Would you ever consider going back in time and living without all the features that keep your home comfortable? Without all the kitchen appliances and a modern bathroom? Without all those gadgets that we use in our leisure time in our homes? Not to mention even the most basic things like electricity or tap water? Would you like to live that experience?
Before making a positive or negative statement about that, the best thing is to check out one of those houses that preserved the original look from more than two centuries ago. Well, at least that is what the house I visited last week stated. A typical house from the 18th century, which is converted into a museum. It is located in the village of Guadalest, in Spain. I played there at one event a few days ago, and as I had a bit of time, I visited this museum.
The bedroom looked pretty nice. Simple, but with a cool bed, and a piece of furniture with a sewing machine on it and an accessory for weaving. On the wall, we can see a candleholder and a long stick with a rounded part at the end of it. It is a bed warmer. I do remember my grandma had some bed warmers, but they were electric blankets. She used to count me the adventures from her childhood and youth and was mentioning brick bed heaters. They used to warm them up on a stove before putting them into bed.
One of the walls in this bedroom was a rock actually. Well, this house is situated in that village that is on the top of the rock, probably many houses have at least one wall that is part of nature, the rocky formation. It is almost like living in a cave.
Although it may seem like a primitive way of maintaining hygiene, this basin and jug probably served the purpose nicely. I don't think this "mobile bathroom" is more than a hundred years old as something similar I saw in the same grandma's house, though just as a decoration. The objects shown in this traditional house date from the period between the 18th and 20th centuries.
Work was an essential part of the lives of people in the past too. Though work in the past and in this region involved more physical activity. They lived from agriculture, and there were no machines as we have nowadays. These people worked the land with the tools they had and with the help of domestic animals. It was supposed to prepare the land, sow the crop, nurture it, and harvest it. But it was a way to bring bread to the table.
Many tillage tools were on display, like a shovel for winnowing wheat, a pitchfork, a sickle, a plough used with a horse or a donkey etc. In the next room I saw a sheaf of wheat, a sieve, and a tool that was used for threshing.
Once the family had the wheat harvested, they had to take the load to the mill, to obtain flour. It was important to take the wheat to the mill before the reserves of the flour at home finished, as for making good bread it was essential that the flour rest for a time. In the area there were several hydraulic mills, but also one small mill stone was showcased in the museum. Seems that they were used as well.
Along with bread, wine was one of the essential necessities. Grapes were grown and picked, and espadrilles for crushing grapes were used in the process of grape-stomping. Those shoes are what we see in the photo.
The prepared wine was stored in barrels and large glass bottles. Good wine in the family was highly valued, and celebrations and family gatherings would not be the same without it.
Olives play a very important role in the Valencian community, and in the whole Mediterranean area. The most valuable product was the oil obtained from the olives, as it is still highly valued today. The tools like the roller and the press are shown in next the images.
Seems almost impossible to have more things in that house converted into a museum, but still there were other tools and objects that were used in the everyday life in the past centuries. Baskets and barrels, soap containers and jars, weights they used in trades etc.
The walk through this house finished, mainly because I had to go and play at my gig. But it was interesting to have this short glimpse into the past, how the people lived in this Spanish village and what were the objects they had in and around the house. How their work looked like and everything that was needed to do to have food on the table. It was not easy, for sure, but wouldn't you like to try this way of living? At least for a few days and then come back to the present?
Well, maybe you would like it that much that coming back to the present time would not be tempting anymore. It is a personal preference, however, we are surrounded by so many mod cons that make us want to stick to this comfortable way of life.
