Original scientific paper
Traditional Architecture in the Lower Lonja River Region (Lonjsko Polje)
Marijana Belaj
orcid.org/0000-0002-7231-7811
; Department of Ethnology and Cultural Anthropology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
This article deals with the information and material obtained during a research effort entitled The investigation and determination of the current state of ethno-monuments in Croatia (or shortly Ethnoaction) organized by the Regional office for the protection of cultural monuments in Zagreb (today's Administration for the protection of cultural heritage of the Ministry of culture), from September 1991 until may 1992, in Lonjsko polje. The object of this research effort (registering the cultural monuments, specifically those related to the traditional architecture), has determined the means and the form of the data and material which was obtained.
The article contains the typology of the housings and the residential and farm buildings, and that was the only possible method for the systematization of the data and material obtained. The housings in Lonjsko polje are typically assembled in the form of long bands, and consist of the housing (containing the residential yard and the farm yard) and the agricultural area which is the continuation of it. Considering the arrangement of the housing buildings, certain regularities have been noticed. The typology of the residential buildings has been done on the basis of the general form of the building and the spatial arrangement of the buildings. Two basic types of houses have been determined (the single-story house and one-story house - čardak), together with their variants. Farm buildings were divided according to their function. Since data on some investigated objects were missing or were insufficient, they were supplemented with a field research in 1994 and with relevant literature.
In the same time, on the basis of the additional research, we can talk about the building trade and about specific construction elements in the traditional architecture of Lonjsko polje.
The material obtained in Ethnoaction also lacks detailed information about the culture of residence, about the attitudes that the inhabitants of Lonjsko polje have towards their own buildings and forms of residence, about the ways the traditional architecture (as well as other cultural elements) has been determined by certain factors, and so on.
Although protection plan which is being carried out in Lonjsko polje talks about the protection of the cultural heritage of Lonjsko polje and about the preservation of the harmonious coexistence of people and their environment, in practice, the protection is concerned only with the traditional architecture, or, in other words, with the building heritage. Limited and uncomplete understanding of the concept of building heritage within the framework of Ethnoaction, has created an incomplete, and hence, wrong idea about the traditional architecture of Lonjsko polje, and the protection of only this segment of the whole cultural system leads to wrong results. Moreover, the selection of certain cultural segments from a broader region (similar building forms can be found, for example, in the broader regions of Posavina, in Turopolje and in Pokuplje), creates an impression of 'uniqueness', 'authenticity' and 'originality'.
These problems are addressed on the basis of the selected writings and field research carried out in the year 2002.
Keywords
traditional architecture; Lonjsko polje
Hrčak ID:
48527
URI
Publication date:
8.9.2003.
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