Viking longhouse and timber buildings
A longhouse with bulging walls and a curved ridge, a Norwegian stave church with dragon heads, an Iron Age roundhouse or a Viking ship with shields and a sail. Choose the size, the bulge and the roof pitch, and build it layer by layer. Below you can see how the bulging wall and the cross-section of the hull are worked out.
Top view
Elevation and section
The arrow on a stair points to the high side. Click a block once you have placed it.
Build breakdown
Per column along the length
Layer 1, row by row
| Row | Start | Pattern | Blocks |
|---|
Build tips
- First lay out the long walls with the table per column. That way you see right away how the wall gets narrower towards the ends.
- Use spruce or dark oak for the walls and stripped logs for the posts. Make a turf roof with grass blocks, perhaps mixed with moss.
- Build the roof from the bottom up and lay the stairs with the high side towards the ridge. F3 shows which way you are facing.
- A campfire in the hearth gives smoke that curls out through the smoke hole in the ridge.
- For a stave church build the innermost, tallest core first and then the lower roofs around it.
- A ship is easiest to build keel first: start with the keel, then the cross-sections per column, and only then the stems, mast and sail.
3D and layer-by-layer build plan
To Minecraft
Download the design as a schematic file and paste it into your world with WorldEdit, or rebuild it with a hologram in Litematica. The chosen block becomes the shingle roof (with stairs) or the hull of the ship. The other parts get a fixed block: spruce planks, logs, grass blocks, hay, cobblestone, wool and water.
Shopping list
Put the numbers of this design on your list. There you see everything together, converted to stacks and shulker boxes.
How it is calculated
History and fun facts
The Viking Age
The Viking Age lasted roughly from 793 to 1066. In that time people from Scandinavia sailed all over Europe to trade, raid and settle.
At home they lived on farms. The most important building was the longhouse, where the family, servants and sometimes the animals lived under one roof.
The longhouse
A longhouse had walls of planks, wattle and daub, or turf. Inside, two rows of posts carried the heavy roof. In the middle was a long hearth, with a smoke hole in the ridge.
Wide benches along the walls were used for sitting, working and sleeping. Many longhouses had curved walls: wider in the middle than at the ends. Because of this the ridge was curved too, like the bottom of an upside down ship.
In Iceland, where few trees grew, people built thick walls and roofs of turf. These kept the warmth inside very well.
Fortresses and halls
Around 980 King Harald Bluetooth built round fortresses in Denmark, such as Trelleborg and Fyrkat. Inside stood longhouses in groups of four, all with the same curved shape.
Chieftains had large halls for feasts and meetings. At Borg in the Lofoten Islands a hall of more than 80 metres was found. A rebuilt hall now stands there in the Lofotr Viking Museum.
Stave churches
After the Viking Age Norway became Christian. People then built wooden churches with standing staves as walls: stave churches. The tall core rests on corner posts, with lower roofs around it.
Some gables have dragon heads, just like the Viking ships. About 28 are left in Norway, such as Urnes, Borgund and Heddal.
Roundhouses and Viking ships
Long before the Vikings, people in Britain and Ireland lived in roundhouses with a cone shaped thatched roof. They date from the Bronze Age and Iron Age and have been rebuilt in many places.
Viking ships were built with overlapping planks on a keel, called clinker building. The drakkar was a slim warship with oars and a square sail. The knarr was a wider cargo ship. The Gokstad and Oseberg ships were found in burial mounds and can be seen in Oslo.
Did you know?
- The raid on the monastery of Lindisfarne in 793 is often seen as the start of the Viking Age.
- The stave church of Urnes was built around 1130 and has been on the World Heritage list since 1979.
- The Gokstad ship was found in 1880 and is about 23 metres long.
- The Oseberg ship was dug up in 1904 from a burial mound from the year 834.
- Heddal is the largest stave church in Norway.
- The Icelandic farm of Stöng was buried under ash from the volcano Hekla.
About this tool
With this tool you build a Minecraft Viking longhouse and other timber buildings from the north. You choose from four types: a Viking longhouse, a Norwegian stave church, an Iron Age roundhouse or a Viking ship. Examples include the longhouses of Trelleborg and Fyrkat, the hall at Borg, the turf house of Stöng, the stave churches of Borgund, Heddal and Urnes, and the Gokstad and Oseberg ships.
For a longhouse you set the length, the width, how much the walls curve and the wall shape: parabola, ellipse or straight. You choose the roof pitch, a roof of turf, shingles or thatch, a gable roof or hip roof, and where the doors go. Inside you can add a hearth, benches and a ring of posts. For a stave church you add dragon heads, a roof turret and a choir.
For a ship you choose a drakkar, karve or knarr, the number of oars, shields along the side, the sail and the stems. The tool calculates the curved hull column by column.
You get a top view with and without the roof, a side view, a cross section, a 3D preview and a layer plan. The materials counter adds everything up in stacks. Download the design as a .schem file for WorldEdit or Litematica.
Useful for a Viking village in survival, a Norse themed server or a harbour with ships. For larger ships from later times there is the ship planner.
Frequently asked questions
How do I build a Viking longhouse in Minecraft?
Choose an example such as Trelleborg. First mark out the long walls with the table per column, so you see how the wall gets narrower towards the ends. Then build the posts and the wall, and finally the roof from bottom to top.
Which blocks suit a Viking house?
Spruce or dark oak for the walls, stripped logs for the posts and grass blocks for a turf roof. Hay bales work well for a thatched roof.
How do I get smoke out of the roof?
Put a campfire in the hearth and turn on Smoke hole in the ridge. Smoke from a campfire rises and comes out through the hole. A hay bale under the campfire makes the smoke go higher.
Can I build a Viking ship on the water?
Yes. Choose Viking ship and turn on Sea around it. Start with the keel, then build the cross sections column by column, and add the stems, mast and sail last.
How do I build a stave church?
Choose Stave church or an example such as Borgund. Build the tall inner core first and then the lower roofs around it. You can turn the dragon heads and the roof turret on or off.
Does the .schem file work in Bedrock?
No, the .schem file is for Java Edition with WorldEdit or Litematica. You can follow the layer plan in any version.