Roofing in Moldova

Moldova's traditional village house was a low building with wattle walls coated with clay, roofed with reed. Its roofs were usually four-pitched or two-pitched, and in the south carved wooden ornaments called "spears" crowned the gables.

Climate and hazards

Moldova has a moderately continental climate with hot summers and cold winters. As in neighbouring Romania and Ukraine, snow, wind and summer storms are the main loads on roofs.

Roofing history

Late 19th- and early 20th-century peasant houses, documented by the Russian Museum of Ethnography, were mostly built with wattle walls plastered with clay on both sides, though builders used limestone along the Dniester and Răut rivers, wood in the central Codri region and unfired mud bricks (saman) on the right bank of the Dniester. Most houses had four-pitched or two-pitched roofs covered with reed (or cane) or laths. A typical plan had a central entrance hall (tinde) between the living room and the best room (casa mare), with an earth bench or skirt (prispa) along the walls.

In southern Moldova, including the area around Comrat, builders placed a simple wooden cross on the gable while a house was under construction and, when it was finished, a local craftsman replaced it with an elaborate carved "spear". Designs carried meanings: two pigeons symbolised a harmonious marriage, and snake-like forms were said to ward off evil spirits. Experts estimate the tradition is 200-300 years old, but wooden houses were typically used for about three generations, so dating is difficult. The custom declined in the 1970s and 1980s, and some newer houses imitate the spears in sheet metal.

During the Soviet period, corrugated asbestos-cement sheet (shifer) became a common roof across the former Soviet republics, including on rural houses. See shifer.

Traditional and vernacular roofs

• Reed roof: four- or two-pitched roof of reed over wattle-and-clay walls.
• Gable spear: carved wooden ornament on the gable, mainly in southern Moldova.

Roofing today

Modern houses use industrial materials, and newer homes in Western styles have displaced traditional forms.

Notable roofs

Traditional houses with carved gable spears survive in villages of southern Moldova such as Avdarma and Ferapontievca.

Local roofing terms

• casa mare - the best room of a traditional house
• tinde - entrance hall
• prispa - earth bench or skirt along the house walls

Sources and gaps

National statistics on roof materials and information on modern Moldovan roofing, building codes and industry: published information is limited. The account of Soviet-era asbestos-cement roofing is regional rather than specific to Moldova.