This barn was built in around the 1890's and was on the cutting edge of technology of that era. It's at Fogdegården Borten near Trondheim, Norway. It is immense, practically cathedral-like in scale. "Monumental," said Merete, the farmer here. It has four levels.
The very top (above) is used for hay and wood. It only has a ramp going through, not a full floor. The second level, the largest (the one where I took all these photos), is used for hay and grain. The floor only extends part of the way around the huge L-shaped barn, so there are places where you can see all the way from roof to floor. The floor has a lot of trap doors so you can dump hay into any animal stall below. You can feel the warm air coming up from the animals when you open the trap doors.
The ground floor has space for all the animals--hundreds of chickens, a dozen or so ponies, 20 cows, 40 sheep and 80 lambs, two giant pigs--plus storage areas for bread, fruits and vegetables and tools. Each stall on the ground floor has a trap door or a grate for manure and compost, which all goes into the basement of the barn.
View through a trap door of one of the sheep stables.
Gabriel puts hay down the cow trap door.
Also stored on the ground level are these 19th-century carts and wagons.
A view of a grain storage platform, looking down from the top level ramp.
The only way to get from the top level to the level below is by jumping onto a haystack. You can enter the top level from an external tractor-sized ramp, but to get onto the level below you have to climb a ladder up from the cow's stable (or jump from the top).
View from the haystack of the top and second level.
Top level to second level!
Cow stable
One of several sheep stables
Pig area
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