The hórreos in Riaño Mountain, León, Spain. Vernacular architecture between conservation and musealisation

Abstract

Hórreos, aerial or raised barns, constitute a very singular typology of vernacular architecture. The guardianship of Spanish hórreos began with their recognition as personal properties in 1926. In 1973, all the hórreos and paneras in Asturias and Galicia were placed under state pro-tection. Later, the autonomous laws included its preservation. In 1984 an order that protected the Leonese hórreos was approved. However, this legislative protection was useless when the Remolina reservoir, which flooded several towns in the region of Riaño Mountain – León, Spain – was built in 1985.The value of traditional architecture and the hórreos in the villages of the Riaño Mountain was claimed by architects such as Leopoldo Torres Balbás or Manuel Cárdenas. The disappearance of many of them has meant an irreparable loss of a unique type of vernacular architecture. When it came to deciding which elements should be saved from the destruction caused by the reservoir, vernacular architecture was neglected. One of the hórreos was dismantled and remounted in Nuevo Riaño, the new settlement built to replace the disappeared village. Isolated from its con-text, it became a museum element, perceived as a cultural relic.At the beginning of the 20th century, the council of Riaño became aware of how valuable these elements are and proposed the recovery of the constructive techniques and traditions related to Leonese hórreos. In 2014 a new one was built and placed in Nuevo Riaño square. Surrounded by buildings that have nothing to do with the vernacular architecture in the territory and decon-textualised, it is perceived as something beyond to the present days. Today, 142 hórreos are preserved in Riaño Mountain and they must be kept as something more than cultural relics and, additionally, the constructive traditions linked to them must be preserved.