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The main buildings of the fishermen’s farmsteads are a dwelling house and a stable. Area of a farmstead was not strictly limited. The buildings were usually turned with one corner to the Lagoon. Exterior of fishermen’s houses is also distinctive. The houses are timbered and constructed from lying square balks. The walls are upholstered by vertical boards from the outside, the boards’ threads are covered with vertical strips. The houses are painted in brown or bluish color. Previous form of roofs is broken hip-roofs with chimney-breasts covered with canes. Chimney-breasts are vents functioning as a chimney, which are on upper triangles of a hip-roof from two sides of a house. Old fishermen’s homsteads had no chimneys; however, supposedly, this was beneficial, since the nets and other fishing implements, which were kept in lofts, got firmed, when surrounded by smoke, which accessed the loft while heating the stove.
From the end of XIX mentury, span roofs emerged. Often, they were covered with tiles.
Ornamentation of ancient houses
A special attention is attracted by ornamentation of ancient houses. Decorative elements most often were centered on houses’ attics. The main decorative elements of fishermen’s farmsteads were transits of roof ends, also called “geivelis” by the fishermen, and decorated windboards. Motives of the transits are immensely various, non-repeating, and vividly demonstrating ingenuity of folklore masters and their artistic style.
Windboards, as a constructive element of a house, supports the borders of the roof ends and decorates them, when they are turned with an end to the street. Geometric and plant silhouettes were used for the windboards. Sharp buds of various forms were liked very much.
In pre-Christian faith the transits had a protective meaning. Nowadays, houses were decorated for satisfaction of aesthetic and social needs: To have a more pretty life and not to get behind the neighbours “on the other side of the fence”. Besides that, nice farmsteads helped attracting more visitors. The farmsteads decorated with blue and white colors attract the atention of bypassers from a distance.
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