Guide in english

Surroundings,

 

we are in Porrúa, a little village in the eastern part of Asturias with approximately 400 inhabitants. The people from the village represent a perfect example of cohesion and active involvement in keeping traditions alive. That is one of the main reasons why we are exemplary village of Asturias since 2005. We are also Cultural Village of Europe, and in 2008 we hosted 12 villages from the rest of Europe.

We find ourselves in the neighbourhood ‘Llacín’. The field and the traditional houses were donated by a married couple original from Porrúa who emigrated to Mexico.

 

 

Hall 1. This hall is known as the varnished iron hall, we can appreciate the tools which were used in ancient times. Those utensils were made with thin iron layers which later were varnished with white color and could we decorated. A positiv aspect of this material is that it can we preserved in time, and it doesn’t break. Prior to this material, absolutely every cooking and sanitary utensil were made of wood.  As you can see, we have the bidet, chamber pot or potty, bucket, tea pot, coffe maker, and set of toys behind the display cabinet.

 

Hall 2. It is the landmark of the museum. It has an emotional value, it is the ‘tile makers room’ (tile is a piece we use in the roof, with a color similar to brick, but different in shape). Tile maker was a very common profession in the east of Asturias. They would work from dawn to dusk being abused from the overseer. That is the reason why they developed their own language in order to communicate among themselves without being understood by the rest of the people. That dialect is called Xiriga, a preserved dialectal usage of the language which it is not used anymore. We can appreciate pictures of the tile makers as well as some tiles with carved inscriptions to give instance of their work.

Hall 3

Hall 3 is really small. Here we observe the process of the cheese manufacturing and the butter (lard) used for feed purposes in ancient times. The main ingredient was milk. Some families worked selling those products in other villages selling them in every house.

Hall 4.In this hall we can see antique garments and the elaboration of the before mentioned. Animal fibre was used, which came from the sheep. On the other hand, vegetal fibre would produce linen, which would be obtained from canes similar to straw. Whithin those canes there was the thread. Several objects were used to open the canes.

Hall 5.This room is the storehouse. We can observe a wooden roof at a lower level than the rest of the house. There is a corridor which connects both houses. Four different professions are shown here. The first one is the ‘clog maker’ a shoemaker who elaborated the traditional wooden shoe known as clog. The second one is the ‘laundry woman’, the carpenter and the sawyer, the man who saws the wood off.

Hall 6– This is the ‘hayloft’ or ‘straw loft’, the place where grass was stored to dry.  Here we can see the farming tools (tools to work the soil). From here, we head to the stable.

Hall 7 –  The cattle was kept in the stable overnight. The warmth coming from the animals kept maintained the houses heated.

Hall 8 – This is the place where cider was manufactured (it is the typical Asturian beverage or drink). The process is: collect of the apple in autumn, then the apples are mashed, then are crushed or pressed to get the juice out of them. Finally, the juice goes into the barrels to ferment and then, people pour it in order to drink it!

Hall 9 – This is a traditional Asturian house. We find the entrance and the kitchen in the lower floor. Together with the stable, the kitchen was one of the natural heatings of the house. In the upper floor we have the living room and the  bedrooms