houses built?
Built in the taiga. At the distance of the daily transition from each other. So that a person manages to reach the next forest hut in a day.
They located them on the hillocks, hills. So much so that there must necessarily be some source of water - a river, stream, lake, key. The road to the gatehouses was necessarily marked by nicks in the trees (it is easy to get lost in the taiga).
How was it built?
Forest huts were chopped with axes. An ax crushed wood, and no antiseptics were needed. This is probably why they are so durable. Many forest huts built more than a century ago still serve.
Doors in the winter quarters were made low so that the cold did not make its way. The windows were made small with double glazing. Sometimes they dispensed with no windows at all.
The roof was insulated with dry moss, and on top with earth or sand. The floors were tiled.
Who built?
Men gathered from nearby villages - foresters, hunters, fishermen. Built by the whole world. One could not cope. Everyone knew that one day this gatehouse would help them or their friends. And perhaps it will save someone's life.
Forest gatehouse setting
The situation in the winter hut is very simple. Stove (hearth), wooden bunks, table, bench. Under the ceiling poles for drying clothes. Several shelves for products. That’s probably all. Only the most necessary.
There is always a knife, an ax, matches in the gatehouse. A couple of armfuls of dry wood, ignition chips, salt, candles, and some food.
