The Lost Art Of Moldova's 'Rooftop Spears'

This rooftop monument in Comrat is one of countless weather-worn remnants of an architectural tradition unique to southern Moldova and some regions nearby. 
 

The decorations are known as "spears." Along some village streets in the south of Moldova, nearly every house is crowned with one.
 

Andrei Prohin, the scientific secretary of Moldova’s National Museum of Ethnography and Natural History, says the ornaments usually face the road and served as a kind of calling card for the family inside.

"It is a message that the family inside are industrious and that they care for their house," Prohin said.  

Each design has its own meaning and there are countless variations, some with roots in folk tradition. Two pigeons above a house represents a loving and harmonious relationship between the husband and wife inside.  
 

"Snakes" that curl on either side of the main ornament are said to protect the house from bad spirits.

Today, many of the ornaments are broken or have disappeared entirely. Prohin says the tradition began dying out in the 1970s and '80s.

 

"Now it is more fashionable to make houses that resemble those in the West made from modern materials,” Prohin said.

Traditionally, wooden peasant houses were used for around three generations before they were torn down and a new one was built.
 

Some newer village homes have mimicked the wood-carved tradition with sheet metal designs, such as this house in the village of Avdarma.
 

Other houses feature unusual variations on the traditional rooftop theme. In Ferapontievca, the elderly owner of this property says her son visited Moscow when the 1980 Olympics were being held and brought back this "Misha" souvenir from the games.
 

Vladislav Anatolivetch, the manager of the Comrat Regional Historical Museum, estimates the tradition of rooftop spears began some 200-300 years ago but says it's impossible to know with certainty due to the perishable nature of wood. 

Anatolivetch says houses were built by teams who, during the construction process, placed a simple wooden cross on the gable to bless the project. Once the house was complete, a more elaborate "spear" carved by a local craftsman took the place of the cross.

The ornaments provided the family within "a link to God" and prevented bad spirits from entering the home, Anatolivetch says. 

Both experts who spoke to RFE/RL say there have not been any concrete attempts to revive the tradition. Anatolivetch says that, for now, making the village art fashionable again would be an uphill battle.

"People now are less spiritual than they were," he said.