Page 14 - AHATA

a8 local
Tuesday 2 december 2025

Cas Floria: The Decorated Houses of Aruba

(Oranjestad)—There may be
as many as 200 to 300 houses
in Aruba that have beauti-
ful decorations, including
curtains, stars, flowers, half-
moons, etc., placed on the
corners or the upper parts of
the house.

These houses can be found
everywhere, in nearly every
district of Aruba. People
always thought that these
designs came from an In-
digenous culture; possibly,
the star design resembled
the way it was shown, similar gan this type of decoration the Arends family could also
to the “God Sun” of the In- in Aruba. be seen on the houses of the
digenous people. However, Bermudez or Croes families.
the history of this decorative in Paradera, Santa Cruz, and However, the decoration of This means that, according This was because parents al-
system does not go very far Savaneta copied the house houses was not originally Jan- to Father Nooyen, who de- ways gave a specific sign to
back in time. decorations. They practiced chi Christiaans’s idea. Janchi clared that it began in 1920, their sons or daughters when
these systems up until 1944. was a disciple of his father, it would have actually start- they were getting married.
In his book Millefiori di Aruba, Hose Christiaans, and of the ed 100 years earlier. As part
Father Nooyen declares that Even today, the patterns are Donati family, from Italian of his research, Ito Tromp also It was also said that these
the first house to receive this well preserved and protect- ancestors. They also made interviewed Mr. Julio Maduro designs had a certain kind
type of decoration was the ed, but they are no longer these decorations, though of the Department of Labor of voodoo purpose, to keep
home of Mr. Bernardo Eman used. without using any patterns, at that time, who told him away the spirits of the In-
Croes in Pos Chikito. Julien simply designing and ap- that around 1880 Johannes digenous people who were
(Janchi) Christiaans and Gre- Janchi Christiaans began plying them with common (Janchi) Wolff began with buried in the neighborhoods
gorio (Goy) Semeleer built cutting the patterns out of plaster as the material. house decorations. And where the houses now stand.
this house in 1920 and cre- zinc plates and cardboard. as Janchi himself said, he However, this has almost
ated the decorations on the He also had his own cre- Using Dr. Johan Hartog’s learned this from his grand- completely disappeared.
upper corners of the house. ations and systems, while Aruba, Breve Historia as ref- father, who in earlier times
Other people in Pos Chikito, Leoncio and Bonifacio Hen- erence, I noticed that he also had built the first lighthouse As for the continuation of
who saw this beautiful work, ricus produced their own writes that these designs are at California Point. these designs from family to
also wanted their houses fantasies. This is what made not indigenous symbols, but family, this is a cultural heri-
decorated in the same way. these decorations popular: only decorative fantasies. After comparing his informa- tage that is no longer estab-
many people could turn their One point of disagreement tion, Ito Tromp wrote that lished. For this reason, in ear-
Leoncio (Joonchi) Henricus imagination into expressive is that he wrote that in 1820 Hartog was right concern- lier times, every young man
of Pos Chikito learned the art. someone from Curaçao be- ing the period when deco- who married had to have his
work from Janchi Christiaans rated houses began in Aruba own house; otherwise, there
and, together with his son in 1820. However, it was not would be no marriage.
Bonifacio (Bonny) Henricus, people from Curaçao who
continued decorating hous- started it. Victor Tromp, who The designs were created
es in Pos Chikito and Sabana was 87 years old at the time according to the individual’s
Basora. of writing, was a member of imagination. If he saw, for ex-
Janchi Wolff’s family. ample, six pairs of birds on a
Janchi Christiaans, Goy tree, he would then paint six
Semeleer, and others from Julio Maduro said that in 1920 pairs of birds on a tree. If he
Noord, such as Hilario Chris- they began again with this wanted to express his love
tiaans, Victor Tromp, Gerardo type of decoration. In gen- for his twin children, then he
Jacobs, and Cornelis Rosa, eral, there is no specific year designed a twin.
brought the same decora- (up to now) when Arubans
tion to houses in Noord and first began with this decora- Nowadays, if you want to
Paradera. In 1927, Janchi tive artistic expression. It is in- use these designs for your
Christiaans built a house for teresting to know that these house, don’t worry—you can
Julian Tromp in Buguruy. decorations are a kind of simply copy them and paint
symbol for several genera- them.q
This was the first house in tions.
Noord to receive this type For example: Decorations Source: E casnan Decora na
of decoration. Later, those that appear on the house of Aruba (1976) by Ito Tromp.