Abstract
Abstract. Vernacular architecture is a reflection of the relationship established by human social structures with their environment and how they take advantage of it for different commercial, economic, productive, pleasure and symbolic-religious purposes. The municipality of Castalla, located in the north of the province of Alicante, is a good example. It is an enclave in which the land use took place from Prehistory thanks to the human communities that mould its landscape. This process was intensified since the eighteenth century with building of pleasure houses, yards, plaster kilns, country houses (in many cases with small chapels) and snow wells, among other constructions. All of them made up a well-preserved landscape until the end of the twentieth century. Its decline took place with the industrialisation of Castalla in the middle of the twentieth century and the emergence of new socio-economic conditions. Consequently, this fact caused the abandonment as well as the oblivion of the material and immaterial characteristics that led to its appearance. This paper will analyse the characteristics of one of these constructions: Casa de la Glorieta (nineteenth century), which is an interesting example of rural buildings in Castalla. In most cases, they are austere country houses aimed basically at the land use. Nevertheless, Casa de la Glorieta (neoclassical style) becomes an ensemble with a double function along with Mas de la Parrotja: to take advantage of the environment and to serve as a pleasure house for the local bourgeoisie.
Highlights
Castalla is a municipality located in the Foia de Castalla district, a natural depression situated in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, in the northwest of the province of Alicante (Spain)
Casa de la Glorieta was built in the second half of the nineteenth century and its stylistic features are related to the models of that time (Figure 12)
The decline of the agricultural production in the country house motivated by the socio-economic changes in agriculture, its low profitability and the transformation of the Foia de Castalla district into an industrial and service society caused the gradual abandonment of the economic exploitation in many agricultural areas of Castalla during the twentieth century
Summary
Castalla is a municipality located in the Foia de Castalla district, a natural depression situated in the southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, in the northwest of the province of Alicante (Spain). Several authors have broached the study of vernacular architecture in the region for scientific and informative purposes from different disciplines, such as anthropology, archaeology, architecture, history and literature In this sense, there are some reference works on population, architecture and conditions of domestic life in the Valencian Community, such as that of Joan Francesc Mira (1983), or on the countryside of the province of Alicante, such as that of Gabino Ponce and José Fermín Bonmatí (1985). The main works to be highlighted in the Foia de Castalla district are related to plaster kilns of Castalla and Tibi (García, Rizo, 2003), hydraulic constructions and snow wells (Cruz, Segura, 1996; Marquiegui, 2013), as well as those on the general concept of a country house (Bernabeu, 1984), life Its purposes and methodology (heir to the aforementioned initiatives) will be described below
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