Darbazi

A Georgian nobleman's darbazi-type house in Tbilisi in the early 19th century.

Darbazi (Georgian: დარბაზი; from Persian: darvāze‎, "gate") is a term used in Georgia to describe a chamber with a distinctive "swallow dome"-type roof structure found in the traditional domestic architecture of Asia Minor and the South Caucasus. The central feature is a pyramidal vault (gvirgvini), supported on pillars and constructed of a stepped series of hewn logs and beams, with a central opening at the top which serves as a window and smoke flue. The Roman authority Vitruvius (1st century BC) includes in his De architectura a description of a Colchian dwelling, the ancient prototype of a darbazi.^[1] Such lantern roofs are called harazashen or glkhatun in Armenia, kirlangiç kubbe or kirlangiç ortu in Turkey, and karadam in Azerbaijan.^[2][3]

The darbazi house, with local variations, continued to be constructed into the 20th century in Georgia. It occurs extensively in the provinces of Kartli, Kakheti, and Samtskhe-Javakheti. These houses are often supported at its underground base by finely carved beams and pillars. Of particular care is the solid wooden upright known as the deda-bodzi ("mother-pillar") that takes the weight of the corbelled roofing.^[1] The darbazi form might have influenced the early Christian architecture of Georgia, for the ancient rotund and octagonal Christian structures—widespread in Italy, Syria, and elsewhere—never attained popularity in Georgia.^[4]

Illustrations

• Darbazi in eastern Georgia (cross-section). The Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 2011-05-30.
• Gvirgvini. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 2011-05-30.
• Deda-Bodzi. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia. Retrieved on 2011-05-30.

References