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ARCHITECTURE

Before presenting the house of Mehedinti it is worth mentioning a few types of rudimentary construc¬tions connected with the beginnings of the art of building, which served especially as temporary shelters. Thus there are the so-called "hut stones", small natural shelters of the type of the less deep caves, completed with a wall of big stone blocks, serving as shelter in hard up circumstances for shepherds in the Alpine grazing areas. Another rudimentary shelter is "tuta", a cone-shaped construction built of pillars dug in the ground bearing a roof made of dry fern. As "tuta". "coliba de bacie" (cheesemongery hut) serves as shelter also to the shep¬herds ; the plan of this hut is however rectangular. There were also practiced "bordeile" (cots) a little deepened into the ground as well as the circular "poetile" made of woven twigs, the two categories being dwellings of old tradition left to be used only by the poor people, nowadays being completely lost.

In the area of the places of culture and hayfields, on the high step of the plateau, there are to be met with numerous "conace", permanent isolated settlements, consisting of a small house, cots and "palanci" (a sort of "belts" made of stakes and woven twigs), surrounded by a fence, resembling thus to a household with fortified enclosure, which one may also come across in other regions of Romania.

The house of Mehedinti has in general a high stone base, resolving many a time sensible level diffe¬rences of the ground, in such a way that on one side the footing may be so high as to give the impression of a real ground floor over which the wooden walls are built, supported by massive oak ,,urşi" (girders). The walls are made of round fir or oak trunks, the carving being done afterwards. The roof of the old houses was very tall and it was covered with shingles.

As regards the plan of the house, Mehedinti makes conspicuous itself in the ensemble of the Roma¬nian folk architecture, by two important characteristics : ; the high frequent occurrence of the plan with partial veranda, namely stretching only in front of one of the house rooms, and, more especially, the disposal of the fireplace towards the front wall.

With regard to the elevation, we may distinguish two types of house: low and high. The low house, in its turn, may be: a) without veranda, b) with partial veranda, c) with veranda along the whole front side. The characteristic type, as we have already said, is that with partial veranda, an archaic Romanian type of house, being met with also in other areas of old tradition. Within this type there are to be found five categories of plans, depending on the number and the disposal of the rooms: 1. the house with partial veranda placed in an asymmetric way and having two rooms, 2. the house with partial veranda placed in asymmetric way but having three rooms, 3. house with partial veranda placed in an asymmetric way, having three rooms, one of them being a median room, 4. house with partial veranda placed in asymmetric way, with three rooms, but with two entrances from the veranda (with the first three categories it was one entrance from the veranda), 5. house with partial veranda, placed in a symmetric way, at the middle of the front side, with three rooms, with one entrance.

The tall house has not a too much frequent occurrence in Mehedinti j the differentiation in types is made on the same criterion of the partial veranda and of the veranda along the whole front side. The fagades of the tall houses of Mehedinti have a remarkable architectural expressive character resulted from the play of the solid and hollow parts. Sometimes the massive ground floor is replaced by an enfilade of pillars supporting the veranda of the storey.

As regards the ornamental work, it may be said that, in comparison with the decoration of the house from the neighboring Gorj for instance, that of the house of Mehedinti is more simple and robust, impressing more by the great harmony of the volumes than by the brilliant details so as they appear in the works of the Gorj craftsmen.

The main decorative system of the house of Mehedinti consists of the vertical pillars supporting the main girder (cosoroaba) of the veranda, on which there are based the crossbeams, sometimes bent in the shape of a horse neck. The pillars are relatively thick, having a square section with the side between 12 to 18 cm. The pillars of circular section are rarely met with ; occasionally these are wound. The main girder, called "pragar" or "florar", is as long as the house (7 to 10 meters). The carvings are used on the lower face of the beam, that which is seen from the veranda. The pillar-horse-girder system is now and then completed. — more rarely than in Gorj —, with "andreaua" (knitting needle), a sort of wooden pilaster semi engaged in the wall, covering the protruding ends of the girders of the transversal walls. In the lower part of the veranda, the decorative system is made whole with the balustrade worked of thick boards put vertically, simple in the past, today fretted.

The house is undoubtedly the most important construction in a household, but not the only one; it is surrounded by numerous other constructions, of different types, shapes and dimensions, fulfilling various eco¬nomic functions, and these functions are multiple in an area like Mehedinti, characterized by a complex eco¬nomy in which next to agriculture and cattle breeding there are also practiced wine and fruit growing as well as various crafts. Besides these there are too the mills, the fulling-mills, other peasant technical installations. Amongst the outbuildings of Mehedinti it is worth mentioning the gates, frequently tall, carved in oak wood ; there are then the stables with hay stores, the barns, the cellars, each of these connected, respectively with the cattle growing, agriculture, viticulture. Let us also mention the so-called "wells with horses", systems of collecting the slope sources, having the side beams carved in the shape of a horse head.

The traditional aspects and the new ones are interdependent in the field of folk architecture as well as in the other fields of the folk art in general. With regard to the house of Mehedinti, there are naturally recorded changes and emergences of new elements, both with respect to materials and techniques as well as to ornamental work and more especially to plans, appearing houses with more rooms. The new house preserves however the same sense of proportions and of traditional ornamental work, although sometimes the place of the wooden pillars is taken by the wall columns and arcades.

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