Doorstep

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A doorstep from Roman times

The door threshold ( Austrian also (door) relay) is a board or a flat stone between the vertical parts of the door frame .

It covers butt joints and serves as a lower stop for the door leaf. The use of door sills can reduce noise and drafts; The penetration of water into rooms is also prevented by appropriately high thresholds. In the past, doorsteps - especially those on sacred buildings - were often significantly higher, but nowadays doorsteps are not permitted in publicly accessible buildings for reasons of accessibility .

Legal situation in Germany

In Germany, for example, for barrier-free apartments, the height of the door threshold may not exceed 2 cm if it is technically not possible to do without door thresholds (DIN 18040). No binding requirement applies to other apartments for which accessibility has not been agreed. A threshold height of max. 25 mm should be aimed for.

Customs, literature and superstition

In Nordic megalithic systems and Sardinian rock tombs there are threshold stones that separate the secular from the sacred area. The “limit” (limen) in Carmen Arvale can possibly be the doorstep, but the meaning of this cultic song is not clearly clarified.

The Romans saw the right side as auspicious, the left as unlucky. Therefore, visitors entering a house should put their right foot over the threshold first. Also known since Roman times is the widespread custom that the groom carries the bride over the doorstep of the house in which the couple will live together. It probably symbolizes a common entry into a new phase of life, but this procedure may also conceal the idea that the guards of the house or evil spirits must be outwitted so that no evil can happen to the bride, or the bride must be saved from it Threshold of stumbling, which is a bad omen.

The residents of Chinese courtyards consider high doorsteps (Menkan) to be a protection not only from dirt and small animals that should not come into the house, but also from misfortune. Small children should not stand near the thresholds so that no harm will happen to them.

In Russia , too , the idea is widespread that staying between two rooms is ominous. Therefore, visitors are first asked to enter and then greeted, but not on the doorstep. Other important actions are also not allowed to take place on the doorstep.

In Goethe's Faust I, Faust thinks that he has protected his doorstep against the intrusion of evil spirits by a pentagram , but since the symbol is not executed carefully enough, Mephisto in poodle form succeeds in overcoming the barrier.

In Joseph von Eichendorff's good-for-nothing , the door threshold can be seen as a symbolic border between this world and the hereafter.

Web links

Commons : Door sills  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Door threshold  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations