Czech villages in Romanian Banat: landscape, nature, and culture. Maděra Petr, Kovář Pavel, Romportl Dušan, Buček Antonín, et al.

Transkript

1 Czech villages in Romanian Banat: landscape, nature, and culture Maděra Petr, Kovář Pavel, Romportl Dušan, Buček Antonín, et al.

2 The publication was released thanks to the Operational Programme Education for Competitiveness Creation and development of a multidisciplinary team on the platform of landscape ecology (CZ.1.07/2.3.00/ ) with the contribution of EU resources and resources from the state budget of the Czech Republic. Authors: Antonín Buček, Jan Lacina, Aleš Kučera, Ladislav Holík, Peter Dundek, Karel Marosz, Tomáš Mikita, Martin Klimánek, Radomír Řepka, Petr Maděra, Zdeněk Hrubý, Tomáš Koutecký, Jan Šebesta, Daniel Volařík, Luboš Úradníček, Martin Šenfeldr, Jaromíra Dreslerová, Michal Friedl, Linda Černušáková, Monika Hamanová, Pavel Klvač, Martin Machala, Markéta Honzová, Stanislav Boček, Radim Matula, Mária Pákozdiová 1) Jaroslav Vojta, Pavel Kovář, Adam Veselý, Pavel Wiesner, Lucie Drhovská, Magdaléna Klárová, Tomáš Chuman 9) Robert Stejskal 1,6), Václav Fanta 2), Alena Rákosníková 3), Jakub Čermák 3), Vojtěch Ružbatský 3), Adéla Poubová 4), Markéta Šantrůčková 5), Filip Trnka 7), Jiří Brestovanský 8), Pavel Pech 10), Dušan Romportl 11), Marek Havlíček 12), Hana Skokanová 12) 1) Mendel University in Brno, Zemědělská 1, CZ , Czech Republic 2) Faculty of Environmental Sciences, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, Praha 6 Suchdol, CZ , Czech Republic 3) Faculty of Architecture, Czech Technical University in Prague, Thákurova 9, Praha 6 Dejvice, CZ , Czech Republic 4) Domaslav 52, Lestkov, CZ , Czech Republic 5) The Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening (RILOG), Květnové náměstí 391, CZ Průhonice, Czech Republic 6) Podyjí National park Administration, Na Vyhlídce 5, CZ Znojmo, Czech Republic 7) Department of Ecology & Environmental, Faculty of Science, Palacký University Olomouc, Tř. Svobody 26, CZ Olomouc, Czech Republic 8) Školní 671/1, CZ Neratovice, Czech Republic 9) Department of Botany,Faculty of Science,Charles University in Prague, Benátská 2, CZ Praha 2, Czech Republic 10) Department of Biology,Faculty of Science, University of Hradec Králové, Svoboda square 301, CZ Hradec Králové, Czech Republic 11) Department of Physical Geography and Geoecology Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague, Albertov 6, CZ Prague 2, Czech Republic 12) Department of Forest Ecology Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening, Lidická 25/27, CZ Brno, Czech Republic Reviewers: Prof. RNDr. Stanislav Komárek, Dr. Prof. Ing. Ivo Vološčuk, DrSc. Recommended citation: Petr Maděra, Pavel Kovář, Dušan Romportl, Antonín Buček, Stanislav Boček, Jiří Brestovanský, Tomáš Chuman, Jakub Čermák, Linda Černušáková, Jaromíra Dreslerová, Lucie Drhovská, Peter Dundek, Václav Fanta, Michal Friedl, Monika Hamanová, Marek Havlíček, Ladislav Holík, Markéta Honzová, Zdeněk Hrubý, Magdaléna Klárová, Martin Klimánek, Pavel Klvač, Tomáš Koutecký, Aleš Kučera, Jan Lacina, Martin Machala, Karel Marosz, Radim Matula, Tomáš Mikita, Mária Pákozdiová, Pavel Pech, Adéla Poubová, Alena Rákosníková, Vojtěch Ružbatský, Radomír Řepka, Hana Skokanová, Robert Stejskal, Markéta Šantrůčková, Jan Šebesta, Martin Šenfeldr, Filip Trnka, Luboš Úradníček, Adam Veselý, Jaroslav Vojta, Daniel Volařík, Pavel Wiesner (2014): Czech villages in Romanian Banat: landscape, nature, and culture. Mendel University in Brno. Počet stran. ISBN Cover photo: Daniel Volařík Edited by: Petra Rychtecká ISBN

3 PREFACE The presented monograph represents one of the outputs from the project Creation and development of multidisciplinary team on the basis of landscape ecology, aided from the Operational Programme Education for Competitiveness in Axis 2.3. The team of authors comprises experts in diverse landscape constituents from the Faculty of Forestry and Wood Technology, Faculty of Agronomy, and Faculty of Arboriculture (Mendel University in Brno), Faculty of Sciences (Charles University in Prague), and Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening in Průhonice (VÚKOZ). With its abundant population of non-romanian minorities including Czech nationals, the region of the Banat Mountains in south Romania became in the project one of model areas to capture changes occurring in the last decennia at various levels and reflected on a landscape scale. The first Czech villages in the Romanian Banat were established in 1820, at the time when the Danube River formed a border between the Hapsburg monarchy and the Ottoman Empire. Although the landscape of Czech villages in the Banat Mountains in the southwest promontory of the Carpathian arc bathed by the Danube experienced a number of changes in the last two hundred years, there are still many valuable historical, cultural and social elements therein, which the first settlers had brought from their homeland. This ethnographic phenomenon inspired a wide team of specialists in landscape ecology. They started a research the aim of which was to study and understand regularities of the functioning of the landscape that has been preserved in the surroundings of the Czech villages in such a condition, in which we would have found it in Bohemia and Moravia more than a hundred years ago. Types of forests extensively exploited depending on the distance from settlements with a much shorter rotation period markedly differ from central European forests in their structure, composition and entirely different long-term management. As compared with the situation in the Czech Republic, privately owned small-scale field crops grown with no chemistry and partly in the three corn crops system guarantee a many times greater species diversity of plants and animals in the semi-cultural landscape. With the high share of orchards in the rugged topography, representing unrecognized gene resources of old fruit varieties for various use, the landscape features an entirely different character than the landscape in the original homeland. The local landscape has a much richer range of semi-natural biotopes. These include line elements accompanying the pattern of roads amidst fields, meadows and pasturelands, solitary trees often atypically used as dispersed greenery, burnt out bushes or grazing forests. The layout of rural development is by itself an interesting object of investigation in the context of its setting in the landscape, let alone the old-time elements of the special-purpose architecture. Results of our study presented in this monograph are to show, among other things, whether and to what extent the traditional extensive management can affect the landscape biodiversity. They are also to suggest how the contemporary precipitous changes in the studied region can affect landscape characteristics, and

4 whether the newly gained experience and knowledge could be used to restore diversity of the landscape devastated by the socialist management methods after World War II but also by some post-november trends in the Czech Republic.

5 2.3 Vernacular architecture in Czech villages Václav Fanta, Alena Rákosníková, Jakub Čermák, Adéla Poubová, Vojtěch Ružbatský Introduction Czech villages in Banat in south-western Romania were populated by Czech colonists in the 1820s, and the Czech culture including language, customs, religion etc. has been preserved there until these days thanks to considerable isolation (mountain terrain, poor accessibility, marginal area within the country). One of important constituent of the image of these villages that are visited by many Czech tourists every year is also the well preserved vernacular architecture. This chapter deals with the architectural culture of the Czech villages, its historical transformations, typology, used building structures and urban layout of settlements. The topic closely connects with the historical development of settlement and cultural landscape, which are discussed in detail by Markéta Šantrůčková, Pavel Klvač and Dušan Romportl. By the term of vernacular architecture, we understand the built heritage of the village, namely dwellings, outbuildings, technical and small sacred buildings, often coming to existence by hands of untrained workmen (this definition has been modified with using definitions according to Pešta 2012; Frolec and Vařeka 1983) (Fig. 11). Figure 11. Vernacular homestead in the typical Banat agricultural landscape (probably from the beginning of the 20 th century, Gârnic). Photo: V. Fanta, 2012

6 During the research conducted in June and September 2012 and in September 2013, the authors studied the vernacular architecture and the urban pattern of villages Sfânta Elena, Gârnik, Ravensca and Bigar, and would like to study Eibental and Sumica villages in the coming years. Since the system of house numbers in the villages could not be relied upon, the surveyed houses had to be identified by means of GPS coordinates, which are presented at the end of this chapter Hitherto research Vernacular architecture of Czech villages in Banat Vernacular architecture in the Czech villages of Banat was studied mainly by ethnographers. Nevertheless, the theme has not been worked out in a complex manner. The beginning of a more detailed research into Banat can be considered several expeditions of the former Institute for Ethnography and Folkloristic Science of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences / Ústav pro etnografii a folkloristiku ČSAV (today s The Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, public research institution / Etnologický ústav AV ČR, v. v. i.), which conducted extensive surveys there in the 1960s. Results of their work were publicized (including the description of building customs) in several articles in the journal Český lid / Czech People (Scheufler and Skalníková 1962; Skalníková and Scheufler 1963; Jech et al. 1965b; Secká 1992b) and in a comprehensive publication (Jech et al. 1992). Some of the observations of these authors have been outdated though. Worth mentioning is the contribution of ethnographer Radim Urbánek from the Museum in Vysoké Mýto, who visited repeatedly the area in the 1990s and organized an exhibition about vernacular architecture in the region, in which he succeeded to summarize the basic information (Urbánek 2003). The so far last ethnographic expedition to Czech villages in Banat was undertaken by a team of the National Museum under leadership of Jiřina Langhammerová, during which they documented continuing indications of vernacular culture including architecture. The research resulted in an exhibition in Musaion of National Museum and in a book (Langhammerová et al. 2009). The latest hitherto observations about the history of Czech settlement in Banat were most recently summarized by the Hungarian-Romanian historian Desideriu Gecse (2013b), who, among other things, presents interesting information about the history of the colonization of Czech villages. It can be said that the hitherto research dwelled largely on primary sources (documents), simple walk-over surveys and interviews with inhabitants. Primary sources such as maps as well as more detailed evidence of other primary sources such as artifacts, namely individual buildings, let alone archaeological research, remained unexploited or were used insufficiently. Compared with the situation in the Czech Republic, where the National Heritage Institute and many other experts are continually mapping the country s architectural heritage, and where tens of publications on vernacular architecture are

7 issued at a high professional level (e. g. works by Jiří Škabrada, Jan Pešta a. o.), one can say that the Banat area is a white spot on the maps of the architectural history of the Czech building culture. Interest in the Banat area has been recently increasing in various scientific disciplines. A joint project of Mendel University in Brno (Mendelova univerzita v Brně), The Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening, public research institution (Výzkumný ústav Silva Taroucy pro krajinu a okrasné zahradnictví, v. v. i. / VÚKOZ, v. v. i.) and Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague ( Landteam research group) can be mentioned as an example. Banat is visited by expeditions of demographers, linguists, ethnographers, sociologists, geographers, botanists, entomologists, environmentalists and many others, and we may say that the region has recently become a very popular terrain for research Sources In addition to buildings that were explored by using a simplified method of building survey and analysis (methodology see Bláha et al. 2005), sources used (namely for learning the historical development of settlements) were the maps of stable cadastre and military maps. It is worth mentioning that maps from the 1 st military mapping portray the area before the colonization itself; their interpretation is unfortunately rather difficult. The maps of stable cadastre were created in the area much later than in the Czech lands (Gârnic in 1873 and Ravensca in 1874; maps of Sfânta Elena and Romanian village Coronini, in the cadastre of which an abandoned Czech village of Elizabeta was situated, likely originate from the same period, the last-mentioned two being available so far only as copies from 1905). Photographs from the early 1960s, taken by the above-mentioned ethnographic expeditions, proved to be excellent source information about the transformation of the physical environment of villages in the last fifty years. This photographic documentation is accessible for study in archives of the Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Prague, public research institution. In September 2013, the authors succeeded in finding some scenes in situ and in taking comparative photographs the selection of which is presented further in the text. More comparative photographs are available from the authors. The researchers often used the testimony of local inhabitants, particularly in tracking the recent past. However, their stories had to be perceived similarly as any other source of information, i. e. with a detached critical point of view Urbanism An analysis of urban structure and urban development of individual settlements has not been published so far. Urbánek (2003) and Gecse (2013b) mention only their basic classification in urban typology (square village, cruciform street village, village with a network of streets). It is interesting that with the exception of Sumica, all villages miss a square (Scheufler and Skalníková 1962; Gecse 2013b). The below analysis had been made on the basis of available old maps and was

8 complemented with the reconstruction hypotheses of the development of villages. Gecse (2013b, p. 36) informs about villages of the second colonization wave (i. e. Bigar, Ravensca and Gârnic), that village locations were determined by military authorities. The same author claims (p. 62), that the construction of houses, delimitation of yards, gardens and farmland occurred on the basis of topographic plans issued by the frontier offices. The following analysis often uses a term designed / measured out / planned street, or walk through / trodden street. This indicates a different way of its coming to existence: a street that was drawn in the plan and then surveyed in the field, or a street for the alignment of which some surveying instruments were used looks differently than a street, which used to be originally field path and whose shape was petrified by subsequent construction (Fig. 12). Figure 12. The Banat region is exceptional with is great spatial and functional continuity in time, this applying to both buildings and the landscape. Local environs are farmed and used in traditional ways. The structure of the cultural landscape is very well preserved. Putting the contemporary orthophoto over the stable cadastre map, we can find only a few changes in the extravillan. A line between parcels in the stable cadastre represents today a border line between agricultural crops; a road in the stable cadastre still exists today; a margin of the cadastral district in the stable cadastre is a grown-up hedge today etc. Readers will certainly agree with the authors that something similar would be difficult to find in the Czech environment. The above picture shows the northern margin of Sfânta Elena village. Data sources: The Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening, public research institution / Výzkumný ústav Silva Taroucy pro krajinu a okrasné zahradnictví, v. v. i., OCPI Reşiţa.

9 Sfânta Elena (Svatá Helena) Sfânta Elena is a village situated on a mild slope or rather a flat saddle at an altitude of ca. 300 m a. s. l., with about 300 inhabitants. A map from the 1 st military mapping, created in the 1780s, depicts in the place of today s Sfânta Elena a forest cut by three roads meeting approximately at the place of the today s Catholic church. A hypothesis can be raised that a village had been established at this crossing of three forest roads, which spread during several tens of years into approximately the today s structure (with parallel streets being laid out in the eastwest direction), as it is depicted in the map of the 2 nd military mapping. The rectangular village core has a relatively regular urban structure, which gives an impression that at least some of its parts were designed (the said part corresponding with the size of built-up area in the map from the 2 nd military mapping). This however cannot be said about many streets situated especially at the outskirts of the settlement, which probably emerged later by building-up the space around the originally field roads, as it is documented by their zigzag ground plan. The map of stable cadastre includes almost all today s streets already, although some smaller changes were experienced later as a matter of course and nearly all houses went through reconstruction. Notable is also the fact that around 1900, a majority of houses used to be gabled while longitudinally oriented houses prevails here today (according to the statements of several local inhabitants, these reconstructions were made mostly in the 1970s) (Fig. 13) Gârnic (Gerník) Gârnic is a village situated at about 500 m a. s. l. with a population of about 500 inhabitants today. It spreads along an extended hill and a neighbouring valley flown through by a brook that springs nearby the village. In the map from the 1 st military mapping, the place where Gârnic was founded is plotted as an open elevation around which several roads run in the north-south direction. Urban structure of the settlement consists of several heterogeneous parts. The valley floor includes irregular and twisting streets, which occasionally copy the brook flow. Above the brook, however, there are two streets ( Little Quarter (Malá strana) in the southwest and Big Quarter (Velká strana) in the northeast), which were probably designed as it can be assumed from their regular linear ground plan. As shown in a map from the 2 nd military mapping, the oldest population concentrated exactly in these long and straight streets. Gârnic was founded during the second colonization wave, which proceeded under leadership of the Austrian military administration (Czoernig 1857); this is why the streets in question could have been designed by the military land surveyor. The irregular built-up area at the brook appears to be secondary. As early as during the nineteenth century, the built-up area expanded to the south from the southern end of the Big Quarter, and the built-up area along the brook at the southern end of the village became denser. By contrast, the further sprawl of the village to the north, to the east and upstream the brook is likely to be of a later date (Fig. 14).

10 Figure 13. Urban development of Sfânta Elena. Legend: (1) road pattern, (1a) presumable projection of roads captured during the 1 st military mapping, (1b) streets and roads probably developed by designing, (1c) streets and roads probably developed by treading, (1d) other streets and roads, (2) built-up area, (2a) in the map from the 2 nd military mapping, (2b) in the map of stable cadastre, (2c) at the present. Equidistance of contours 25 m. The size of the built-up area in the map from the 3 rd military mapping is practically the same as the size of the built-up area in the map of stable cadastre. Drawing: V. Fanta, Data sources: The Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening, public research institution / Výzkumný ústav Silva Taroucy pro krajinu a okrasné zahradnictví, v. v. i., Mendel University in Brno / Mendelova univerzita v Brně, contemporary topographic map of Romania 1:

11 Figure 14. Urban development of Gârnic. Legend: (1) road pattern, (1a) possible projection of roads captured during the 1 st military mapping, (1b) streets and roads presumably developed by designing, (1c) streets and road developed by unclear manner, (1d) streets and roads presumably developed by treading, (2) built-up area size, (2a) in the map of the 2 nd military mapping, (2b) in the map of stable cadastre, (2c) in the map of the 3 rd military mapping, (2d) at the present. Equidistance of coordinates 25 m. Drawing: V. Fanta, Data sources: The Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening, public research institution / Výzkumný ústav Silva Taroucy pro krajinu a okrasné zahradnictví, v. v. i., Mendel University in Brno / Mendelova univerzita v Brně, contemporary topographic map of Romania 1:

12 A comparison of historical and current time photographs from Gârnic point out relatively minor changes in the general image of the settlement. Many buildings were reconstructed without impact on the general character of the village (Figs. 15, 16, 17, 18), which however cannot be said at a closer look (Figs. 19 and 20). Figure 15. Field road near Gârnic on a photograph taken by the ethnographical expedition in Source: Collection of documents, The Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, public research institution / Dokumentační sbírka Etnologického ústavu AV ČR, v. v. i., inv. no Figure 16. The same view 49 years later. On the photograph, colleagues Alena Rákosníková and Vojtěch Ružbatský as bit players. Photo: V. Fanta, 2013

13 Figure 17. Southern part of Gârnic on photographs taken by the ethnographical expedition in Source: Collection of documents, The Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, public research institution / Dokumentační sbírka Etnologického ústavu AV ČR, v. v. i., inv. no Figure 18. The same view 49 years later. Photo: V. Fanta, 2013

14 Figure 19. A cross in the middle of the Big Quarter street in Gârnic on a photograph taken by the ethnographical expedition in Source: Collection of documents, The Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, public research institution / Dokumentační sbírka Etnologického ústavu AV ČR, v. v. i., inv. no Figure 20. The same view 49 years later. Noticeable is the essential transformation of the house at the background as well as of the public space. Photo: V. Fanta, 2013

15 In the middle of the Big Quarter street, there is a sinkhole, which the road passes by and then returns back to the original line (see Fig. 21). A question about the mutual chronology of the sinkhole and street is quite logical. Here, a hypothesis can be ventured that the sinkhole came to existence later than the road. If the sinkhole were older, the road would have led either in parallel a couple of metres aside its current position, or would have passed it by halfway and then would have continued straight probably not returning to its original line. This hypothesis is supported also by the straight building line of houses on the eastern side of the street at the sinkhole edge that could represent a remainder of the older pre-sink situation. Whatever the sequence was, the karst phenomenon in question enriched rural urbanism in the region. The same motif can be seen in the field some 400 metres north of Sfânta Elena, where the field road avoids a sinkhole by a similar illogical manner. Consulting the problem in detail with a geologist would certainly be interesting. Figure 21: The Gârnic sink. On the left is a current orthophoto, on the right is a map of stable cadastre from Worth attention is the fact that some parcel lines do not take into account the sink (see the arrow), which can indicate that they may be of an older origin. Approximate sinkhole size is marked with a dashed ellipse. Data sources: The Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening, public research institution / Výzkumný ústav Silva Taroucy pro krajinu a okrasné zahradnictví, v. v. i., OCPI Reşiţa Ravensca (Rovensko) The village of Ravensca, which is situated with its 100 inhabitants on elongated mountain ridges at an altitude of about 750 m a. s. l., is perhaps the most

16 picturesque of the Czech villages in Banat. The village spreads across the summit parts of three ridges. The village core and a church are at their contact point. A map from the 1 st military mapping shows a deep forest there (perhaps a road was leading over the north-west ridge but this is not quite clear). The oldest parts of settlement, captured by a map from the 2 nd military mapping, are characteristic by a relatively regular field pattern (hence the fields were presumably parcelled out). Other parts of the settlement were probably added later. Worth mentioning is also a fact that marginal parts of the village in particular were gradually becoming abandoned and the built-up area was gradually shrinking. The process can be put with great probability into context with socio-economic changes occurring in the region (Fig. 22). Figure 22. Urban development of Ravensca. Legend: (1) road pattern, (1a) streets presumably developed by designing, surrounded with regularly parcelled pattern of fields, (1b) streets and roads presumably developed by treading, (1c) other streets and roads, (2) size of built-up area, (2a) in the map from the 2 nd military mapping, (2b) in the map of stable cadastre, (2c) in the map from the 3 rd military mapping, (2d) at present. Equidistance of coordinates 25 m. Drawing: V. Fanta, Data sources: The Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening, public research institution / Výzkumný ústav Silva Taroucy pro krajinu a okrasné zahradnictví, v. v. i., Mendel University in Brno / Mendelova univerzita v Brně, contemporary topographic map of Romania 1: A comparison of historical and contemporary photographs of Ravensca clearly shows a great shrinkage of the historical built-up area size (namely Figs. 23 and 24) or reconstructions (Figs. 25 and 26 compare the appearance of the house at the left). Remarkable is also the transformation of the public space by recent asphalting of the road, and overgrowing of abandoned or dilapidated homesteads with the naturally regenerated vegetation (Figs. 27 and 28).

17 Fig. 23: Streets in Ravensca on the photograph taken by the ethnographic expedition in Legend at the backside of the photograph says: Vista through the street older types of square timber homesteads (a blacksmith shop on the right, behind it a community centre). Source: Collection of documents, The Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, public research institution / Dokumentační sbírka Etnologického ústavu AV ČR, v. v. i., inv. no Fig. 24: The same view 50 years later. Only one of houses on the old photograph remained and experienced a considerable reconstruction. Photo: V. Fanta, 2013

18 Fig. 25: A view of the church in Ravensca on the photograph taken by the ethnographic expedition in Source: Collection of documents, The Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, public research institution / Dokumentační sbírka Etnologického ústavu AV ČR, v. v. i., inv. no Fig. 26: The same view 50 years later. Remarkable is a profound change of the house at the left. Photo: V. Fanta, 2013

19 Figure 27. A view of Ravensca from the cemetery on the photograph taken by the ethnographic expedition in Remarkable are presumably wooden chimneys (resp. wide open chimneys / dýmníky ) of the houses. Source: Collection of documents, The Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, public research institution / Dokumentační sbírka Etnologického ústavu AV ČR, v. v. i., inv. no Figure 28. The same view 50 years later. Only a half of the houses was preserved, the small cross in front experienced some changes, too, and became overgrown with bushes. Photo: V. Fanta, 2013

20 Bigar (Bígr) The village of Bigar is situated on a mild slope amidst deep forests. Some 250 inhabitants live there at an altitude of about 550 m a. s. l. The village is poorly accessible for transport even in these days. At the first sight, it will hold the interest by the cruciform composition of streets in the middle of which a church is standing. It is possible that the village was founded on an old road captured already by the 1 st military mapping, which could have been partly projected into the contour street in the church vicinity ( crossbar of the crucifix). This however cannot be claimed with too much certainty since the interpretation of the map in question is extremely difficult. Jech et al. (1992) inform that the village was allegedly situated higher on the slope (more southwards of today s village). Already the 2 nd military mapping captured the village urban structure (i. e. layout of streets) practically identical with the current situation (number of houses is logically different). Later on, the built-up area became only concentrated, resp. some houses became abandoned. It can be assumed that a considerable part of the village urban structure was designed and that the foundation of the village followed a planned composition. Eye-catching is particularly the main street leading to the southwest from the church, which continues down as far as the brook in spite of the fact that houses are built only along its upper part. The field pattern parcelling along this street suggests that the original intention might have been its building-up along the entire street length (a similar case can be found also on the southern part of Bigar see Fig. 29, item 4). The locator s plans had been perhaps too grandiose and were not fulfilled. Figure 29: Urban development of Bigar. Legend: (1) road pattern, (1a) possible projection of roads captured in the 1 st military mapping, (1b) streets and roads presumably developed by designing, (1c) streets and roads developed ambiguously, (1d) streets and roads presumably

21 developed by treading, (1e) other streets and roads, (2) size of built-up area, (2a) in the map from the 2 nd military mapping, (2b) in the map from the 3 rd military mapping, (2c) at present, (3) uninhabited part of the street, (4) hypothetically also a street ready to be inhabited. Equidistance of coordinates 10 m. Note: the projection of streets from the 1 st military mapping is only probable due to inaccurate background material (± 150 m). This is why the possibility that the old road projected into the currently existing street is only one of several options. Moreover, a precise course of the old road continuation in the eastern direction cannot be interpreted unambiguously (it cannot be excluded that it was identical with the today s contour street). Drawing: V. Fanta, Data source: The Silva Tarouca Research Institute for Landscape and Ornamental Gardening, public research institution / Výzkumný ústav Silva Taroucy pro krajinu a okrasné zahradnictví, v. v. i., contemporary topographic map of Romania 1: Structures Vernacular architecture of Czech inhabitants in the Romanian Banat did not experience a forced disruption of its development (by contrast to that in Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia) and has remained both a rich well of still used traditional and archaic structures and a laboratory, in which traditional Czech procedures are mixed with the cultural influence of different ethnics. The most valuable fact is that these local structures are still used for permanent habitation and farming by which they preserve not only their material but also particularly immaterial constituents of their substance Homesteads and their parts Homesteads of Czechs in Banat have preserved the layout brought from the original home environment of the Czech Crown lands. We can find a farmhouse here with a linked storage chamber or a stall adjoined to the property boundary, a barn, shed or granary. The appearance of homesteads and their historical development can be best demonstrated on the layout schemes of selected homesteads that were drawn during the field research in September One of the most important buildings in a homestead was the dwelling house. In the Czech environment, it usually consisted of three sections. The front section used to serve as a dwelling room, the middle section used to be a hall with the open-firekitchen, and the rear section was usually a chamber, which fulfilled the role of a store or an unheated bedroom. The chamber used to neighbour with horse stalls and stables, which could be standing separately as well. The homestead might further include various kinds of outbuildings, sheds, henhouses, small granaries and / or workshops. A unusual kind of structure is a socalled patul (hay shed). It is a smaller outbuilding the ground floor of which may be built of bricks, squared timber or it may even be an open space delimitated by corner pilots. The roof follows the local traditional style with the stored straw stabilized by a centre pole. Local inhabitants use the ground floor of patuls as a storage space, pigsty or a poultry house. A patul on pilots with the formed ground floor has been preserved in Ravensca, house no. 27. Remainders of a representative with the masonry ground floor can be seen in a disappearing farmstead in the southern outskirts of Ravensca. The resemblance of the patul with the Czech (resp.

22 Moravian Slovak) hay shed ( oboroh ) is a subject deserving a further research (Fig. 31). Figure 30. In Ravensca, house no. 27, a square timber stable has been preserved, perpendicular to the axis of the older part of the dwelling house. The stable is connected with the horse stall and is built of cant acacia timbers including the floor with a chute to remove liquid manure (at the bottom left on the photograph). Cows and calves were kept on the right of the entrance, horses on the left. Furthermore, the object was connected with its southwest forefront with an also square timber, impassable barn. Person on the photograph is our colleague Vojtěch Ružbatský. Photo: V. Fanta, 2013 Figure 31. One of patuls in Ravensca with the authentically preserved pig. Photo: V. Fanta, 2013

23 Figure 32: Ravensca, house no. 29. It is a homestead with enclosed yard surrounded with various outbuildings. The older farmhouse has a partial basement. Legend: (1) main gateway, (2) corridor (konk), (3) small bedroom, (4) parlour, (5) best room (former principal room), (6) chamber for sleeping, (7) closet, (8) kitchen with a farm part reserved by the farmer for his retirement, (9) closet, (10) main yard, (11) barn, (12) horse stall, (13) lavatory, (14) tool shed, (15) side gateway, (16) open shed, (17) inaccessible section of the object (most probably serving for storage purposes). Above on the left: ground plan development of the farmhouse: (1) gabled house the oldest stage, (2) addition of the corridor (konk), (3) addition of a wing parallel with the street. Ulice = street. Drawing: A. Rákosníková, Development of the layout of dwelling houses and homesteads Dwelling house Here, it is possible to distinguish several layout variants: Czech, transitional and Romanian. By the way, this division was stated by previous researchers, too (Secká 1992b, Urbánek 2003). Colonists who after their arrival lived in sunken huts or half-sunken huts (Gecse 2013b, p. 34, 62) or in simple one-room log cabins (Jech et al. 1992, p. 27), started soon building the houses of typical Czech layout, with gables facing the street, located at the edge of property the remaining part of which was occupied by other outbuildings, yard and garden (Secká 1992b; Urbánek 2003). By contrast, Romanian people living around build houses of the Balkan type, longitudinally oriented and taking the entire breadth of the property at the street line. This not negligible influence of the prevailing Romanesque element in the immediate surroundings of Czech villages caused that some elements of the Romanian culture and architecture were and still are adopted. This is how several

24 stages gradually developed of a transitional variant from the Czech house to the Balkan house (Jech et al. 1992, p. 27). Considering the information from the historical photographs (see Fig. 33) as well as the fact that the maps of stable cadastre show gabled houses in the Czech villages, we may say that the abovementioned process of Romanization was likely to occur as late as in the 20 th century, on a bigger scale during its second half. Figure 33. Homesteads in Sumica on a photograph taken by the ethnographic expedition in Legend on the back of the photograph says Old type of masonry dwelling homestead (ca 1890), still of the Czech character, on the left; masonry dwelling homestead largely of the Romanian character (ca 1920), windows with shutters, on the right. Other photographs taken by the expeditions bring similar information (conversion from the Czech to the Romanian character in this period). Source: Collection of documents, The Institute of Ethnology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, public research institution / Dokumentační sbírka Etnologického ústavu AV ČR, v. v. i., inv. no In the period from 1869 to 1910, building experienced a great boom and the number of houses in the Czech villages in Banat nearly doubled (Gecse 2013b, p. 68). The oldest layout type is a classic house of the Czech-German character, consisting of three sections, with a kitchen with open fire, street-oriented dwelling room, and a chamber or stall section at the back. Two-room dwellings (e. g. a socalled aquarelle house in Ravensca), missing the rear chamber or stall section, have been preserved until today in some poorer homesteads. This type of dwelling house was entered through a parlour directly from the yard or doorstep, which could be according to the terrain conditions a bricked platform above the descending slope. The first significant element taken over from the registry of Balkan architectural customs was the doorstep, closed from the outer environment by a wall and large windows (mentioned already by Jech et al. 1992, p. 27; Scheufler and

25 Skalníková 1962). Many objects of vernacular architecture show clearly that a structure the colloquial term of which is konk (garbled expression from the German Gang corridor), was added to gabled houses secondarily, which can be recognized both from the technological joint between the house and the konk structure, and thanks to the asymmetrical shape of the roof the plane of which was extended above the konk later (Fig. 34). Figure 34: Forefront of a house in Ravensca. Thanks to the missing plaster coat, the older masonry phase of quarry stone is apparent (1), to which a konk (2) was later added with using modern building materials (ca in the second half of the 20th century), the entrance hole of which was later built up (3). Remarkable is the asymmetrical shape of the roof. Photo: V. Fanta, 2013 The next phase of layout development was reconstruction during which the originally gabled house changed into the longitudinally oriented house. This was most frequently achieved by adding another wing, which was parallel with the street. Thus, a characteristic L-shape ground plan came to existence (see Fig. 32 Ravensca, house no. 29). The homestead was then entered according to the Romanian custom through a passageway, which was closed by a large three-winged gate with various rich decorations. If the passageway was on the opposite side of the parcel than the old dwelling house (Ravensca, house no. 27), this space may have been already linking up with the konk of the new street wing. In the second case, the passageway was situated directly next to the old house and new rooms, most usually kitchen and stores were on its other side (Ravensca, house no. 29) (Fig. 35).

26 Figure 35. Ravensca, house no. 27. Current state is a result of reconstruction made in the 1970s when the originally two-room dwelling with a principal room, parlour and kitchen was added parallel with the street a longitudinal part with the older structure being preserved. Thus, an unusual combination of the older and younger layout emerged. Legend: (1) passageway, (2) konk corridor, (3) parlour (4) principal room, (5) dwelling room, (6) old parlour, (7) kitchen with open fire, (8) patul hay shed, (9) stall a part for cows, (10) stall a part for horses, (11) barn, (12) barn perna with sunken floor, (13) lavatory. Above on the left is ground plan development of the dwelling: (1) gabled house the oldest phase, (2) addition of the konk, (3) addition of the wing parallel with the street. Ulice = street. Drawing: A. Rákosníková, The so far last developmental stage is represented by houses that were built by members of the Czech ethnic group according to the Romanian customs right from the beginning. These objects have one longitudinal wing with a passageway from which a konk is accessed, which is located on the side to the yard (Sfânta Elena, house no. 87). During the 20 th century, changes occurred also in the used building materials. While a majority of today s houses are clay or masonry, the registry from 1910 mentions a predominant part of houses in Sfânta Elena and Gârnic to be masonry, in Ravensca and Bigar half masonry and half square timber (Gecse 2013b, s. 68) (Fig. 36).

27 Figure 36. Sfânta Elena, house no. 87. Legend: (1) main passageway, (2) konk, (3) parlour, (4) principal room, (5) dwelling room, (6) closet, (7) inaccessible space, apparently kitchen, (8) main yard, (9) cookhouse, (10) inaccessible space, (11) lavatory, (12) goat shed, (13) barn, (14) side passageway, (15) side yard. Ulice = street. Drawing: A. Rákosníková, Besides the layout, the difference between the individual phases of house Romanization shows also in the façade finish. While the current facades of the older gabled houses of the Czech layout are usually white with a simple representation of order architecture (see Fig. 11), the longitudinally oriented houses of the Romanian layout (or reconstructed older houses) have the facades often trimmed with diverse-coloured tiles in geometrical patterns (see Fig. 37).

28 Figure 37. Façade trimmed with geometrical patterns, a motif probably taken over from the Romanian cultural region (approx. 1970s, Gârnic). Photo: V. Fanta, 2013 It would be certainly interesting to investigate to what extent the abovementioned change of architectural customs resulted from the closeness of the Romanian culture, and to what extent it was motivated by purely practical needs, and / or what were the needs and reasons and why the older stages have been preserved in some houses and not in the other ones. Homestead A primary form of homestead built-up area was usually a dwelling house with other outbuildings at the back. Barn used to be located perpendicularly to the dwelling house axis. Behind the barn, there was a garden and other grounds according to terrain conditions. Buildings were gradually extended with the proceeding time and occupied other parts of the yard. Thus, the structure of individual homesteads became more concentrated. Most developed farms had the yard enclosed from all four sides (Ravensca house no. 29) (Fig. 38).

29 Figure 38. Ravensca, a abandoned homestead at the south end of the village. The homestead was abandoned some 20 years ago, and only external walls remain today. Legend: (1) dwelling, (2) basement part, (3) doorstep / konk remainders, (4) basement of doorstep / konk part with remainders of reinforced framing, (5) remainders of square timber object of unknown purpose, (6) remainders of patul with masonry ground floor, (7) remainders of masonry object of unknown purpose. Unfortunately, this object could not be surveyed in a greater detail due to the presence of one inhabitant a snake, which was probably very poisonous. Ulice = street. Drawing: A. Rákosníková, Other important structures Peter s watermills ( Petrovy mlýnky ) Not far from the village of Gârnic, there is an interesting technical work a system of five watermills. The two-room objects are situated above one another in a steep slope. The timbered mill-room neighbours with a tufa masonry room serving for temporary stalling of animals. The space is divided by a wooden partition reaching up to the height of walls. Approximately in the middle of the partition from the mill-room side, there is a furnace and above it a wide open chimney to draw off smoke. Water from the stream is brought to the watermills through a narrow and not very deep mill-race the bottom of which is built of stone and the channel of planks, or through a mill-race carved in the rock. The flow is regulated by a removable wooden partition. A pipe brings water to the horizontal mill wheel. Nowadays, the wheels have metal paddles but on a photograph from 1963 in the archives of the Institute of Ethnology ASCR, a mill wheel is shown with wooden paddles. A vertical shaft leads from the wheel directly to the millstone installed on a timber

30 structure called mill boundary. Not missing in the mill room are mill hopper for grains, a system of sieves or a grain bin with a spade for flour. Roof and gables used to be covered with shingles without groove and tongue. Today, this traditional roofing has been replaced by asbestos slate in some objects. Maps of stable cadastre, namely in Ravensca and Gârnic extravillans, show a number of other mills. Their location and characterization would certainly be an interesting task, if they still exist. Small sacred buildings Another of distinct phenomena by which architecture forms the region s character is a great number of small sacred buildings in the extravillan. This theme still waits for its more detailed research. Worth mentioning is that local children and namely unmarried young women take care of individual crosses and decorate them (Svoboda 2004) Technical aspects of building culture Considering the fact that technical aspects of building culture (i. e. building technologies and procedures, building materials etc.) have been dealt with by many other researchers (Jech et al. 1992, p. 28; Gecse 2013b), the below text will tackle the subject only briefly Building constructions and materials Czech villages in Banat will capture one s interest at the first sight by their authenticity and integrity, which is among other things thanks to the use of identical building constructions and materials. In general, the resulting face of vernacular structures stems from natural conditions, available materials, traditional procedures and experience. All these phenomena are very specific in the case of Banat (geographical location, social situation, multicultural character), and the buildings have to exhibit distinct characteristic features quite logically. Sfânta Elena and Gârnic are situated in the karst area. It is only natural that limestone and tufa are used as building materials, which occur also in combination with burnt bricks. In the case of Sfânta Elena, however, clay structures still represent the most frequently occurring type. They can be classified into two groups. The first group includes masonry buildings of adobe bricks cobs. The second group and in terms of technology more interesting group includes buildings erected by using truplování clay building technology. It is a masonry method using a mixture of clay puddle and tailings, which is stamped by wooden mallets into the space between two long boards fulfilling the role of a formwork. When one layer is stamped down, the timber elements are shifted, bolted, and create the form for a higher layer again. In the masonry produced in this way, we still can find impressions of hewn boards and line partitioning the individual layers. Interesting details in this type of construction are reinforcing wooden bars attached to the wall by straw binders to strengthen the corner sections or other exposed parts. This technology is used also in Moravia where it is called nabíjení (Škabrada 2007) (Fig. 39).

31 Figure 39. Clayed construction ( truplování ), partly worn by weather (probably outer wall of the yard, Sfânta Elena). Legend: (1) impressions after boarding, (2) timber reinforcement, (3) foundation of stones, (4) remainder of plaster. Coloured sections on the folding ruler correspond to 10 cm each. Digitally modified. Photo: V. Fanta, 2012 Unlike in Gârnic or Ravensca, one will not meet with square timber constructions in Sfânta Elena. Wooden walls are built of split or hewn boards 5 10 cm thick, and used not in dwelling houses but in pigsties and granaries. The traditionally most frequently used roofing was split shingle (Gecse 2013b, p. 68), which was replaced by burnt grooved tiles in the twentieth century. Plasters are pulled over skew strapping, paints are largely white and blue. Stucco decorations stem from Classical patterns of usual division: pillar transverse architrave cresting cornice, pilasters, Doric heads etc. Holes covered by metal plates with the floral motif apparent on the exterior face at the level of cresting fulfil an important role in attic ventilation. Cornices are often made of shaped timber profiles, not just by shaping of plaster by forms (Bigar). Up to now, one can see wooden hooks for gutters made of hollowed-out tree trunks. Traditional double windows are unfortunately being replaced today by plastic windows without division or three-pane plastic windows. Interesting is, however, that the three-pane windows, used probably in the 1970s, i. e. at the time of building boom (according to the information from local people), were made not industrially but by local carpenters. Thus, their angular style was enriched with traditional ornaments such as astragals in the shape of Classical columns or ornamental lacing with rabbet bead. Advanced building materials began to be used in Banat probably as late as in the Communist period (Gecse 2013b, p. 79).