TRADITIONAL ARCHITECTURE IN VID

Traditional architecture in Vid

(House of Markot or Ereš's Tower)

The old part of Vid is a compact settlement, especially the part of the settlement located on the northern slope of the hill, while in other parts of the town it is a scattered type consisting of groups of buildings in which blood relatives lived. There, two-story houses are most often found, which are built mainly of undressed stone abundantly bound with plaster and are covered with a gable roof. If dressed stone was used, then it is a secondary use of the remains of Roman architecture, whether ordinary stone blocks or even parts of the architecture, as well as stone decorations, sculptures and inscriptions that are usually built into the outer shell of the wall so that they are visible. This also shows a certain knowledge and awareness of the then inhabitants of Vid and the builders of these houses, who did not destroy and hide fragments of Roman monuments, but rather a certain kind of pride and desire for this very spolia to decorate their home. The most important examples of this are the Bukovac and Markota houses and the Erešova tower, and they date from the beginning of the 19th century. It is interesting that a large number of these houses did not originally have a residential function, but rather a storage function, as their ground floor rooms contained a tavern, i.e. a storage room for wine and other fruits, and the upper floor contained a space where people could occasionally sleep. The reason for this is that the owners of a large number of these taverns were residents of the surrounding Neretva villages, for whom Vid was the closest port for exporting their crops.