Vernacular architecture of Cañete

Stone below, timber above

The mountain house of Cañete is almost entirely stone and timber. The ground floor is solid stone; the floors above are timber-framed, with posts, ties, sill beams and bearing blocks. Small, tightly packed houses, without courtyards, with two floors above ground level, very different from the La Mancha house. Breeding and working animals lived below; the family above.

Details

Wooden eaves, rarely tiled; wooden balconies and overhangs, double-leaf doors, passageways, leaning walls and old roofs, with roses, vines and flowers on balconies. Façades are whitewashed, gypsum-plastered or exposed stone.

An inherited centre

The old centre’s layout, with steep narrow alleys, comes from Muslim times, and houses follow the terrain. It was little cared for over decades; in recent years preservation has improved. Once many stone façades were covered with cement so they would not look like poor houses, and now the traditional material is valued again. The exhibition La belleza de las técnicas antiguas, travelling through mountain villages with drawings by architect Carmen Cabrerizo, focuses in Cañete on wooden corbels, parts of houses projecting over streets and small porches protecting entrances from water.

Plan your visit

Explore on foot, using the town wall and its gates as a guide.

Combine with

El Postigo, houses built on the wall.