To those from the Western hemisphere, it’s always fascinating to hear that some homes and businesses from the times of the Greek philosophers still have inhabitants, and then you remember that the Western hemisphere is itself not without its own examples, for example some Mexican villages still have temples from the times of the Mayans.
I come from England but now I live in Western Canada. The oldest building is apparently a little wooden schoolhouse from the mid-1840s.
The likely oldest standing building in Canada is from 1637, a Jesuit mission house.
Mo’okini Heiau on the Island of Hawaii. 13th or 14th century.
One of the churches still has some original buildings from around 1740. Old for the us, not so old for Europe.
The oldest building in this city is a two-room (originally) cottage that dates back to 1841. It’s not the first permanent structure built here, but it’s the oldest still standing.
Our-dear-lady-church. Build circa 1250. Well preserved, still in use
That would be a cabin that dates to the mid-1800s now preserved as a museum.
The castle down the road from me is pretty old. It’s from 79CE:
The Roman fort in Castlefield, Manchester, England, was founded around 79 AD. The fort was originally named Mamucium, but is also known as Mancunium.
Where I live, homes were still built of mud, bamboo and straw 40 years ago, so not much has survived. The oldest stuff around are the ruins of the cane sugar refinery, and that was built in just 1856. So no old stuff really
The oldest intact building in my city is from 1320 - so 700 years old. Baguely Hall, which is an old landowners hall.
The city itself - Manchester - dates back to the roman era and we have the remnants of an old castrum/fort in the city centre dating back to 79 AD - so 1945 years old. Surprisingly there were more complete ruins at the site but much of it was levelled during the industrial revolution.
In southern Spain you can’t dig without hitting some stone age stuff. My town was a known stop for travellers before the Romans took over because of fresh water wells. Eventually a roman road was built about two millenia ago, and still ride on it with my bike for some routes.
No old buildings remain, this was a roadside village and stuff was made cheap and not meant to last, but there is a funeral arrangement from 600 BC that was unearthed and sent to the national museum. More info
Here in Curitiba it’s this church:
It’s constantly maintained and renovated, but the building is 287 years old, built in 1737. (For reference the city itself is 331yo.)
It’s kind of funny that people here don’t typically remember the name of that church, Igreja da Ordem (Church of the Order; the “order” in question are the Franciscans). Instead they remember the name of the square that the church faces, named after the church - o Largo da Ordem (lit. “Order Plaza”, but more like “the plaza of the church of the Order”).
This lighthouse is the oldest building in my city (Hamburg, Germany). It was completed 714 years ago. I actually had to look it up, I was kind of expecting the oldest building to be older than that.
When I lived in Germany for a couple years, I was surprised to learn that the large church in the center on my village was about 1,000 years old. This one building has been standing longer than America has been a country. Over 4x as long, too! European culture amazes me because there’s such a lengthy history, and so many things are much older than I’d imagine. American history is so short in comparison, and we’re more likely to tear down and build new and cheap than create a solid structure that will last for hundreds of years.
A church built in the 9th century, still in use today. Underground: Walls from the Roman empire, 2000 years or older. Dig deeper and you’ll find remnants of the stone age. Germany.
Must be the church St. Pancratius, built somewhere between 1100 and 1120.
The second-oldest building here is probably the remains of the castle of the poem “The castled crag of Drachenfels” by Lord Byron.
