Almeria
Spanish farmhouses Cortijos - Ruins - Land

Roofs at TwoWaters

The most distinctive feature of a local house is the gable roof or as it is known in Spanish ‘techo a dos aguas’ (roof at 2 waters). It may be simple but is very attractive and effective against the heat and the rain. Its attractiveness lies in that as the end walls rise up to the apex of the house, roofs and walls are always intermixed, so avoiding the ‘shoe box’ look of 60’s bungalows built with hip roofs. A house with a gable roof is more practical as well because it requires less timber, scarce in these parts and it can be more easily extended to cater for a growing family, you just build out on either of the 2 end walls and you will avoid the difficult water joint of a hip roof extension.

In the Filabres mountain region detached farmhouses are rare and extremely highly sought after. Historically the locals lived in the tightly knit villages or in a cortijada, a collection of cortijos built together either in a row or in a group. The two main reasons for this are water and to control the urges of the young males. Water was important because while in other areas underground water may be near to the surface and one family could dig their own well, but in this area the water was down deeper and necessitated the cooperation of several families who would build the well together share the water and live in a cortijada adjacent to the well or noria as it is known in Spanish.

While they may have required several families to build the well they were very often originally from the same family, the father would divide his land between his children and their families, so for this reason they still carry the family surname, Los Gómez in Sorbas, the wife’s name (and hence the name of the daughter’s name , the grand daughter’s name etc. e.g. Las Alejandras and Los Antonicas in Lubrín or even their nickname such as ‘Los Feos’ (The Uglies) in Cobdar.

But what better way to harness the rampant energy and control the urges of a young man than to say ‘if you really love her build two rooms onto the house and when you are finished, then you can marry her! If it were but a whim his energy would sap and the marriage would never happen. If he finished it a new family joined the cortijada and a new house would start to grow.

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