The plan of the house was simple: the older ones had two or three rooms: "tinda", "cămara" (a store room) and "casa", evolving toward the end of the 18th century to the house with several rooms which was very judiciously partitioned.
The walls of the buildings were made of wide thick beams, the oak beams being axe-carved from the wood core and hatchet-finished, while the fir of spruce fir around beams were joined in a Romanian joint ("cheutoare romānească") and/or later (in the 19th century) in a German "blockbau" system ("cheutoare nemțească"). The gables joined over the walls supported the roof which was always four-sloped, made of roof boarding covered with shingle or, in some cases, with straw.
If the very old houses (from the 16th-the 17th centuries) had no pillar porch, in the 18th century it became generally used and known as "șatră". It was made of a succession of carved and decorated pillars, tied at the upper side with counter braces ("chituși"), making up wonderful archways, specific to the region. At the beginning, the porch was built only on the front side of the house. In the 18th century it was also built on the right side and later it was extended on all three sides of the house.
The Inside of the House
The indoor architecture was adapted to the home needs, and also to the aesthetic requirements.Site surveys and archives investigations disclosed the house inside of the 17th and 18th centuries, which was of great importance to the present research stage.
http://www.ici.ro/romania/images/cultura/mz_mar4.jpg
The living room, which in the local language was called "casă" (house), enveloped the domestic universe, corresponding to the aesthetic and pragmatic taste of the woman. The feminine touch was present everywhere, both as concerns the house arrangement, the partition and the designation of some places and objects used in everyday life, and as concerns the practice of various rituals.
The element determining the indoor organization, both at material and ritualistic level, was the main beam ("meștergrinda"). It ran along the house rooms and tied the opposite walls, and by means of the small beams which were equidistantly placed over it, it also tied the side walls and, of course, supported the whole roof structure.
The main beam divided the house into two: on the right, the space for living ("faptele de viață") - where the hearth, the oven and the bed were placed; here, under normal conditions, marriage was consummated, life was conceived, people were born and died; on the left, the space for rituals ("faptele de ritual")- where the ceremonies of christening and wedding were performed, the dead body was placed in the coffin on the table and the dead watch and the funeral service were carried out.
The ritual space walls were decorated with friezes consisting of holy icons alternating with beautiful pottery adorned with towels. On the corner, there was the table which had on both sides, along the walls, benches and/or cases arranged at a right angle. Over the bed, on the wall, there was the shelf ("ruda") on which counterpanes, carpets and towels, tablecloths and pillow cases were stored, the layers these objects were laid in having three functions: an aesthetic one (to adorn the inside), a storing one and of displaying the girl's dowry, all in a perfect syncretism. The dish cabinet was behind the door and on the opposite wall there the were the spoon-shelf and the pottery-shelf.
Behind the icons and above the main beam there were boxes with documents and papers, the razor, the Epiphany's cross, sweet basil the child's dried navel kept for the ritual of untying it within the trial of initiation. At the head of the bed, on a bench, the hope chest was placed.
The harmony of the inside was emphasized by the colour of the textile materials and of the objects decorating it.
http://www.ici.ro/romania/images/cultura/mz_marint1.jpg http://www.ici.ro/romania/images/cultura/mz_marint2.jpg
http://www.ici.ro/romania/images/cultura/mz_marint3.jpg http://www.ici.ro/romania/images/cultura/mz_marint4.jpg
House Annexes
The traditional house was conceived so that functional quality should prevail. Opposite the house, which was facing the sunrise or the east, there were the stable and the barn, the pig stays (all in the cattle pen); on one side there was the shed for the cart, wood and agricultural tools; the shadoof or wheel well was usually placed in the garden. The corn sheds and, of course, the sheds for the technical devices necessary in the house, such as: the hammer or screw oil presses ("uleinițe cu berbeci sau cu șurub"), the hand-operated grinding mill (from the plain ones to those fitted witch mechanical systems), the wood lathe, the thresher (in some cases), they all were basic components of the agricultural and shepherd life. In the garden, at the back of the house, there were the corn stacks, haystacks, corn cobs, the stacks ("pari") for lucerne or clover drying, the hay bushel ("oborocul") and also the pits for beet, potatoes and apples. At the back of the garden, isolated, there was the privy.
http://www.ici.ro/romania/images/cultura/mz_mar5.jpg
The house with double yard specific to the agricultural and shepherd life was also typical of this region.
http://www.ici.ro/romania/en/cultura...mz_marext1.jpg http://www.ici.ro/romania/en/cultura...mz_marext2.jpg
Gates were considered to have a cultural role, providing the regional identity, which was incontestably that of Maramureș. Some time ago the gate was the social mark of its owner. It separated the holy space of the house from the outside space, the peasants from Maramureș being proud of it. If present-day gates are over-adorned with various decoration motifs and sometimes even over-sized, the gates restored and preserved in the museum are of the classical type, having the ideal sizes, and the suitable decoration.
http://www.ici.ro/romania/en/cultura/images/mz_mar2.jpg
Losing their initial significance, the motifs carved were transferred from the magical and mythical level to the artistic, aesthetic level. On the gate-pillars the tree of life ("pomul vieții") prevailed as a symbol of life without death, solar and star emblems, Christian marks, but also the cock and the snake or anthropomorphic figures, all being the expression of deep encoded beliefs lost in immemorial times. The name of the owner and the date of gate building was frequently written on the upper threshold of the gate. And sometimes even the name of the artisan was engraved in a hidden place.