Roofed crosses are a phenomenon that can be seen in some Russian cemeteries. Earlier, in the days of paganism, they were installed en masse, but today they are rare. In those days, a neat roof was crowned not with a cross, but with a column. Such tombstones were called simply “golbets”.
What is golbets
The explanatory dictionary of the famous ethnographer Vladimir Dahl interprets the word "golbets" in this way - a small structure in the form of steps near the stove, which was used to climb onto the couch. They were massively installed in Russian huts. Golbets also performed another important function. He closed the entrance to the basement where people kept their supplies for the winter. According to the linguist Max Vasmer, the word golbets comes from the Scandinavian "golf", which means "separation" or "sex".
According to popular beliefs, brownies lived in the Golbtsy. Many superstitions and stories are generally associated with them. Even Dahl mentioned that when entering the bride's house, one had to grasp the golbets with one hand. People believed that he was a kind of connecting place between the worlds of the living and the dead.
Ritual meaning
Golbets or Golbets in Russia were also called tombstones or flat boards, on which small roofs were attached from above. Most likely, the golbtsy were inextricably linked with the concept of depth, grave, pit. And since it was a sacred place near the furnace, its name migrated to the gravestones, which were massively installed in cemeteries.
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Lev Dal, a researcher of Russian architecture and the son of Vladimir Dahl, devoted many years of his life to the study of the Golbts. He believed that they originated from roadside pillars, on which urns with the ashes of the dead were previously placed. According to the book "Russian Memorial Sculpture", later such columns began to be installed on graves, decorated with carvings and roofs, and even painted. The resource "Encyclopedia" World History " speaks about a slightly different meaning of Golbts. In fact, it was a truncated tradition of installing houses on graveyards, which completely covered the graves.
The mystical origin of the Golbts became the reason for their banning by the church - this is the opinion of Dahl Jr. But despite this, the tradition of their installation and production secrets were passed on by craftsmen from generation to generation. Even today, in some rural cemeteries, you can see golbtsi. Most of them are in the north of Russia. In Karelia, Arkhangelsk and Murmansk regions, Golbtsy are very diverse and pretentious.
Some of the Golbts that have survived to this day are decorated with places for icons, shelves and icon cases. According to historians, crosses covered with two boards in the form of a roof are a kind of echo of the Golbts. They can also be seen on some old churchyards.
