# (medieval) house parts



## Abbas-Al-Morim (Jun 2, 2013)

Right so my question is rather simple. Back in medieval days some of the houses in a town - mostly those used (partially) for storage used to have this attic with two large doors (that could open a significant part of the upper front side). The reason for this was they could use large crates in and out of the attic using a pulley. I'm kind of stuck on the right word for such an attic (or those kind of large doors). It seems stupid to just say "and then my character opened the large doors on the third floor". Who builds large doors on the third floor of a townhouse? It's not a gate either. And how would you call such an attic? Is there a specific term? 

Most of these kind of attics/houses with those attics were found near the waterfront (to store goods from ships) or busy merchant quarters. Could anyone help me?


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## Graylorne (Jun 2, 2013)

In Dutch this is called a 'pakzolder' (zolder = attic).  The only English equivalent I could find is 'storehouse loft'. Rather prosaic, but there it is.


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## Abbas-Al-Morim (Jun 2, 2013)

I'm Belgian but I didn't know we had a word for something like that. I was initially considering to call it "hayloft" (some farms have a similar construction on their barns) but then I realized that wouldn't do it for a townhouse. Storehouse loft is better than nothing I suppose. I'll refer to it as an attic after using storehouse loft once.


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## pmmg (Sep 30, 2022)

Well...jumped in this one hoping to find something unknown about medieval house parts I might then use, but...

And the question is really old, but I think this would have been a gable door, or a loft, or hayloft door (if it was a barn).


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