On a small German island called Sylt, part of the Frisian island chain in the North Sea straddling the Danish coast, sits a newly designed health resort boasting the largest thatched roof in the whole of Europe.
The roof system of the Lanserhof Sylt health resort, which covers a series of buildings, clocks in at 7,100 square meters or more than 75,000 square feet. For perspective, a thatcher’s square is 9.3 square meters or 100 square feet, and for each square, you need about 95 bundles of thatch, according to William Cahill of Galway, Ireland, who bills himself as a “roof thatcher extraordinaire.” The roof system contains more than 71,000 bundles of thatch.