Local adaptation to the environment can be observed in the villages and even in the old quarters of the towns. The self-sufficient locals, whose financial resources were meagre, did their own building using readily available materials, namely toba (a porous limestone), timber, cane, plant fibres, lime and tiles.
Unhewn stone bound by lime mortar was employed in most of the traditional buildings. Only the corners and visible sides were touched up, using softer stone, such as toba. The inside walls were made of adobe – straw mixed with clay –, which was inexpensive and well suited to interiors.
The inside framework was made of timber used as rollizos (posts) and cuartizos (one quarter part of a post cut lengthwise). The planking for the roof and the upper floors rested on the framework. The roofs consisted of a framework made of posts and planking. Timber was used to make the doors and windows, and ...
Local adaptation to the environment can be observed in the villages and even in the old quarters of the towns. The self-sufficient locals, whose financial resources were meagre, did their own building using readily available materials, namely toba (a porous limestone), timber, cane, plant fibres, lime and tiles.
Unhewn stone bound by lime mortar was employed in most of the traditional buildings. Only the corners and visible sides were touched up, using softer stone, such as toba. The inside walls were made of adobe – straw mixed with clay –, which was inexpensive and well suited to interiors.
The inside framework was made of timber used as rollizos (posts) and cuartizos (one quarter part of a post cut lengthwise). The planking for the roof and the upper floors rested on the framework. The roofs consisted of a framework made of posts and planking. Timber was used to make the doors and windows, and ...
Local adaptation to the environment can be observed in the villages and even in the old quarters of the towns. The self-sufficient locals, whose financial resources were meagre, did their own building using readily available materials, namely toba (a porous limestone), timber, cane, plant fibres, lime and tiles.
Unhewn stone bound by lime mortar was employed in most of the traditional buildings. Only the corners and visible sides were touched up, using softer stone, such as toba. The inside walls were made of adobe – straw mixed with clay –, which was inexpensive and well suited to interiors.
The inside framework was made of timber used as rollizos (posts) and cuartizos (one quarter part of a post cut lengthwise). The planking for the roof and the upper floors rested on the framework. The roofs consisted of a framework made of posts and planking. Timber was used to make the doors and windows, and the furniture was also made of wood.
The edifications were roofed using curved Arabic style roofing tiles, placed face up and face down in alternating rows, in such a way that the narrow part of each one was overlapped by the wider part of the next one.
The inside of the houses was curious, for in many cases a house consisted in parts of several houses and in others, part of one house was added to part of a different house. This was because inheritances often divided the houses among several heirs, and new rooms had to be added on. Rooms were not always on the same level, so sometimes there were steps going from one room to another. The coolest room in the house was used as the pantry, where the hams, earthenware jars and other produce were kept. The second floor was divided into storage rooms under the eaves where containers of grain and pork products were kept.
Some villages were on the hills where there were springs and where paths leading to the roads could be built. Other villages were built in the valleys, close to the watercourses.