IN-PERSON London Heritages. Section A

Abstract

When building a house, carpenters stay on its ridges, chanting verses of longevity and prosperity for the new house owners, while neighbours decorate its timber beams with gifts for the builders. It is a folk version of the religious ceremony when a priest is invited to sanctify the dwelling during all key building stages. This paper explores vernacular spaces in the Western Balkans as an imaginary linkage between individual dwelling, neighbourhood, and community. Historically inhabited by different ethnic groups, physical spaces have changed in terms of building materials, design, and uses. However, we argue that certain storytelling traditions, mixing Orthodox and Bogomil Christian beliefs with inhabiting spirits, could reveal how people have attempted to keep spaces relevant to the changing ways of life and the shifting dominant religious and socio-cultural narratives before modernisation. The methodology consists of 3D scanning, drawing, and photo recording of seven houses (mid to late 19th century) in the Bulgarian villages, Stakevtzi and Chuprene, in October 2024. The house selections are based on the criteria of minimum transformations of the houses’ interiors and exteriors. Elderly respondents from both villages took part in focus group interviews about house building rituals and related folklore storytelling. The harsh mountain region has been inhabited by various minor ethnic groups, creating the amalgam of the present Turlak regional culture with its own language, rituals and stories. This paper elucidates the role of folk storytelling as an intangible tradition to help understand, manipulate, use and enjoy space by nurturing an imaginary spatial mapping.