Biljana Arandjelovic, Ana Momcilovic-Petronijevic
THE TYPOLOGY OF TRADITIONAL SLAVIC HOUSES A CASE STUDY OF SERBIA
TIPOLOGIJA TRADICIONALNIH SLOVANSKIH ZGRADB NA PRIMERU SRBIJE
UDK 72.03 : 728.6 COBISS 1.02 prejeto 11.9.2013
izvleček
Tradicionalne slovanske hiše so gradili iz netrajnih materialov in s pomočjo preprostih tehnik gradnje. O tem se lahko poučimo iz pisnih virov, predvsem etnografskih in zgodovinskih, neposredno pa iz zelo redkih še obstoječih primerov v izrazito slabem stanju in ustnega izročila, kar ga je še ostalo.
Hiše, ki so jih gradili Slovani po naselitvi na Balkanskem polotoku, so bile enoprostorske. Prve hiše so spominjale na prvotne domove iz nekdanje gozdnate karpatske domovine, vsaj v tistih predelih Balkana, ki so bili bogati z gozdovi. Prvotne oblike hiš v Srbiji so bile enoprostorske hiše, ki so se za časa turške vladavine (1454-1878) razvijale naprej. Študija vsebuje kronološki pregled od najzgodnejših tipov tradicionalnih hiš do višje razvite tradicionalne arhitekture v Srbiji.
abstract
Traditional Slavic houses were built of non-permanent materials using primitive construction techniques. It is possible to learn about them from literature sources of primarily an ethnographic or historical' nature, directly on the basis of very rare surviving examples, though these are in considerably poor conditions and through the remaining folklore.
Houses built by South Slavs when they settled in the Balkan Peninsula were single-roomed. Their first houses had a resemblance to the primitive homes in their wooded Carpathian homeland, at least in those regions of the Balkans that were rich in forests. The first forms of houses in Serbia were single-roomed houses, which were further developed during the Turkish rule in Serbia (1454-1878). The paper gives a chronological overview, from the earliest types of traditional houses to better developed traditional architecture in Serbia.
ključne besede
Srbska hiša, tradicionalno bivališče, dediščina, koča, vernakularna arhitektura
key words
Serbian house, traditional housing, heritage, hut, vernacular architecture
Introduction
When the Slavs arrived in the Balkans, it was a time of great population movement from northern Europe. These movements did not allow any long delays or choice of permanent dwellings. It all boiled down to the creation of temporary habitations and primitive shelters using mostly natural features (caves, semi-dugouts, dugouts, etc.). The early development of Slavic houses meant using suitable natural shelters, which required a minimum of upgrades and efforts to obtain a more or less satisfactory living habitat. The first forms of habitation constructed in this way provided only basic protection.
Having come into these parts, which were quite different from their homeland, the Slavs had to adapt to new conditions of both climate and soil. It is therefore natural that this process of adaptation affected the organization of housing areas and new settlements, which were formed in the synthesis of traditional habits and economic patterns one hand, and their newly found reality, on the other hand. Findings from some sites of this period confirm that the remains of the houses are mainly from logs. This is natural, because wood at the time was plentiful in the area. It was relatively easy and quick to build with wooden logs as opposed to building stone or rammed-earth walls.
The concept of home for most of the southern Slavs in the Balkan Peninsula related to the one room where there was a fire burning and which they entered directly from the outside, or via a porch. The same word occurs in most Slavic nations, so it is probable that all the Slavs had this first phase of housing, a single-roomed house. However, other nations also used to start their colonization with the minimum space needed for life, thus the single-roomed house is not specifically an ancient Slavic house, but a generic one connected to the primitive way of life [Cvijic, 1922].
There are no absolutely reliable data on what kind of houses the Southern Slavs built after settling in the Balkan Peninsula, but it is very likely that these were single-roomed houses similar to those that were built later, after their migration. Also, it is likely that their first houses had similarities with the primitive houses of their wooded Trans-Carpathian homeland, at least in those regions of the Balkans that were abundant with forests. But these are all assumptions. What is certainly known is that single-roomed log-houses [1] or wattle-and-daub houses [2] were very frequent in the Turkish period, and after Turkish occupation they remained as shepherds' huts or homes for poor families. There is a clear conceptual link between these and single-roomed
THE TYPOLOGY OF TRADITIONAL SLAVIC HOUSES, A CASE STUDY OF SERBIA
ancient Slavic houses: the old experience and old method of construction of the simplest houses was replicated under the primitive conditions of the Turkish times [Cvijic, 1922]. The development of Southern Slavic houses had a course slightly different from the development of other Slavic houses. Unlike the flat and swampy Trans-Carpathian lands from where the Slavs came, the Balkan Peninsula had a completely different climate and landscape. A large number of Slavs settled in the area near the Adriatic coast, in bare and rocky areas with a Mediterranean climate; here they found houses of stone, completely different in their form and arrangement, both inside and out, than the ancient Slavic single-roomed houses. Even the new houses that they built after settling there could not be wooden due to the lack of wood, so it is impossible to compare the development of the Southern Slavic Mediterranean houses and the wooden houses of the Slavs in the northern regions. The South Slavs came in direct contact with the Byzantine civilization, and they admired its architecture: it is evident in the Vardar area, in Thrace [21] and in the Maritsa Basin [22].
This was not the case with other Slavs. The types of Southern Slavic houses on the Balkan Peninsula developed, therefore, under very different natural and cultural conditions than the houses of the Russians, Poles, Czechs and Sorbs. Therefore, parallel observation of the development of South Slavic houses and the houses of other Slavs does not yield comparable data [Cvijic, 1922].
The impact of the existing indigenous nations, prevalently the Byzantine influence on the Serbian building tradition was certainly considerable but not absolute; thus, the tradition did not lose its individual characteristics. There is almost no data on the extent and intensity of these influences. However, since the eighteenth century, further development of the Slavic house can be traced in most areas, either directly via preserved buildings or on the basis of ethnographic research in Serbia. The oldest mention of how old Slavic houses looked after Slavic settlement in the Balkans can be found in the writings of some contemporary writers, and passing travellers. Procopius (Greek - npoKonio^, c. 500-565), Byzantine writer and historian, wrote that Slavic homes were miserable huts made of mud and wood, whose position changed frequently, and which were scattered far from each other [Deroko, 1968]. Also, according to the Strategikon, a 7th century document about military skills, which is attributed to the Byzantine emperor Maurice (born 539, reigned 582-602 AD) [Jiriček, 1922], each Slavic house had more than one entrance (until 20 years ago in former Yugoslavia, it was usual that farmhouses had two opposite doors). The Arab traveller, Harun ben Yahya, who was traveling in 880 from Thessaloniki to Spalato, visited the areas of Serbia and noted that the Slavic houses were made of wood [Jiriček, 1922]. In addition, the writings of many other travellers pointed to the poor quality of construction and materials of Slavic houses. So, this indicates that the housing architecture in the Middle Ages was most often realized in wood and earth, and in rare cases, of stone (where this material was plentiful). Slavic colonization of
the country, according to the historian Konstantin Jiriček, meant returning to the status of pre-Roman times [Cvijic, 1922].
The oldest settlement in Serbia
The first shelters from the storm, which the ancient Slavs in Serbia erected wherever they stopped, were built as primitive shelters intended for housing. The construction material used was wood and earth. They were quite simple to construct, without any need of craftsmenship or technical experience [Kojic, 1973]. Dugout houses (Zemunice), Semi-dugout houses (lagumice) and huts (burdelji) are the simplest forms of old Slav settlements on the Serbian territory that can be established. Dugout houses and semi-dugout shelters are built in loess. There were present mainly in Vojvodina (northern Serbia), although there are data about their presentce in Bela Palanka, Pirot and Aleksinac (southeast Serbia). Huts [3] - are a type of semi-dugout houses with a rectangular base. There were particularly present in Negotinska Krajina (eastern Serbia). The Naslon was used primarily as a shelter from bad weather, or as temporary protection, although in some cases it was used for family housing [Deroko, 1968]. This is the first form of habitation built on the surface of the ground (not dug-in). It consists of a series of slanted columns supported by a beam that lies on two stilts [4]. It is covered by turf. Other known forms used for housing in Serbia are Sibari, Busara and Dubirog or Savrdak. Though being different in terms of their floor plan, structure and type of cover, all the mentioned forms belong to the same type. All have a circular base for reasons of simplicity in construction of the roof structure and the easy drainage of a small conical roof.
The Sibara is one of the oldest and most primitive shelters. It has a circular layout forming a conical volume. It is created by arranging the logs (siba) to converge to one apex, while forming a circle on the ground. It is covered by turf and roofing. Sometimes it is dug into the ground for better protection from the cold [Kojic, 1949]. There are no windows, no chimneys or floors. People slept on straw, with their legs oriented towards makeshift doors that are located between two spaced logs. Over time, the area near the fire was enclosed by a low fence of woven wicker, which also represents the first hint of separating people from animals, which often stayed indoors due to the cold weather, [Vukosavljevic, 1965]. It can have a diameter at its base of up to 5m, with a side inclination of 45-60°. The Dubirog was a more developed form of sibara. This development is more reflected in the manner of construction than in the form. The most significant indication is an attempt to separate walls from the roof, which is obvious in the more advanced types [Kojic, 1949]. The walls of a dubirog are made of wicker, plastered with mud on both sides. The layout is still a circle, often made of stone walls, and the vertical plane of the walls was obtained by high curved siba (logs). It is characteristic of southwestern Serbia.
The Busara is similar to the sibara. Those are in fact structures where a layer of bark or fern is placed first over the cone of the
THE TYPOLOGY OF TRADITIONAL SLAVIC HOUSES, A CASE STUDY OF SERBIA
logs, and then earth turfs are used to fill the space between the log rows, starting from the bottom-end up, which also serves as a cover. At the top of the cone an opening was left for smoke [Deroko, 1968]. They could be found in Gornji Ibar, Lepenica (central Serbia), and around Belgrade. In addition to circular base habitats there are also those with a rectangular layout, namely: krivulja, lubara, korka, koliba and others. The dwellings with an elongated base belong to the transitional type, where there are still no corners, but there is ridge board as a more complex type of construction. The Krivulja or krivača is this type of shelter where the main disadvantages of sibara were rectified: the sides are vertical to a certain height, and the base is elongated [Kojic, 1949]. In this way a more comfortable height in a cross section was obtained. It is built by joining the curved logs together in pairs, which are joined at the ends around one rafter, which serves as a ridge. They are typical of southwestern Serbia, Podrinje and Šumadija. The Lubara is similar to the krivulja in terms of its form and construction. What is characteristic is the roof cover of tree bark. Due to the nature of the roof cover, its structure was changed to become a gabled roof, because it was impossible to cover round and angled surfaces with the tree bark. The lubara is considered a precursor of the loghouse, as it has two gable walls made of logs.
Nowadays these mentioned habitations are very rarely seen in their original function - for housing. More often we see them as livestock keepers' shelters or small farming buildings. In this region there is a wide variety of forms and types of such habitats which depend, first of all, on the available material and the anticipated function of the structure.
The first houses
The first houses in Serbia appeared as a legacy of the original Slavic settlements. The first houses had only one room. They were small, with a layout of 3-4m by 3-4m. An open hearth was in the middle of this room, surrounded by stone slabs. The fire burned at all times and gave light and heat. The smoke came out through the cover because there was no special opening for it. There was no ceiling. There were no beds, but people slept on the dirt floor next to the fire, on straw or hay. The floor was made of packed clay. The door was always open for light and air. The windows were small, 30/40 cm, and often sealed with paper or animal skin [Kojic, 1949].
The hut - Koliba is significantly different from the mentioned types in that the walls are different from the roof, and therefore it occupies an important place in the development of residential buildings. The roof is on the low walls, not on the ground. This is where the first eaves appear, an important step towards the first proper house. The main supporting elements of the koliba are stilts with a ridge board and outer walls which are made of a series of columns driven into the ground [Kojic, 1949]. The logs that support the cover are supported by the ridge board and the exterior walls. The columns are woven around with wicker and plastered with a layer of clay. Such shelters were used extensively in the Morava river area and Vojvodina. The Pletara is formed from the further development of huts. Foundations appear as a result of significant progress in the
structure. In ordinary pletara huts, the walls were built of a series of wooden pillars (logs) dug into the ground, around which was wicker was woven, and they were plastered with mud. The roof covering was supported with forked poles. By raising the walls onto foundations, fixation using columns (logs) disappeared, so the need for braces in the bearing walls arose. In this system, the main forked poles disappeared, and the roof structure was supported by ceiling joists and external walls. The building thus had the appearance of a real house. Under this system, these Demijohns were primitive houses built especially in the Morava River (central Serbia) and Vojvodina (northern Serbia) [Kojic, 1949].
Serbia is divided into three large regions, according to its climatic conditions and available building materials. In regions with plenty of wood the brvnara (loghouse) [1] is dominant, while the bondrucara half - timbered constructions are representative for areas with a little less wood. Houses made of earth are characteristic for regions with a lack of wood, such as the Pannonian plain. There are also varieties of these types.
Brvnara
The Brvnara (loghouse) type of house is known in all forested areas of the Balkan Peninsula. It is a house built in the dispersed mountain villages, in livestock keeping regions. In Serbia it has been most widespread in the Raska region, in the Drina valley and Sumadija (western and central Serbia). The log cabin is most often a ground-floor building sometimes with only one room. Due to the changes in the way of life it later evolved into somewhat more complex shapes, so nowadays houses of this type can be divided into three groups: those with only one room, then those with two rooms - the house' [5] and the room, and the house' the room and a basement, the so called houses on celica' [6] [Rodic, 1999].
The ground level loghouse - prizemljuša, is a ground-floor house with one room. It is always a free-standing structure, without support from neighboring buildings. It is of a square layout, built without foundations on a bed of coarse stones at the four corners of the ground foundation beam. On these beams are laid horizontal stacks of logs, forming walls. The roof is high and steep and covered with roof straw, and at a later stage with shingle.
The Log house under shingles [7] which consisted of one room is the initial type of loghouse in Serbia in the 19th century. The fireplace was in the middle of the house. The door was usually positioned in the corner, and never in the middle of the wall. The height of the wall was about 2 meters. The Straw roof loghouse is also a house consisting of one room, similar to a log house under shingles, usually square in layout. In it too, there was a fireplace in the middle of the house. In the eighteenth century there were more straw roof loghouses and shingle roof loghouses [Kojic, 1949].
After the liberation from Turkish rule (1878), there was a change in the construction of rural houses, by the gradual addition of rooms. The one-roomed loghouse was divided into the house and the room. Initially, this division was done by inserting woven wicker or board partitions in order to protect the fireplace and sleeping section from the wind and draft. The next stage
THE TYPOLOGY OF TRADITIONAL SLAVIC HOUSES, A CASE STUDY OF SERBIA
in its development was the appearance of a storage room, a small department intended to accommodate a variety of things. With the emergence of a storage room, the loghouse obtains a second door positioned opposite the existing ones. The room took its regular function after the installation of windows and earthen stoves. It was used for sleeping, keeping clothing and receiving guests. The room was entered from the house and not from outside [Rodic, 1999]. The main section, the House' fully retained its form, its purpose and name. The room was used primarily for ceremonies and the winter stay. The House' [5] has the basic form of a loghouse. It is the focal point of the entire family life. It is the only place where a fire is burning constantly. It is the beginning of the spatial development of the house. New rooms were added around this room.
The next stage in the development of the loghouse is its development in a vertical direction, which is enabled by setting the house on sloping terrain. The structure is placed on the slope perpendicular to isohypses, thus providing another room - the cellar or storeroom, which is situated below the house. This type of house is known in literature as 'house on the celica' [6].
Figure 1: Brvnara [Source: Ana Momčilovič-Petronijevič] Slika 1: Brvnara.
The Brvnara (loghouse) osacanka is the most clearly expressed type of loghouses in terms of style. It is considered the best representative of wooden architecture that developed in Serbia in the first half of the nineteenth century. It was very widespread in the Drina valley and Šumadija (western and central Serbia). It was named after Osat, a region in eastern Bosnia, from where the Osecani master builders came [Rodic, 1999]. The construction techniques of osacanka were at a high level. The only building material was oak, worked using hand tools, with precision and safety. Even the production of the surface curves was completely accurate in its appropriate diameter. A prominent feature of the osacanka was a very high and steep roof covered with shingle [7], and the chimney was covered with a cap [8]. The Dinara loghouse is a house of mountainous and hilly regions south of the rivers Sava and Danube, and it occupies more area than any other type of house in Serbia. It was widespread all over central and western Serbia, in Bosnia, in Herzegovina and
in the majority of Montenegro. It is built of horizontally laid logs cross-fixed at the corners. Its base is rectangular, with a high roof covered with wooden boards, straw, and in some areas with stone tiles. There are usually two doors positioned opposite to each other [Findrik, 1994].
The Vaj at is a small structure that was used for housing a married member of the extended household family (households had many members, of several generations). It usually has only one room where there is only a wide bed, chests for clothes and a shelf [10] on the wall. There is no fireplace in the vajat. The vajat sometimes has a porch.
Wooden log churches are churches formed out of wood. In Serbia, wooden churches appeared in the early Middle Ages. They originated from the form of the ordinary house. Churches made of wood were particularly built in the Sumadija, Drina and Morava valleys (western and central Serbia) in the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. During the Ottoman rule the wooden churches were hidden in dense forests and were of a modest scale. The arrangment of the space inside them basically corresponds to the fundamental requirements of the Orthodox Church canons, ie. each had a narthex, nave and altar, no crypts and no galleries.

Figure 2: Pokajnica Church near Velika Plana [Source: Ana Momčilovič-Petronijevič]
Slika 2: Cerkev Pokajnica, blizu Velike Plane.
The structural system was suited to the loghouse construction principles, but certain types were modeled after the existing churches built of stone. Thus, the apses had a semicircular or octagonal layout, which is not fully justified when building with logs. The interior space of the church is covered with a concave vault made of boards that were nailed to the roof from the inside, in a desire to replicate the vaults of the churches built of stone. After the First Serbian Uprising in 1804, building began with an increased intensity, and progress was made in church building. Log churches were still constructed, but were much larger in size and with an open porch in front of the narthex. The porch
THE TYPOLOGY OF TRADITIONAL SLAVIC HOUSES, A CASE STUDY OF SERBIA
is quite a rare phenomenon in Serbian Orthodox churches and it is supposed to have been introduced by Osacani master builders
[11]	after the model of the Muslim places of worship, which still have similar porches. There are two types of old wooden churches: smaller ones without an entrance porch and the larger ones with a porch. Smaller churches were built under Turkish rule, and then larger ones after the liberation, mostly between 1820 and 1830.
Decoration of the loghouse cottage was very humble. Color was not applied in the decoration of loghouses, but only engraving
[12]	[Kojic, 1949].
The church in Takovo is preserved as the oldest pure representative of the smaller type. The prominent ones are the church Pokajnica near Velika Plana, Cvetka near Kraljevo, Dub near Bajina Bašta, Gorobilje near Požega, Pranjani near Gornji Milanovac and many others.
A good example of a wooden church is Pokajnica Church near Velika Plana. The church was built in 1818 at the place where Karadjorde was assassinated [13]. It belongs to the type of log churches built in Šumadija and the Drina valley (central and western Serbia) after the liberation from the Turks. The church is divided into the altar, nave, narthex and porch. Over the main part of the altar is the vault built of boards. The altar wall is polygonal. The windows are situated on the longitudinal walls.
Semi loghouse
Due to the increasing population, and therefore the increased intensity of construction, the areas covered by forest with material suitable for construction were gradually reduced. As early as the mid-nineteenth century the abundant timber disappeared, leading to new types of loghouses, semi-loghouses-semi-wickerhouses. Parts of the building, usually the room,
Figure 3: House Bondučara in Ravna near Knjaževac [Source: Ana Momčilovič-Petronijevič] Slika 3: Hiša Bondučara v naselju Ravna, Knjaževac.
THE TYPOLOGY OF TRADITIONAL SLAVIC HOUSES, A CASE STUDY OF SERBIA
Figure 4: House on salaš [23] in Vojvodina [Source: Ana Momcilovic-Petronijevic] Slika 4: Hiša na salašu v Vojvodini.
were built in post-and-pan construction filled with wicker [2], while the 'house' [5] was still built of logs. The basic layout of the rooms remained the same as in the osacanka' [11] with two rooms, but half the fagade was of timber and half was painted white. The roofs still remained hipped, but were not covered with shingle, rather with tiles [14]. In the mid-nineteenth century, the polubrvnara polučatmara' developed into a house with three partitions. The 'house' [5] kept its form. There were still no windows on it. The room' was divided into two parts and now there was a room for children and a small guest room. The fireplace was now positioned next to the partition wall. There were still two opposite doors as in the osacanka. The room had two and sometimes four small windows [Kojic, 1949].
The traditional bondručara house (post-and-pan)
The Bondučara house was built in areas where there was no solid wood, but plenty of low quality wood. It was widespread in the area from the Morava River in the west to Timok in the east, and along the entire valley of the Južna Morava (southeast Serbia). This house is found in a large part of Serbia. These are ground-floor buildings of a square layout, detached on all sides. The simplest form is a single-roomed house. It then developed into a two-roomed house, the house' [5] and the room'. While the size of loghouses was limited by the material, the layout of
the bondučara could be expanded and partitioned much more freely. The simplest forms of these houses can be built in the following way: four vertical wooden corner columns are set in the ground (with a diameter of about 10-12cm, and a height of about 2m above the ground). On the top, the ends are connected to the frame of four horizontal beams that would support the roof. The eaves project out approximately 50-80 cm [Deroko, 1968].
Bondručara are houses with a skeleton of wooden battens bearing the filling of the walls. Therefore, the basic structural element of a bondučara is a skeleton of light timber for the entire building. The walls are filled with light material, such as earth and adobe. There is variation when the laths retaining the mud plaster are nailed to the wooden skeleton, or the mud mortar is plastered over the wicker. The bondučara is a house built in areas with a temperate climate. The facades are plastered with mud to protect it from the rain and sun, so they are made with wide eaves overhangs. There are no gutters. The roof coverings are tiles [14] and straw. The roof inclinations are mild. As there is not much snow, there is no need for a steep roof. The roofs are always hipped. The attic space is not used [Deroko, 1964]. The interior arrangement is similar to the loghouse. In addition to the original simple room with an open hearth in the middle, a room is added, a small pantry, and particularly a front porch.The
THE TYPOLOGY OF TRADITIONAL SLAVIC HOUSES, A CASE STUDY OF SERBIA
porch was used for the storage of tools, for drying agricultural products and as a useful transit link to the yard. The houses were in the yard and not on the street front.
Different influences can be seen on the forms of these houses, their accessories and decorations, mainly the impact of the existing feudal system, then the Byzantine-Oriental, and influences that are related to economic and cultural development, and consequently there are many subtypes of this house. In this variety of types and the influences it is possible to single out the Morava type houses [15].
The Morava house often has a square, and less frequently a rectangular base. It was built of wicker, wattle [2] or adobe [16] and covered with tiles [14]. It has a distinctive woven chimney covered with a sloping layer. The old Morava house consisted of an ajat [17], a house and a room. In the second half of the nineteenth century, another room was added to it, and at the end of the century it obtained four parts. An ajat is a kind of porch and the main feature of the Morava house [Rodic, 1999].
Houses made of earth in Vojvodina (north Serbia)
Vojvodina once used to be the Pannonian sea [18]. After the sea dried up, in this area stone was very hard to find in order to build the houses. Brick was not the solution either, because wood was necessary for its production and at that time there was a serious lack of wood in Vojvodina. That is the reason why the buildings were built of cerpič [16], and more often of earth. The position of the walls was marked on the ground, and then the sheeting was constructed of timber boards. Compact earth mixed with water and sawdust was placed between the boards. When one layer got dry, the boards were raised to the next level, so the next layer could be created. That way the same boards were used repeatedly to build walls, with an approximate height of 2.202.50 m. The ceiling was usually made of vitlo [20]. The roof was almost always pitched and covered with straw [Deroko, 1968].
living space. Nowadays, in terms of construction, there is much less connection with the tradition, and the rural houses ara being built rather stochastically. Thus, it is advisable to make the review or classification of earlier forms of habitats, in order to contribute to their conservation, at least through the documentation. Hence, it is important to retain awareness about the importance of preservation of inherited and traditional values, which origin from distant past.
References
Cvijic, J. (1922): Balkansko poluostrvo. Beograd. Deroko, A. (1964): Folklorna arhitektura u Jugoslaviji. Naučna knjiga, Beograd.
Deroko, A. (1968): Narodno neimarstvo I. SANU, Beograd. Deroko, A. (1968): Narodno neimarstvo II. SANU, Beograd. Findrik, R. (1994): Narodno neimarstvo-stanovanje. Muzej Staro selo, Sirogojno.
Jiriček, K. (1922): Istorija Srba I. Beograd.
Kojic, B. (1949): Stara gradska i seoska aritektura u Srbiji. Prosveta, Beograd.
Rodic, Z. (1999): Razvoj seoske kuce i stanovanje u Srbiji.
Etnografski muzej, Beograd. Vukosavljevic, S. (1965): Istorija seljačkog društva II. Naučno delo, Beograd.
Conclusion
Rural house represents the reflection of natural, cultural, historical social and economic conditions, as well as the technical possibilities at the time the house was built. The oldest forms of habitation in this region represent the most simple habitats such as zemunica, lagumica, sibara, dubiroga, then busara, lubara...This forms precede the latter, more developed forms such as kolibe and pletari.. The increase in man's needs led to development of living space, and therefore, to development of new, more advanced forms of habitation. On the territory of Serbia, dominant forms were: brvnara (western and eastern Serbia), bondručara (eastern and southern regions of country) and houses made of earth (northern Serbia). House maintains the spirit of region to which it belongs. For its construction locally available materials are used, and it is built using traditional skills and techniques. However, with the development of villages, house becomes less dependent on materials available nearby. Newly built houses are becoming more influenced by urban architecture and modernisation of
THE TYPOLOGY OF TRADITIONAL SLAVIC HOUSES, A CASE STUDY OF SERBIA
Notes
[1]	Brvnara - a wooden building of logs or planks
[2]	Čatma-woven wicker (wattle) that is plastered; Čatmara - a house made of wattle
[3]	Burdelj - a kind of semi dug in shelter. It is a an excavated pit, sometimes covered with turf and soil
[4]	Soja, soha - a forked pole which supports something with its fork (ridge board),
[5]	House - the center of the entire family life, the only place where a fire constantly burns. It is the beginning of the spatial development of a house. New rooms are added around this room.
[6]	Kuca na celici - a house built on sloped ground, whose lower part is semi-dug-in, it is used as a basement or a barn.
[7]	Shingle - cleaved fir or oak planks that cover the roofs of log or post and pan houses. Board may be furrowed on one side and the other roughly dressed appropriately for the connection.
[8]	Kapic - distinctive element of the chimney, which serves to protect the fire from snow and rain.
[9]	Prince Miloš Obrenovic (1780-1860) was the prince of Serbia from 1815 to 1839 and from 1858 to 1860. He participated in the First Serbian Uprising and led the Serbian insurgents in the Second Serbian Uprising (the founder of the Obrenovic dynasty). During his rule, Serbia became an autonomous principality within the Ottoman Empire.
[10]	Raf - a shelf attached high to a wall, near the ceiling, along the the whole periphery of the wall
[11]	Osacanka - log cabins that were built by Osacani. Osacani -master builders from Osat, a place in Bosnia
[12]	Duborez - wood carving - engraving decorating
[13]	Karadjordje Djordje Petrovic (1768 -1817) was a Serb leader of the First Serbian Uprising against the Ottoman Empire, and the founder of the Serbian House of Karadjordjevic
[14]	Ceramida - roofing of trough shaped fired clay
[15]	The Morava House - a house in the Morava valley with false arches on its facade
[16]	Cerpič - adobe dried in the sun only
[17]	Ajat - a kind of porch and the main feature of the Morava house.
[18]	The Pannonian Sea was an open body of water that existed in the area of the Pannonian Basin for about 30 million years ago and disappeared about 600, 000 years ago. It covered the territory between the Alps in the west and the Dinarides to the south and the Carpathian and Rhodopes mountains in the east and southeast. In Serbia this is the Vojvodina area.
[19]	Pleva - dry straw or hay
[20]	Vitla - wooden sticks with ropes of straw wrapped around them, and then rolled in the mud and so glued to each other over the entire room, thus forming the ceiling
[21]	Thrace - an area in the extreme southeastern part of the Balkan Peninsula
[22]	Maritsa - the longest river in the interior of the Balkan Peninsula, which springs in Bulgaria. It flows between the Rhodope Mountains in Bulgaria and the Stara Planina (Balkan) mountains. It is the border river between Bulgaria and Greece and between Greece and Turkey (185 km). It flows into the Aegean Sea in Greece. Its river basin covers 54,000 km^.
[23]	Salaš - grange - field estate with the main house and auxiliary buildings for catlle keeping and land cultivation. Nowadays they are being efficiently exploited for tourism purposes.
Assistant Professor, Dr Biljana Arandjelovic University of Niš, Faculty for Civil Engineering and Architecture A. Medvedeva 14, 18000 Nis, Serbia biljana.arandjelovic@gaf.ni.ac.rs
Assistant, Ana Momcilovic-Petronijevic University of Niš, Faculty for Civil Engineering and Architecture A. Medvedeva 14, 18000 Nis, Serbia momcilovicanact@yahoo.com