Pressen, Visby

The quarter Pressen is between Strandgatan to the west and Mellangatan to the east. To the north it borders to Kompanigränd and to the south to Danzigergränd.

Bore-cores from the medieval buildings Clematishuset and Pressen 5 gave no result.

Pressen 4 is in the corner between Danzigergränd and Mellangatan. In the basement 12 joists in the ceiling rest on wall-head beams which are supported by stone braces. Two of the original joists have been exchanged. Three have waney edge. Their outermost annual ring is dated 1265.

Pressen 3 is north of Pressen 4 and consists of a low wooden building to the south-east, bonded to a high central building which is bonded to a lower building to the west. Pressen 3 was renovated in 1989. Some planks from the walls of the south-eastern house have traces of earlier use and their outer surface is cut to a visible ridge along the middle of the plank. They lack waney edge. The youngest annual ring of these is dated 1754. Those wall planks which probably are from the building period have a rectangular cross-section. They lack waney edge. The youngest annual ring found is dated 1822.

In the basement of the central building bore-cores were taken from medieval joists in the ceiling. Because of the building work it was not possible to finish drilling bore-cores. A sample from the joist no. 3 from west went into pieces in its outer part. The remaining inner part was dated 1141 in its outer annual ring. The number of the missing outer rings is of the magnitude 100. This sample proves that the basement is medieval and probably has been erected in the 13th century.

In a nearby space of the basement a heavy vertical beam supported a joist in the ceiling. There was reason to suspect that the beam is cut from a medieval joist of the upper floor because its cross-section is of the same shape as traces in plaster of the wall. One of the corners of the beam was curved along the surface of the outer annual ring. A bore-core at that spot gave the year 1294 for the outermost annual ring. Because of the shape of the corner it is probable that very few annual rings there have been removed from the original tree-trunk.

A bore-core from a joist of the floor in the fourth storey has waney edge and is dated 1753. Samples from the truss gave the same result.