Pitres: to Capilerilla

If you really want to get a feel for what an Alpujarran village looked like in 1200 or so, I don’t think you could do better than wandering the streets of Capilerilla. We walked up to this highest village in La Taha this morning. The minute we stepped into the village, it was immediately apparent that all the streets follow the curves and dips of the land and nothing connects at right angles, neither streets nor houses. We had a detailed map showing the location of the historic elements we wanted to see, but it wasn’t easy to follow! As we were studying the map, thinking that maybe the village was completely deserted and we were the only people there, around the corner and out from under a tinao came a kind and helpful lady. She told us that about eight people live in the village year round, but more come in the summertime (like her). Next, a man setting out to tend the fruit trees in his orchard told us where to find the lavadero and the spring that feeds it. This turned out to be on the GR 7, which is much more interesting and accessible here than it has been in previous areas where we’ve been walking.

When we came back to the center of the village, we found tinao after tinao. In fact, several streets have what are called chained tinaos which allowed the people who lived here to walk from house to house completely sheltered from the snow during the winter. It is also very noticeable that the houses are connected vertically with the roof of a lower house serving as a terrao for the next house up. No new houses break the spell of being immersed in the past.

I think we walked every street in the village admiring the interspersed orchards and gardens, trying to identify the various plants (especially happy when we found a wild cherry tree), and marveling at how narrow some of the streets were. We met another lady feeding her chickens. She told us she had 11 in all. At the edge of the village, there is a large era with curious blocks of worked stone all around the edges. These were the ashlars of the village church built on the site of the former mosque (which in turn, was built on the grounds of a Visigothic church). The Capilerilla church was torn down in the 1930s, and most of the stones were moved to Pitres to build a new church there.

Walking on a little farther, we came to the abandoned village of Hilacres. When the Muslims were ordered to leave Spain, Pitres and Capilerilla were repopulated with Christians from other parts of Spain, but Hilacres was not. Some of the very old buildings there look like they are now being revived and turned into inviting cortijos surrounded by meadows.

It was a successful day for us because we found all seven of the items on the ADR fichas, and even more because we were able to enjoy this unique location under blue skies and sunshine - accompanied by frogs and birds. (Marie heard nightingales again!)Read more