SALAŠI – ISOLATED FARMS OF VOJVODINA
Salaš – an isolated farm an estate with a house and outbuildings (stables, barns, granaries, etc.). Originally, farms were the summer residences of peasants and some of them later became permanently inhabited. Two types of farms emerged in time. The first is a farm-type salaš, where the owner or a farm worker lived permanently, and the second is the farm of a wealthier peasant, the so-called ‘polutan’, who had another house in the village, and would only come to the farm to work during the farming season.
The word ‘salaš’ comes from the Hungarian word ‘szállás’, which means accommodation.
Farmhouses are built of rammed earth, mudbrick (unbaked bricks dried in the sun and wind) or of cob (a mixture of earth rich in clay, water and chopped straw). Based on their layout, i.e. footprint, there is a distinction among the ones ‘na brazdu’ (single room longhouse, without windows), ‘preke’ (houses which have two or more windows facing the street), and ‘na lakat’ (corner house). Traditionally, the plan according to which the farmhouses are built implies that they have two rooms each, a centrally located kitchen (‘kujna’) and a covered porch (entryway, ‘gonk’ or ‘konk’). In the central part of each farm there is an oven, often with an open chimney. The entrance to the house is from the yard, through a semi-open ‘konk’ or porch, which has columns. The room facing the street is the front room where everyday life takes place, and the back room is the guest or clean room, housing more valuable household items. In some places, there was also a summer kitchen, which was used exclusively in the warm season. Ovens were furnaces, where village bread was baked, and around the house there was a granary, a chicken coop, a dovecote, a barn etc.
In our region, Vojvodina has the most isolated farms and today they represent a characteristic part of the tourist offer. Many of them are designed as modern restaurants, while some also offer the possibility of accommodation. With their pleasant ambience, as well as delicious Vojvodina specialties and the music of the tamburitza players, they preserve the memory of the past and attract more and more visitors.