In a region rich in forests, wood has long been an easily accessible material, lighter and easier to work than stone, hence the profusion of half-timbering in medieval Burgundian architecture. In the late Middle Ages, the wood was hewn with an adze and the carpentry was prepared in panels before being reassembled on site and hoisted by ropes. The construction was always staged according to an orthogonal combination of vertical posts and horizontal plates with different intermediate filling systems. The parts were assembled with tenons and mortises. Between the sides of the half-timbering, the hourdis usually consisted of cob.