Platy limestone
as cultural heritage

One of the most significant characteristics of the East Adriatic coast and its hinterland is the use of platy limestone in traditional stone architecture, especially on stone slate roofs. This karstic area is a morphologically distinctive geographical unit, where the nature of the soil, the landscape, hydro-geological conditions, productivity and human settlements are all very closely related.

Through millennia these karstic areas have gradually and carefully been cleared of surface stone in order to gain small patches of cultivatable land. Large swaths of slopes in the landscape were fenced with long dry walls (meje, ograde); between them we often find large piles known as griže, gromače, močire or gomile/gromile. This centuries-old practice created a specific karstic landscape, composed of a net of countless dry stone walls creating modest yet beautiful panoramic spaces; created out of necessity they co-developed a highly distinctive cultural identity.

One of the key features and highlights of the Adriatic coastal and karstic landscapes are significant buildings made entirely of stone and covered with slate roofs made of limestone plates. They range from monumental cathedrals and large palaces to smaller chapels, simple homesteads and small shepherds’ shelters (Fig. 3.17).

The documentation and research focused largely on the commonalities and regional specifics surrounding the excavation, elaboration and use of platy limestone, on the presence and impact of the quarries on the life of communities through the centuries, as well as their influence on the development of the landscape. On the other hand, it was important to catalogue objects like the churches, mosques, monasteries and everyday vernacular architectures that still mark the landscape of karstic areas.

Limestone has been the main building material found on the slopes of the Adriatic coast since the Roman Age – in some regions even as far back as from late Prehistory – and remained so up until the early 20^th century.

During the late Neolithic and Eneolithic eras Prehistoric peoples moved their settlements from the flat fields to hill slopes in order to better defend themselves. Like the Iron Age settlements, these hill forts (castelliere, kaštelir, gradišče, gradina) were generally built on hilltops and were encircled by distinctively high and large dry stone walls, many of which still exist today. The walls followed a circular scheme and followed the configuration of the slopes; they were largely built of irregularly shaped, naturally formed stones. The most important settlements in antiquity were fortified with massive, well-worked stone blocks.

One of the first documented uses of platy limestone appears in the interior of prehistoric burial mounds

One of the first documented uses of platy limestone appears in the interior of prehistoric burial mounds (tumul or gomila). The burial chamber was constructed from plates of platy limestone bigger than those that lined the walls; with the mounds built largely from irregularly shaped stones collected from the immediate surroundings. Similar grave constructions built from large platy limestone plates remained in use in this region throughout history until the early Modern Era.

With the coming of the Romans new urban patterns were defined with the creation of commercial, administrative and religious centres, including on the Eastern Adriatic coast and its hinterland. Within these centres whole buildings were clustered together within the framework of the corresponding town’s infrastructure. They were built from stone, which meant there was also a quarry in the vicinity of each settlement along the coast. Romans also traditionally produced ceramic bricks with which to build, and covered the roofs with ceramic plates (tegulae).

The roots of existing traditional stone building techniques are much in evidence in the area of the Eastern Adriatic coast from the 9^th century on. We have preserved sacral objects from this period; from later centuries there exist a number of buildings made of solid stone blocks, like churches, fortresses, public houses and city walls.

Throughout the long and dynamic history of the Mediterranean – of which the East Adriatic coast is an integral part – the main characteristic features and way of life are often connected with limestone. This natural resource marked and drove the continuous use of limestone in building constructions in both the urban areas and in the countryside, from early Christianity up to the more complex and elaborated 19^th and 20^th centuries. Entire coastal cities, villages, homesteads with outbuildings, barns, storage buildings, pasture fences, etc. in the hinterland and island settlements were all built from limestone.

But in the majority of coastal Eastern Adriatic towns, we can trace a continuous urban development rooted in the same fundament ever since the Carolingian period; in the countryside, however, the rural peasant stone architecture derives largely from the 16^th century. A great number of representative limestone buildings are preserved, particularly churches within the historic nucleus of the towns, most of which are protected by conservation legislation.

Evidence of existing historical architectures built from stone and covered by stone roof slates, abandoned and active quarries, and the Guidelines for the maintenance and reconstruction of traditional stone objects covered with platy limestone roofs is the result of Work Package 4 – “Platy limestone as cultural heritage”.

The results of the work of the project show that historically important stone objects are subject to heritage law; in rural areas and even in the suburbs of e.g. Split there are still numerous houses and homesteads – not to mention other farm buildings and shepherd's shelters – with roofs covered in stone plates.

The project “Limestone as the common denominator of natural and cultural heritage along the karstified part of the Adriatic coast” covered various regions of the eastern coast of the Adriatic: the Italian and Slovenian part of the Kras/Carso region, the Istrian peninsula, the Zadar area of northern Dalmatia, Herzegovina, and central Dalmatia between Split and the Pelješac peninsula.

Traditional architecture is a dominant element that is spread along the shorelines of the entire Mediterranean area

Material and immaterial heritage as a way of experiencing a people's culture and customs is central to acknowledging the social, economic, historic and political circumstances that created a people's cultural identity. Traditional architecture is a dominant element that is spread along the shorelines of the entire Mediterranean area. Even so, this patrimony was regarded as less valuable and therefore never enjoyed any particular public interest, and nor, subsequently, any national legislation that would provide some level of protection and consequently, its future.

Without proper legal frameworks and instruments with which to deal with such issues, many objects of vernacular heritage have been devastated. In other cases, traditional objects and structures were subjected to unprofessional restoration procedures, which led to a kind of pseudo-traditional architecture, which is still popular today. Without a proper knowledge of materials and traditions, as well as a strategic management scheme and legal framework for such cultural heritage, good protection standards cannot be achieved nor expected in the nearest future.

The results reveal the widespread of platy limestone in building within the project area. Most all villages had a small "private" quarry from which to extract building material for its own purposes, alongside the larger quarries from Roman times onward, which also supplied the cities in the hinterland. Unfortunately, most of these quarries are abandoned, as have been the skills of the stonemasons. The results covering conservational and restoration issues have revealed various levels and kinds of protection for sacral and profane architecture, as sacral architecture enjoys protection status, whereas the profane enjoys little or none, with protection depending entirely on the building owner. However, the building owners proved interested in the RoofOfRock project, and the proposed Guidelines will help raise awareness and improve the state of conservation.