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Title of the thesis: Can you help me remember my story? Forgotten life cycles of Finland’s medieval church roof structures

Thesis defender: Franziska Dalheimer
Opponent: Prof. Gunnar Almevik, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Custos: Prof. Panu Savolainen, Aalto University School of Arts, Design and Architecture

The layer of medieval built heritage in Finland is thin, consisting mostly of masonry castles and churches. Despite the loss of almost all medieval timber structures, a few last still-standing timber structures crown medieval stone churches as roofs. Although these churches are widely studied, the roof structures, some as old as 735 years, have been largely overlooked in research. Rich narratives are woven into the structures of medieval Finland — and many building biographies are already lost to time.

This dissertation, from the perspective of architectural history and conservation, follows the 18 last original unique nave roof structures of these medieval churches, aiming to establish a coherent picture of their life cycles, underline their cultural significance, and support their preservation. Using a mixed-methods approach, including documentary archaeology and building biographies structured in a cradle-to-cradle framework, this research interprets the traces left on the timber, revealing stories of material shortages, community effort, individual labor, time management, and decision-making spanning over half a millennium.

Together, the case studies show life stories uniquely shaped by the synergy of available resources across their lifetime — material, labor, time, skill, expertise, and financing — with no single resource identified to be more crucial than the others. Factors such as material choices, personal working methods on the construction site, damage repair approaches, and material reuse have created, and will continue to create, distinctive local variations of the roof structures. The discovered evidence opened up new perspectives on the Finnish Middle Ages and subsequent centuries, recorded in traces on the timber.

Keywords: medieval timber roof structures, Finland’s medieval stone churches, resources, building biography, life cycles

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Contact information: franziska.dalheimer@aalto.fi