I am looking for any information on the development of the Chimney in Medieval Europe. I'm looking for some fairly specific info, so let me explain,

In western Switzerland there exists an old technology known variously as the Bretterkamin, Ruuchchüechi (Rauchküchen) Holzkamin, etc. and was termed the 'Burgundische Kamin' by the architectural historian Jakob Hunziker in the late 19th century. This is a large wooden hood located over the kitchen, which since ancient times has featured an enclosed firebox from which the smoke drafted through a large masonry heater the out through a hole in the wall into the kitchen to draft freely upward and (hopefully) out. Most European rural house types in this time period (early to high middle ages) used either holes near the tops of the walls or in the floor above the kitchen (if there was one) or perhaps some type of louvered construction situated atop the roof. These all drafted very poorly. Other Swiss ventilation schemes included the holed in the walls (rauchlöcher) or a domed construction of wattle and daub built on top of the kitchen ceiling to create slightly more draft and suck the smoke out into the loft.

But the 'Burgunder Kamin' is an almost universal trait of rural buildings from the historic kingdom of Upper Burgundy. This large hood is usually located directly above the cooking fires, and in practice actually does a good job of creating a draft and sucking the smoke out. The kitchen may still be a bit smoky, but it effectively keeps everything else free of smoke.

This technology is found in the southern and western portions of the Canton of Bern and the entirety of the Romandy, the French speaking portion of Switzerland. Its boundary seems to be the Aare river, which historically was also the boundary of the Burgundians (here referring not to the kingdom, but to the earlier Germanic tribe)

So having narrowed down exactly why I'm asking, here's what I'm looking for:
I would like to find any analogues in other European cultures. I am on a quest to understand where this technology came from, and why such a life-changing technology was confined to such a small geographical area, even when a significant part of its area (the portions in Bern, Fribourg, and the Jura) were under the control of a single power (Bern) for hundreds of years and would have had strong contact with their neighbors not very far away who were seemingly content to live their lives out in dirty, smoke-filled houses.
It is surprisingly hard to find any good information about chimney technologies. Almost everything is too broad to be of any use to me, or is specific to another culture (like England or specific parts of France).
My question is whether Hunziker is right in assuming this technology was the invention of the Burgundians, and if so if there is any similar technology in their homeland (Sweden) or elsewhere among the Germanic wanderings. The Burgundians themselves settled down in a few other places (like Worms, where they were famously slaughtered by Attila the Hun to become the source of the legendary Niebelungenlied, Volsunger Saga, etc.) and would surely have left such a technology behind if they indeed possessed it.

Germanic migration era technology is generally poorly developed, so I find it curious that they might have possessed such a sophisticated technology.

The other possibility is that this was a Roman invention or the derivation of Roman technology. We know the Romans understood drafting and exhausting of fires and did quite well in mastering heating systems in ways that we are only now figuring out again. The people of Western Switzerland pride themselves for having preserved a great deal of Roman culture, and it is not outside of the realm of possibility that this is the case here.

Then there is the remote possibility that this could have been a local invention some time after the establishment of the Burgundian kingdom and before its dissolution in the early 11th century. This is the possibility I most hope is not the case, as it would be impossible to trace and prove.


Was de eine ilüchtet isch für angeri villech nid so klar.
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