Vast stretches of golden reed wave in the wind down the Danube River to the Black Sea, where it is harvested every winter as the new “in” roofing to cover luxury homes across Europe.
After a decline in the 20th century, thatched roofs are again back in vogue from Germany to Britain, thanks to a renewed interest in sustainable construction and heritage preservation.
“Water reed from the Danube Delta is known for its hard-wearing quality,” Octavian Popa explained, watching five men gather up the grassy crop with a special combine.
Popa’s firm, Delta Stuf Production, is one of only two companies allowed to harvest, under strict conditions, in this Unesco World Heritage site – which has the largest compact reed stretches in the world.
Every year Popa’s firm collects about 20,000 tonnes of reed in the wild landscape of marshes, canals and lakes that make up this far-flung corner of Romania. Almost the entire harvest is exported to Europe, notably Germany, The Netherlands, Denmark, France and Britain.
Its reputation is such that the Delta reed was used in creating a large-scale replica of Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre at Berlin’s famous Babelsberg film studios.
Thatched roofs appear on every continent, made with anything from plain grasses to waterproof leaves in South America and on South Pacific islands. The European models, however, are mainly made of reed and straw, with thatchers using material not only from Romania and other Eastern European countries but also from reed beds along England’s Norfolk coast or the Camargue region in southern France.
“In France, there has been a growing demand in recent years for thatched roofs,” the head of a French thatchers association, Jacques Baudoin, said. “They look very nice and reed is an excellent sound and thermal insulator.”
Likewise, “reed-covered roofs are very popular in The Netherlands,” said his Dutch counterpart Henk Horlings, estimating the tiny country now has about 150,000 thatch-covered properties.
In Britain and Ireland, a similar resurgence has been fuelled by stronger conservation rules.
Before it can make it onto upscale or historical roofs, the reed must be gathered, between mid-November and mid-March, in conditions easily characterised as challenging.
The “island” is actually a thin layer of earth and riding a tractor on it, he said, is like driving on a waterbed – the surface undulates with every movement.