Farms: Medieval Spanish ghost town becomes self-sufficient ecovillage
Productivity | Information | History | View | Quality
It's a utopian fantasy- discover a ghost town and rebuild it in line with your ideals-, but in Spain where there are nearly 3000 abandoned villages (most dating back to the Middle Ages), some big dreamers have spent the past 3 decades doing just that. There are now a few dozen "ecoaldeas" - ecovillages - in Spain, most build from the ashes of former Medieval towns. One of the first towns to be rediscovered was a tiny hamlet in the mountains of northern Navarra. Lakabe was rediscovered in 1980 by a group of people living nearby who had lost their goats and "when they found their goats, they found Lakabe", explains Mauge Cañada, one of the early pioneers in the repopulation of the town. The new inhabitants were all urbanites with no knowledge of country life so no one expected them to stay long. When they first began to rebuild, there was no road up to the town so horses were used to carry construction materials up the mountain. There was no electricity either so they lived with candles and oil lamps. In the early years, they generated income by selling some of their harvest and working odd jobs like using their newfound construction experience to rebuild roofs outside town. Later they rebuilt the village bakery and sold bread to the outside world. Their organic sourdough breads now sell so well that today they can get by without looking for work outside town, but it helps that they keep their costs at a minimum as a way of life. "There's an austerity that's part of the desire of people who come here," explains Mauge. "There's not a desire for consumption to consume. We try to live with what there is." Today, the town generates all its own energy with the windmill, solar panels and a water turbine. It also has a wait list of people who'd like to move in, but Mauge says the answer is not for people to join what they have created, but to try to emulate them somewhere else. "If you set your mind to it and there's a group of people who want to do it, physically they can do it, economically they can do it. What right now is more difficult is being willing to suffer hardship or difficulties or... these days people have a lot of trouble living in situations of shortage or what is seen as shortage but it isn't." Original story here: http://faircompanies.com/videos/view/medieval-spanish-ghost-town-now-self-sufficient-ecovillage/
Comments
-
can I come please
-
Vale, no tenemos dinero pero las casas son bioclimáticas, tenemos molino de viento y placas solares... Eso es pasta! Y también pienso, pobres caballos, llevando todo el material a cuestas...
-
What a great project. We would love to have done this.
-
Thank you Kirsten!!!!
-
la casa Ederrena (que significa "la mas hermosa" en Euskera) ha sido subtitulada como "arena" en inglés.
-
my girlfriends dad is the architect in charge of restoring an old French village in the gers (next to the Pyrenees and Spanish border). Same concept over there. Some Germans bought it to make it an eco friendly village. Very noble.
-
You had the vision been a load of hard work ive no doubt, yet its come good living how you wish to , i congratulate you all on your ingenuity and skill.
-
Me gusta mucho vivir en la naturaleza sin ruido de macinas. Un projecto muy impresionante! Que altura tiene el pueblo?
-
I love the whole concept and screamed a big yes !1!1 when she mentioned vegetarianism because it just seems logical that they would be vegetarian but then I was saddened when they said they're not vegetarian anymore :(
-
This is my dream only on the coast :)
-
Do you know why they become ghost towns? Because people don't want to have children and don't want immigration.
-
que hermosos recuerdos.. asi era la granja donde crecio mi mama en chihuahua Mexico y donde pasabamos las vacaciones en mi infancia.. ojalay algun dia pueda volver :(
-
Brilliant stuff
-
just beautiful
-
wooooowwwwww
-
Is draught big problem for farmers in this region? Why you need chicken, pets?
-
Ederrena no Arena.
-
nice one,, well done
-
id like to live there,that place would be beautiful in autumn.City life is stressing.
-
Nice.A village repopulated despite it's uninhabitable condition.Sucess is 99% sweat you know.