How old is the oldest building in the town you live in?
To those from the Western hemisphere, it’s always fascinating to hear that some homes and businesses from the times of the Greek philosophers still have inhabitants, and then you remember that the Western hemisphere is itself not without its own examples, for example some Mexican villages still have temples from the times of the Mayans.
The oldest intact building in my city is from 1320 - so 700 years old. Baguely Hall, which is an old landowners hall.
The city itself - Manchester - dates back to the roman era and we have the remnants of an old castrum/fort in the city centre dating back to 79 AD - so 1945 years old. Surprisingly there were more complete ruins at the site but much of it was levelled during the industrial revolution.
Here in Curitiba it's this church:
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It's constantly maintained and renovated, but the building is 287 years old, built in 1737. (For reference the city itself is 331yo.)
It's kind of funny that people here don't typically remember the name of that church, Igreja da Ordem (Church of the Order; the "order" in question are the Franciscans). Instead they remember the name of the square that the church faces, named after the church - o Largo da Ordem (lit. "Order Plaza", but more like "the plaza of the church of the Order").
When I lived in Germany for a couple years, I was surprised to learn that the large church in the center on my village was about 1,000 years old. This one building has been standing longer than America has been a country. Over 4x as long, too! European culture amazes me because there's such a lengthy history, and so many things are much older than I'd imagine. American history is so short in comparison, and we're more likely to tear down and build new and cheap than create a solid structure that will last for hundreds of years.
The castle down the road from me is pretty old. It's from 79CE:
The Roman fort in Castlefield, Manchester, England, was founded around 79 AD. The fort was originally named Mamucium, but is also known as Mancunium.
Here, there is a 450 year old house that is now owned by a group of citizens who use it to arrange local events.
Over 700 years. A tower originally built in 1310. The island it's on is an exclave that is technically part of Hamburg.
In southern Spain you can't dig without hitting some stone age stuff. My town was a known stop for travellers before the Romans took over because of fresh water wells. Eventually a roman road was built about two millenia ago, and still ride on it with my bike for some routes.
No old buildings remain, this was a roadside village and stuff was made cheap and not meant to last, but there is a funeral arrangement from 600 BC that was unearthed and sent to the national museum. More info
Ye Olde Trip To Jerusalem, a pub which claims to be from 1189.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ye_Olde_Trip_to_Jerusalem?wprov=sfti1#
I’m sure there are older ones, but this one looks like someone left a few weeks ago even though it’s from the 1890’s. You can walk into it after a medium hike. There’s still soot in the fireplace.
https://californiathroughmylens.com/eagle-cliff-mine/
The really old stuff from the native Americans might be around but I’m not familiar with it.
The oldest church was built around 1200, on the remains of an older church from the 7th century and you can go below ground to view those. We also have some Roman ruins from a castellum build around the year 47 you can also go and view.
Edit: The castellum is gone, but there are just some walls and stones.
We have so many Roman Ruins here in Aachen (Germany) cause this used to be a hotspot for Thermal baths back in the day. I don't think there are full roman buildings still hanging on though, just a few arches and columns.
A church built in the 9th century, still in use today. Underground: Walls from the Roman empire, 2000 years or older. Dig deeper and you’ll find remnants of the stone age. Germany.
1904, maybe? It's the only one I know the age of. Maybe the court house is technically older, probably is, but it's been overhauled a lot.
This lighthouse is the oldest building in my city (Hamburg, Germany). It was completed 714 years ago. I actually had to look it up, I was kind of expecting the oldest building to be older than that.
Where I live, homes were still built of mud, bamboo and straw 40 years ago, so not much has survived. The oldest stuff around are the ruins of the cane sugar refinery, and that was built in just 1856. So no old stuff really
Slovakia? /s
Mayotte, indian ocean
It's hard to say for the village I live in. There really are not many officials records but apparently one of the roof tiles had 16xx marked on it. Which makes this totally unassuming house somewhere around 400 years old.
My guess is the cathedral that was started ca 1070. Other than that the oldest wooden buildings are from the 1700s.
The oldest residential building is from 1550, but there is a church where the oldest parts are from the 11th Century.
We have Neolithic attracts and Roman ruins, as well as a castle from somewhere around 1066, also now ruins.
The oldest recorded standing and still used building is from around 1290.
As best as I can tell, just about 200 years
800 years.
Historians say the church was completed in the first quarter of the 13th century, that makes it somewhere between 799 - 824 years old.
There's a castle that's been in the same place since the 12th century, but the current building is from the 18th century. There's an old wooden church dating to late 16th century, a large church built in 1642 but its current look is from the 19th century, and a bunch of houses from 17th and 18th century.
There are also roman ruins dating back to at least 1st century.
In my village? My gradma's house which is over 300 years old.
In the city I live in, the oldest building is from ~1280. It was rebuilt quite a bit in 1767 though. It has housed restaurants since the 1930s. I pass it every day almost on my lunch walk :)
Nearly 1,000 years old: Christ Church Cathedral, built in 1030 (Dublin)
There's a church (still maintained and used!) from the 13th century. And a farm from the 18th century, which is a museum now.
My house is from 1969.
Nice
Our-dear-lady-church. Build circa 1250. Well preserved, still in use
Must be the church St. Pancratius, built somewhere between 1100 and 1120.
The second-oldest building here is probably the remains of the castle of the poem "The castled crag of Drachenfels" by Lord Byron.
Random Austrian town with a couple hundred inhabitants, our Church is about 900 years old. So glad it didn't get bombed, lots of churches were destroyed through English bombs in ww2 since civilians were seeking shelter there (in response to Germany bombing English cities, also killing lots of civilians there).
The church is from 14th century. There are a couple of iron age hill forts (no building). I think most of the regular buildings are 19th century onwards.
Still standing : 1000 BCE
But archeological it goes back till about 12 BCE
The church in my town is from the early 13th century, and there's a house from the mid 13th century. Both have been modified many times of course, but a lot of it remains original.
We were looking at buying a 115-year-old house. It saw every world war, the smallpox epidemic, the great depression the epidemic caused, etc. While this is North America, this town is one of the oldest here.
Am Aussie so we don't really have old buildings, but this is nearly 200
One of the churches still has some original buildings from around 1740. Old for the us, not so old for Europe.
Its very hard to find anything in the lower 48 and Canada (Your right, Mexico has a lot more preserved sites) that are older that 400 years old. I was recently out in southern Utah and there are petroglyphs around Moab, some depicting horses which dates them to no earlier than the mid-1600s. Others are believed to be significantly older.
Meaning Ive seen something in the US that is older than your mum. /s
Couldn't tell you what the oldest building in my city is, but I assume it's either an old house in what I assume is the historic district. That, or the clocktower in the downtown park that was once part of a transcontinental railway station.
On a couple side notes, I know I did a class field trip in elementary school to one of the old buildings (don't remember much about it besides a service elevator that if I recall was just held by rope and wasn't electric), which compared to other places in America is nothing considering I found out my city was founded around 1881. Can't say I approve of the part where they fought the natives for the land, but history is full of horrid things so there's no use dwelling on something you can't change.
Most of the old buildings (usually churches / cathedrals) here have been built upon and changed over the centuries so what you see above ground is still old, but it's not - at least comparatively - ancient.
I'm in England. I may or may not be in a town that has something like that, but even the places that don't have something are within a couple of hours' drive of somewhere that does.
I will say that where I am is listed in the Domesday book, but that isn't saying much to be fair.
That would be a cabin that dates to the mid-1800s now preserved as a museum.
not exactly "a" building, but i live around 20 minutes from a copper mine which was in active use from around 900AD to within my lifetime. it's a museum today.
I don't live there anymore, and it's not the oldest building, but there is a pub in Dublin that's been running since 1198, they claim to be Ireland's oldest pub but IIRC the claim is a bit bogus.
The first house in my city is from 1976, the entire city is built on reclaimed land. It went from 100 residents back then to more than 220,000 now.
A fun fact is that they still find stuff in the ground from old shipwrecks to crashed WW2 bombers.
I couldn’t find the oldest building overall, but the oldest surviving house was built in 1716. While my city was settled earlier, it was essentially a “boom town” of the early Industrial Revolution in the US
Mo'okini Heiau on the Island of Hawaii. 13th or 14th century.
I come from England but now I live in Western Canada. The oldest building is apparently a little wooden schoolhouse from the mid-1840s.
The likely oldest standing building in Canada is from 1637, a Jesuit mission house.
A French embassy built in 1841 when the territory was its own country. It's now a 5 minute walk to the nearest Wendy's from there.
It's from 1247 (first mention, might be even older).
Both where I'm from and where I live in western Europe are the oldest buildings 14th-century churches.
The oldest building in this city is a two-room (originally) cottage that dates back to 1841. It's not the first permanent structure built here, but it's the oldest still standing.