Morava House

By the early 20th century, two types of building houses were in use – log cabin or house, also known as the Dinara House and the Morava House (Moravka) built in the “bondruk” technique, the latter often seen in the central, eastern and southern Serbia. The log houses also had a shingle roof. Moravka had a wooden frame filled in with wattle and daub – the bondruktechnique. Whatever the type, the house would usually have two parts – one called the house, where there was a hearth , a kitchen table and tripods, and the other part was – the room, actually a bedroom with a stove. The Morava House style came to the Morava river region in the period of the great Serbian migrations from Kosovo and was developed from a so-called Kosovo ground-floor house. First a porch was added, then another room, then the porch was extended to chardak which sometimes served as a bedroom. If the house had the first floor, the porch was divided in two – ayet and doksat – the upper structure built for repose. Porches were usually built of well shaped wooden planks and later on arches were added, a speciality of the Morava House. Unfortunately, in the 20th century, those pretty houses were replaced with more modern (uglier) ones. Today we can them only at the backs of a farmhouse yards, neglected and dilapidated, used only for storage. In the recent years, one may see a Morava house built here and there, and the type of construction survived only in building the monasterial residential quarters.