The walls of the houses were built with the only material available to the pioneers at that time, soil that was bound with straw and rammed. The walls were plastered with stucco and painted white with a chalk based paint. Roofs were made of lumber and covered with reed, which was replaced in later years with firebrick shingles. The soil was taken from the center of the courts of the houses and later refilled with soil from the “Grundloch”, a pond created at the end of the street for that purpose. All the farmland pastures, vineyards, and forests planted by the pioneers were situated around the town. In the later years, many of these homes were redesigned and rebuilt to keep pace with the times. Larger farms called “Salasch”, spread over larger acreage and had the farmhouses on those spreads. We can compare the “Salasch” with the farms in the United States.

See:
Settlement Plans
 

Click Images to Enlarge

Part of a completed rammed wall and the scaffolding for the new section to be built with the supply wagon in the front, Batschsentiwan, Batschka.

Part of the wine cellar. Notice the ram in the hand of the men on top of the wall (white shirt) Altker, Batschka.

Women making fire brick with molds at a fire brick factory in Altker, Batschka. In the background storage of finished fire bricks.

Women make “Wickel” (rolls) with clay and wick/spree. The wick and chaff a product of Hemp combing usually for these rolls to make the ceilings of the rooms, Gara, Batschka, Hungary.

The chalk ovens in Baja on the banks of the Danube, Batschka, Hungary produced the majority of the chalk used in chuck solutions to white wash the houses of the Donauschwaben.

Women whitewashing their homes a chore which had to be done on annual bases if you wanted a bright beautiful home as the Donauschwaben always had.