TRADITIONAL HOUSES
IN MACEDONIA - PART I

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Macedonia is a country with a rich architectural past and the numerous and various cultural monuments, such as fortresses, churches, harmonious settlements and houses, testify to this. Traces of older cultures, with their high standards and preserved architectural consciousness, are still present. These can be observed in the skilful grouping of rooms, their organic shapes, their construction, the attitude towards the environment, their relationship between people and the comfort and the sense of measure they reflect. These distinctive qualities of subtlety, ingenuity and the unique conception of space are characteristic of the many generations of Macedonian builders.
The five principles of le Corbusier's contemporary architecture - pillars, a garden on the roof, free planning, a horizontal window and a free facade, with the exception of the garden on the roof, were applied in the dwelling architecture in Macedonia long before le Corbusier. The Macedonian house is built partially on pillars, partially on console jutties, the plan of the upper floors rarely is the same as the plan of the lower floors, and the string of windows connected with rims gives the impression of a single horizontal window. All these principles are characteristic of Macedonian architecture, although they were not always applied altogether; instead, they were achieved independently.
The architecture in Macedonia is an expression of a genuine constructive experience in accordance with the local climate. Expressed with primitive materials and ways of construction, the Macedonian architecture is classically clear and incredibly sensitive to all conditions. The same solutions do not apply in different situations. In this way, an ecological architecture has been realised, an architecture which completely corresponds with Nature and the environment. Although the construction system is economical (consisting of combined stone and timber-framed buildings), it provided for the seismic stability of the houses which was of vital importance because the area of building was of high seismic risk. The building materials of unbaked brick - plitar, the use of laths or wood for filling between the construction elements, the floors of stamped earth, the use of clay as a binding material for the stone walls and the use of lime mortar for the whitewashing of the walls, the painting of the interior and the facades, the covering with tiles, have all been preserved up to present time.
The most important thing about architecture in Macedonia is that it is humane, warm and close to man. In every house, no matter how big or small, man feels comfortable and welcome.
With the creative solutions of the skilful builders, space was maximised and all the details were given attention and precision. The originality of every house makes every lost building an irreparable loss, not only for Macedonian architecture, but for architecture in general.
In Macedonia, ever since ancient times people have lived in floor houses with cchardaks (open galleries). In Stobi the rich houses with swimming pools and atriums surrounded with fences had chardaks on the floors from where the rooms were entered. The tradition of building floor houses also continued in the time of Byzantium. In the correspondence of Theophylaktos, the many-storied and well-ventilated houses of Ohrid are compared to the palaces of Ecbatana and Susa, centres in Persia.
The use of the same building materials in an identical way contradicts claims of a possible import from Byzantine or Turkish Empire. Everything that was built in the later period already existed and was familiar to local masters.
The culture of high living standards was conditioned only by the economic power that fluctuated depending on the political and economic power of the country to which Macedonia belonged in past centuries.
In the most difficult economic conditions, the majority of houses in Macedonia were ground floor houses with one or two rooms where people and cattle lived together. The house served as shelter, was closed to the outside, with few windows, while light came from an opening on the roof; the roof itself was made of[straw. The fireplace was in the middle of the room where people ate and slept. There are very few preserved houses of this type and they were built mainly in the 16th and the 17th century. These houses belonged to the poorest who were under the rule of the landown-
ers. For Turkish residents in Macedonia, the houses were adapted with the building-in of baths.
Improved economic and political conditions in the 19th century were reflected in the architecture - many-storied houses, churches and monasteries were built, but at the same time old ones were renewed.
The Debar-Gorica (Kora)-Kostur (Kastoria) area is considered a building centre where the groups of builders were educated and formed. The numerous building groups were differentiated according to their speciality: masons, wood-carvers and painters. They worked all over the Balkans, within the Turkish Empire and later in the newly-formed Serbia, Bulgaria, Greece and Romania.
Built-in furniture is one of the characteristics of all houses in Macedonia. The hierarchy of the decoration of the rooms in accordance with their importance is emphasised. The carpentry is always precise, often enriched with carvings of a high quality and well-dried materials, so all the components of the building can perform their function for more than a hundred years.
The traditional skill of woodworking can be observed in the specific style of the Macedonian carving. The best results were obtained by the Myak masters from Mala Reka and Dolna Reka in the Debar region who left traces of their knowledge and creativity in the monasteries on The Holy Mountain of Athos. Combining a baroque style with folklore motifs, they created a specific style of Macedonian carving.
The carving is present in the iconostases in churches, as well as in secular buildings, primarily in the decoration of the living room and the chardak.
Particular attention was paid to the decoration of the ceilings, which symbolised the heavens: very often a six or eight-sided rosette (sun, a star) appeared, which from a semantical aspect means eternity and the holiness of the home. The roots of these beliefs can be found in the sun cult of the ancient Macedonians. In Debar the wood-carvers reached their peak with their beautifully carved ceilings which perfectly depicted flower motifs.
In the hierarchy of decoration, the living room was always first, followed by the chardak and the other rooms. In the more representative buildings in Ohrid, Debar Veles and Kratovo, domed ceilings with carvings can be seen in the living rooms. Coloured decoration is also present in the Macedonian houses, both on the facades and the interior. Some of the houses in Tetovo, Veles, Krugevo and Debar have coloured decoration both on the facade and the interior. The hierarchy in the decoration is applied to all the details. So, the door lintel of the decorated door of the living room has a carved "doorhead". In other words, special attention was paid to the effect in the social parts of the house connected with work or visiting guests, while the parts for domestic living were somewhat neglected.
It should be emphasised that every town in Macedonia has its own characteristic type of house, which, although generally sharing the same construction system and building materials, differs in spatial concepts, its adaptation to the local climate and terrain, and also in its interior decorations where the creative capabilities of the masters were used to their full extent. Towns in Macedonia in the Lathe Middle Ages were clearly divided and organised according to their religion; Muslim and Christian were divided into functional wholes, i. e. neighbourhoods. There is a gener-
al distinction between the houses which were built by the Turks (Tetovo, Gostivar) and the houses which were built by the Macedonians (Veles,
Kruevo, Ohrid), primarily in the location, which was spacious and level in the former, resulting in spacious and comfortable houses with rich interior decoration as a clear sign of the status and wealth, and steep and small in the latter, resulting in greater creativity, and not lagging behind in the decoration of the interior.
Bey's mansions have a special place because of their spaciousness, with big, open chardaks and richly carved interiors. Typical Muslim houses followed the concept of selamlik and haremlik, a complex of two houses, the selamlik closer to the street for contacts with the public, and the haremlik in the yard, the house of the wives and for private life, a privilege of rich Turks.
Especially representative are the symmetrical houses of Debar with their centrally placed (chardak with jutty of rectangular, polygonal or semi-circular shapes and with several functions (e. g. for work, rest). The plan of the house is simply solved with one or two rooms on each side of the chardak. The ground floor is an open porch on wooden pillars with mortared wood capitals with concave-convex forms. The ground floor of these houses was used in winter; one room had an interior complete with fireplace, cupboards, "sergens"* (special closets) and minder** for living, while the other part was used for keeping cattle and food. In the back part of the porch, wooden stairs connected all three levels of the house, although the main entrance had stone stairs on the outside that led to the first floor which was used for living. The symmetrical concept of the plan in the ground floor is repeated on the upper floors. The living room has the richest interior, with carvings and coloured decoration on the ceiling, walls, wooden cupboards, sergen and
fireplace. The floors were made of planks and soil on which a layer of mortared lime and graphite colour was placed.
The Macedonians always built a single house with no division of rooms for men and women. Their houses are primarily asymmetrical with open (chardaks and a freer disposition of the rooms around the chardak. The narrow locations did not allow for big yards but in spite of this greenery was not forgotten. Narrow locations dictated the building of two-storied houses with vertical functional schemes with one or two rooms on the first floor and the use of passages as entrances. The balcony of the Macedonian house usually is not functional, relatively small and narrow, and cannot function like the chardak from which it originated. The balcony always reminds us of the former openness of the (chardak as a tie to the environment.

TETOVO

The Palogi house is a characteristic example of a bey's house (haremlik) with a spacious location surrounded with high walls. The centrally placed rectangular open chardak in the front of the house has four rooms around it. The living room and the chardak are decorated with carvings (large rosettes). Except for the rectangular chardak, there are and "I" shaped chardaks in Tetovo and this means symmetrical and asymmetrical solutions of the houses.
The houses in the level area of the town have symmetrical plans with one room on each side of the chardak and an open porch beneath. This type of house has a longer front facade with emphasis placed on the central part, usually with a tympanum which in certain houses is painted. The ceilings of the houses are made of planks with lath covers and centrally placed carved rosettes. The pillars of the porch are wooden with mortared and bent wooden capitals that hold the straight beams of the (chardak. Above the porch the chardak is raised, thus forming a large bench which was used for sitting with crossed legs. The kitchen and the pantry were in the back part of the house.

GOSTIVAR

The Sotirovci house in Gostivar is symmetrical because of the level location and the disposition of the entire city. The fac;ade is emphasised with a tympanum and a balcony facing the street and a jutty towards the yard.
The closed, spacious chardak spreads along the whole width of the house. The rich ceilings with six-sided rosettes in the rooms, the chardak with its star-shaped rosette symbolizing the sun, and the jutty with its carved ceiling enrich the whole space.
From the Ahmed (aku complex, the haremlik is an example of a symmetrical, rich and comfortable house with a spacious chardak with a bench and two rooms on each side of the chardak with rows of windows. Centrally above the facade a baroque tympanum rises. The porch is the same as in the other houses in Tetovo.
From the Daut Boletini complex only the selamlik has been preserved. This is a rare example of a house with polygonally projected rooms which originally had a balcony between them and an open cchardak above the first floor; later this was closed in a now it looks like a mansard. A passage and the inner yard were used to enter the haremlik...Go to PAGE II...

Ministry of information of Republic of Macedonia

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