Ask Lemmy

Both where I'm from and where I live in western Europe are the oldest buildings 14th-century churches.

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.

Mo'okini Heiau on the Island of Hawaii. 13th or 14th century.

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.

Our-dear-lady-church. Build circa 1250. Well preserved, still in use

One of the churches still has some original buildings from around 1740. Old for the us, not so old for Europe.

That would be a cabin that dates to the mid-1800s now preserved as a museum.

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

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.

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

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).

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.

Oldest house is 1702. Definitely not super-old, there were earlier structures, but this is the oldest one left standing.

Porvoo Cathedral

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

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.

1845. And I live in the third brick structure built in the country and my house was built in 1857. Good chance Abraham Lincoln has been in my house.

Still standing : 1000 BCE

But archeological it goes back till about 12 BCE

Not sure but my city refuses to tear some down old buildings for "historical prosperity. These aren't even nice buildings, they're all condemed generic concrete blocks.

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.

Atlantan here. Idk, go ask [email protected] or something.

Nearly 1,000 years old: Christ Church Cathedral, built in 1030 (Dublin)

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.

It's from 1247 (first mention, might be even older).

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

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.

Dudley Castle

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.

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.

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.

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.

Am Aussie so we don't really have old buildings, but this is nearly 200

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Old_Windmill,_Brisbane

The oldest residential building is from 1550, but there is a church where the oldest parts are from the 11th Century.

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.

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.

In my village? My gradma's house which is over 300 years old.

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.

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#

Here, there is a 450 year old house that is now owned by a group of citizens who use it to arrange local events.

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.

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.

Over 700 years. A tower originally built in 1310. The island it's on is an exclave that is technically part of Hamburg.

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.

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.