La Barraca, Valencian typical countryside house

Did you know that the vernacular Valencian countryside house is called ‘barraca’ and is made with natural materials?

The Valencian “huerta” (vegetable garden), since ancient times, has been the environment that has characterised the surrounding landscape of the city of Valencia. As a pragmatic response to their essential needs, the agricultural workers took advantage of mud, straw and reeds provided by nature to build their homes.

These houses, called “barracas”, consist of a very simple rectangular construction, with a door on one side and a small window on the other. The ground floor is enclosed by exterior walls with a height of about 2.5 metres, composites of cob (a mixture loamy clay and straw). A roof is coupled over the top which binds a gable fixed with wood and covered by earth and wattle.

The interior is divided into two almost equal parts. Upon entering, one finds an ample corridor that serves as an entrance hall, living room, dining room and kitchen, where it was common to have a “tinajero” (two jars to store water). On the other side there are three bedrooms. All rooms are separated by partition walls and its access occurs through a curtain instead of a door. The upper part or “andana” to which ascent is via a stairway, located in the last bedroom, was destined to store crops and breed silkworms.

The shacks, usually dispersed sites across the “huerta”, were supplied with water by means of wells. The reason for their not being grouped was due to the high risk of fires to which they are exposed. Another curiosity is the white colour that the use of lime gives them. It is a substance that is also used to ward off insects.

Due to its quick, easy and economical construction this typology appeared spontaneously in a large number of countries such as Spain, Italy, Greece, France or Switzerland, always in the vicinity of rivers and wet coastal areas. Hence it is also common to find them in the Valencian Natural Park of “La Albufera” and have given name to the maritime district of Cabañal, where they sheltered the fishermen, until the twentieth century.

Source: ARAE Patrimonio y Restauración.
Facebook: @ARAEpatrimonio

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