La Botica
Heritage
The house with the 1728 inscription
- Where
- Calle Medina, Cabezas del Pozo, facing the wine cellar
- Type
- Traditional manor house · private property
- Period
- 1728 inscription
- What to see
- Granite lintel with a 1728 inscription · fluted pilasters · La Unión y el Fénix Español insurance plaque · iron letterbox
- History
- According to village tradition, the house of the old apothecary
- Status
- Disused
- Visiting
- Exterior only, from the street
Calle Medina is a street of manor houses that time has gradually left in silence. Walls of brick and adobe, stone doorways and, here and there, a coat of arms recalling the families who once lived here. Facing the wine cellar with the cart wheels, one of these houses keeps its history on its door.
The 1728 lintel
Look at the great granite lintel. On it, someone had their name carved in 1728 next to a cross: Francisco García, as if signing his house forever. On either side, two fluted pilasters give the doorway a stately air. Above the door, a plaque with a phoenix among flames shows that the house was insured against fire by La Unión y el Fénix Español, something only well-off families could afford at the time. And an iron letterbox reading «CARTAS» completes the façade of an important house in the village.
Locals say this is where the apothecary's shop (botica) once stood, where the apothecary prepared remedies for the whole village. Today the house sleeps, but its inscription is still signing, almost three hundred years on, the history of Calle Medina. It is a private house: enjoy it from the street.
Practical information
- Address:
- Calle Medina