ognjište, kuća

The concept of a house in several Balkan languages is often connected to the word ognjište, meaning fireplace, with the image of a comforting, constant fire representing a central trope of the home. In this sense, both fireplace and home constitute a sacred place for the family, as the center of the world for the nuclear unit whose fire does not go out. Such conceptions are more difficult to grasp nowadays as fireplaces are much less a part of everyday life, due in large part to the increase in apartment-based living and alternative sources of heat. However, there is a tendency in the Balkans to visit one’s ancestral home, despite the fact that their ancestors moved away long ago, and to light a fire in the fireplace, as proof of existence. This desire is also what guides those who preserve, decorate, and renovate the old houses of their ancestors over decades, even those made of mud and mud-brick. It is rare to demolish the house of one’s father or grandfather in the Balkans, regardless of its condition; the only possible cause of its disintegration would be old age. Even then, efforts are made to preserve part of the stone foundation as a symbol of the former home. I have seen this kind of attachment to place first-hand, as my father preserved his father’s house over a decades-long period.
The term root tourism, or ancestral tourism, means “any visit which might be partly or wholly motivated by a need to connect or reconnect with an individual’s ancestral past” (see Mehtiyeva and Prince 2020). There is a strong force that draws people to visit the house or land that previously belonged to their ancestors, where they may experience an emotional and spiritual connection that allows them to rediscover themselves.