Middle Ages – a long and interesting era in the history of Europe. It began in the middle of the 5th century, when the Western Roman Empire collapsed under the blows of the barbarians, and ended in the 17th century, with the victory of the English bourgeois revolution. The first few hundred years, the inhabitants of European countries rarely made distant travels. This is due to the instability, weakness of states that could not support the roads in the same state, and also did not have the opportunity to protect them from the robbers. Only the most brave merchants made distant crossings. But over time, the roads became calmer, and there were also new reasons for traveling. In particular, in Europe, which was covered by a Christian religion, the tradition has spread to the worship of holy places. Trade, pilgrimage, movement of military detachments – all this caused the development of hotel affairs.
In those days, hotel furniture did not differ at all from any other furniture. Medieval furniture was heavy and massive. Very often it was made of oak, practically not decorated, and for strength was granted with iron. At the same time, there was usually quite little furniture. For example, in the early Middle Ages there was a tradition of sleeping in common beds. So, in one bed, not only the husband and his wife could sleep, but their children. Therefore, if a modern person fell into a medieval hotel, he would recognize the atmosphere of the room of frankly Spartan. Most often there were only a bed and a stool in the room. There were no tables in the room, because they ate everything in the common room. Written tables were not required, because not all the ability to write and read.
In the general room, one big table was most often stood. But in some hotels they could set several tables to enable more noble and wealthy companies to sit away from the poor and dubious personalities. Often the table was just a wide board. They didn’t use the tablecloths at this time, it was easier to wash the wooden table in the following peculiar way: they were wrapped in boiling water, after which the upper, softened from hot water, the wood layer was simply cut off. Sometimes in hotels a peculiar folding tables were used: elementary goats on which the board lay. Such tables made it possible to increase or decrease the number of seats.
Only by the end of the Middle Ages there are hotels in which there were separate halls and rooms. The era of the Middle Ages was a corporate era, and in those days even the king would have to sit with all other rooms – unless he would have allocated a separate corner and set the cleanest table. Only in restaurants of the XVIII century (the article “Restaurant furniture during the appearance of the first restaurants”) Private cabinets became the norm.
Therefore, by the way, there were no chairs in medieval hotels. Chairs are also an invention of the late Middle Ages, when individualism begins to prevail over corporatism. Usually people were sitting on common shops. The shops, by the way, were the main piece of furniture not only in hotels, then in knightly castles. Even in the royal palaces for a long time, to know on massive shops. For hotels, the benches had another advantage: it was difficult to use them in fights, which sometimes started in the common room. Light and comfortable folding chairs that can be found in modern hotels, they would not find demand in those days. Although, probably, travelers could use them, simply bringing and taking away with them. Naturally, the shops were also wooden. For women on benches, they could put a pillow, but usually the shop was stiff. The same concerned stools that could occasionally could be found in hotels.