A short history of our house - 'The Potter's House'

The House in the Wall

The house was build towards the end of the eighteen hundreds reflecting the tastes of middle classes of the time.

Its facade follows the original town walls. It is quite likely that much of the lower granite facing stones formed part of the original mediaeval wall, reused during many centuries and different incarnations of the house at this spot. The road running up towards the Spar supermarket, just past the statue of the hang glider, would be where the original town gate from the Avila road would have been.

The current House

The house was known as the Potter's House (Casa del Cacharrero). In 2008 it was listed as a building of significant historical interest by the regional government.

Going back to the mid 1900s a potter and his family lived there. The original façade had two doors to the street. The lintel of the commercial door can be seen above the window in the downstairs large bathroom. This was a double door, probably open most of the time, in which the potter worked open to the street. There is a well within the house, now covered, in the area of the smaller downstairs bathroom. The lower buildings on the other side of the street would be where the potter would have left his earthenware to dry in the sun and perhaps as a sales point.

At some time, probably in the 1970s, the house was divided into two. The commercial door was reduced, and what is now the large bathroom was a kitchen. The double interior doors at the bottom of the staircase were sealed off, and the lower floor beyond the latter formed a separate flat with its own access to the street.

Renovation!

Photo of house before renovation

We purchased the house in 1998. We restored the outer façade, closing the commercial entrance. We changed the layout downstairs a little to accommodate 2 bathrooms, and also upstairs to make two more. We also installed a wood burning stove in the living room.

The interior height of the ceilings reflects the small stature of the people here in the nineteenth century. If you are 6 ft tall, you will need to watch your head upstairs and also in some of the doorways downstairs.

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The Future...

Site for new house

In 2010 we moved to our new house in Zapata (1.5km away below the big spine), leaving our house at C/Somoza 20* for the exclusive use of our clients.

The picture below shows the view of launch from the site of the new house.

(*Jose Somoza (1781-1852) was a famous Spanish poet born in Piedrahita).

View of take off from new house site ^