Tandrotrano

Tandrotrano (literally "house horns") are the crossed timbers that project above each end of the ridge on traditional houses of the Malagasy highlands. They form where the roof beams cross at each end of the gable peak.

Meaning

In the Merina kingdom the length of the roof horns indicated the rank of the noble family who owned the house: the longer the horns, the higher the status. On the royal house of Andrianampoinimerina at Ambohimanga the horns were silver-plated, and a silver eagle was once mounted at the centre of the ridge.

Change in the 19th century

Louis Gros, who designed the Tranovola palace in the Rova of Antananarivo for Radama I in 1819, and Jean Laborde, who built the Queen's Palace there in 1839-1841, turned the horns into carved posts at each gable end of their wooden buildings. On the brick houses that spread under Ranavalona II (1868-1883), tandrotrano were shortened. After building restrictions were abolished in 1869 the horns were gradually replaced by a simple finial, which no longer signals class.

Where they appear

Tandrotrano belong to the aristocratic timber houses of Imerina, which were built flush to the ground rather than on stilts, with a steep peaked gable roof often carried on a central pillar (andry). The surviving house of Andrianampoinimerina at Ambohimanga, with its rosewood walls, 10 m (33 ft) central pillar and silver-plated horns, is a well-known example (see Ambohimanga royal houses).

Related practice

In the south-east, actual zebu horns were traditionally fixed to the gable peak, a different way of marking the roof's apex.