KAŽUN

Motif: first postage stamp kažun from surroundings of Pazin, Croatia, second stamp hiška of Kopriva na Krasu, Slovenia. Souvenir sheet background is a detail of a dry stone wall. Kažun (from tal. casita, casetta, origin casetta – cottage) circular rarely square shaped field dry stone cottage, used as a shelter in bad weather, and as temporary storage for tools and products, built in the countryside, outside urban areas. The remaining dry stone structures are scattered through the Mediterranean region (Malta, Italy, Southern France, Catalonia in Spain, Slovenia), they date back to pre-historic times. Dry stone dwelling houses in Croatia can be mostly found in Dalmatia (under different names: bunja, trijem, poljarica, čemer, kućerica, trim) and in Istria, mostly in the west and south side of the Peninsula. Well built houses made of dry stone with false vaulting can be found in the southern part of Switzerland, Island, Scandinavia, Scotland, England and Ireland. In order to create more fertile soil in the krast region, stones were dug out from the earth and piled creating dry-stone walls which marked the boundaries of individual plots of land and were also used to build dwellings. Preserved dry stone dwellings can be found in the fields as self-standing dwellings or as part of the dry stone walls themselves. In the more primitive dry stone structures the roof is made of flat slabs of stone known as škrile laid in a spiral so that each layer over hangs the previous one together with the roof. A more sophisticated type of a spiral kažun consists of a thicker round wall made of stone, and the width depends on the diameter of a dwelling/kažun. A coarse rough stone or rough cut stone was used for the dry stone walls and the middle filled with crushed stone. The entrance opening is lower than the height of an average person and was open to the south or west, mostly in the direction from where no gusts of north winds blow. Above the opening were laid one or more stone plates serving as lintels. When the stone wall reaches the desired height larger stone slabs are laid in a ring to create the indirect cupola. In the third phase the tip of the roof top is constructed. The first layer of the roof is filled in with finely crushed stone in order to fill in any possible gaps. Afterward outward slanting stones/škrile are laid which taper at the top. At the very top a larger flat stone is placed or a heavier cone shaped stone known as – pinćuk (el pinpignol). Inside the dwelling/ kažun larger stone blocks are usually used for seating. Sometimes there are also smaller window openings in a wall known as – špije – used for monitoring cattle and crops from inside a dwelling/kažun. Often there are blind walls niche (garma, slipulja) which served for shelving of tools and food. The majority of kazuns (90%) on the Istrian peninsula have a circular ground floor plan. The inner space measures 120 to 300 cm in diameter although there also exist larger dwellings measuring over four meters in height and in diameter. In these larger kazuns either in the centre or by the wall are small hearths with an opening in the roof for smoke exhaust. During periods of seasonal work whole families lived in them for shorter periods of time and records show that in rare cases livestock was also kept in the kazun. Kažuns that have a rectangular ground floor plan (kažete) are more commonly found in Central Istria. They, like the circular kazuns construction are built of a dry stone with a single sloped roof, and flat slabs/škrile are laid over wooden beams. Rarely the wooden beams are replaced and steel sleepers were used in order to prolong the lifetime of the roof. Of the several thousand kažuns built in Istria, the majority were built at the end of the 19th or at the beginning of the 20th century. Today a large number of them are left to ruin. We hope that the local community can assist in the restoration of some of these and together with the dry stone construction stand as a testament, as part of the cultural landscape showcasing how man organized this area in this region.