La casa de Vitora
Traditional manor houses
The inn on Calle Larga
- Where
- Calle Larga, Cabezas del Pozo
- Type
- Traditional La Moraña farmhouse
- Period
- House dating from the 18th century or earlier; inn documented in 1752
- Past uses
- Farmhouse, inn, grocery shop, bar and dance hall
- What to see
- The iron rings on the façade
- Visiting
- Private property, viewed from the street
Some houses hold the history of a family. This one holds the history of an entire village. It began as a farmhouse, in the traditional La Moraña style, in the 18th century or even earlier. It had a large yard with two gates, one for entering and one for leaving, so carts could pass through without turning around. Inside were mangers, granaries, hay lofts, henhouses, dovecotes, troughs and wells. The floor was cobbled, since livestock crossed the house on their way to the stables.
The inn
By 1752 the house was already recorded as an inn. Along Calle Larga, the village's trading street, travellers, merchants, civil guards and day labourers coming to work the land would arrive. Here they found shelter, food and stabling for their animals. Look at the façade: the iron rings where they tied their mules are still there.
Vitora and her husband were the last innkeepers. Her granddaughters, Toña and Angelines, shared a bedroom, while the rest of the rooms were rented out to travellers.
The shop, the bar and the dances
In the early 20th century, Vitora's husband opened a shop, and the house became the heart of the village: a grocery store, bar and inn. Upstairs, in the loft where grain used to be kept, there was a dance hall. Her brothers ran other shops on the same street, and one of them made homemade fizzy lemonade, served from siphons. Today, in the old hayloft of a nearby manor house, a niece of the last innkeepers still runs the village shop.
The pig slaughter
In winter, the pig slaughter (matanza) was held in the square, and the black pudding and sausages were prepared in this house's courtyard.
"I remember a very long table, with lots of children running around it. I remember my older siblings getting tired of turning a crank. I remember hands covered in fat, and aprons where they wiped them clean."
Today the house is still in the hands of the same family, and with it, their memories.
Practical information
- Address:
- Calle Larga