The Town

Brätte was a small town, with a population of around 450–500. Streets ran through the town, which, like the courtyards and squares, were often paved. The buildings mainly consisted of one-story wooden houses with turf or reed roofs, and in addition to the main house, many households had smaller buildings for the animals they kept, like pigs, horses and cows. Larger areas of cultivation and animal pasture were located just outside the town, where there also was a mill. Important were the harbor's docks and the trading posts and warehouses owned by Brätte residents and by merchants from other places. The town's borders seem to have been marked by a customs fence, a low wall and four town gates. Brätte also had a church, customs house, town hall, hospital, inn and school – the latter probably housed in someone's home.