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The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura

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PresentationPresentation

General presentationGeneral presentation
Tefía is a small farming village in the northeast of the island of Fuerteventura; since the 1970s, farming is experiencing strong population decline and no longer counts just over 200 inhabitants. Many residents left for the island’s capital, Puerto del Rosario, who is also the chief town of the municipality.

Tefía is best known for the museum of La Alcogida perpetuating rural traditions of the island. The Chapel of St. Augustine, the patron saint of the village, is also of great interest.

SituationSituation

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. The mill Tefía (author Rick Eisenmenger). Click to enlarge the image in Flickr (new tab).Tefía is located in the middle of a vast plain in the northwest of the island. This plain is bordered to the east by the mountain chain formed by the Pico de la Fortaleza (“Pico Fortress”), the Morro de Facay (Hill Facay) and Montañeta de Martínez (Mont de Martínez).

South dominates Mountain Bermeja consists of red pumice stone traditionally used material for angles and different kinds of buildings as can be seen on various houses of the locality. To the west lies a vast plain dominated by a mill gofio which has the distinction of having six wings, while most of the mills of the island possess only four.

Tefía is located 21 km west of Puerto del Rosario, the FV-10 road and the FV-207 road. The city of La Oliva is 14 km northeast of Tefía and Betancuria 19 km south.

VisitsVisits

ChapelThe Saint-Augustin (Ermita de San Agustín)
St. Augustine chapel was built in 1713; the first building, funded by the locals, was pretty small, but renovations and successive expansions have led to the chapel we see today. The chapel is surrounded by a barbican provided niches.

The village patron saint, St. Augustine, is celebrated on 28 August.

WindmillThe mill Tefía (Molino de Tefía)
The mills ’male’ (molinos) and mills “female” (molinas), driven by the wind, were introduced to the island of Fuerteventura in the late eighteenth century and experienced a notable development thanks to the abundance of the cereal wet years and the presence of very consistent and very strong winds most of the year. Windmills were substituted partly mortars, manual mills and animal traction wheels (tahonas), although all these devices continued to be used until recently in rural dwellings, when the amount of grist was low.

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Mechanism of a male mill (molino). Click to enlarge the image.The male mill (molino) is a tapered building stone masonry, clay and lime which has two or three levels. On the lower level are stored utensils miller; the average level is stored grain before milling and flour after milling; the top level is the grinding mechanism. The upper part of the mill is covered by a wooden roof that has the distinction of being rotatable, rotatable through a shaft to guide the wings in the wind direction.

While there are grinders six wings, most have only four wings. When moved by the wind, the wings rotate a gear which, in turn, rotates a gear that drives the rotation of the movable upper millstone over the fixed millstone, causing the grinding grain. The grain is poured into a hopper from where it falls into a gutter that leads to the millstones. Flour falls into a container in the middle stage, where it is stored in bags. The most common grains on the island were wheat and barley, and to a lesser extent, oats, rye, and even chickpeas and peas. When the beans are roasted before the result of the grind is called gofio.

The mill Tefía dates from the 1930s, although its mechanism is earlier, since he belonged to the mill of Rafael « el cantero » (Raphael the carrier) of the municipality of La Oliva. Since 1994 the mill was declared of Cultural Interest (Bien de Interés Cultural, BIC) in the category of Artistic Historical Monument.

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. male mill (molino). Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. male mill (molino). Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. female Moulin (Molina). Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).
Ethnographic MuseumThe museum of the Alcogida (Ecomuseo de la Alcogida)
The museum La Alcogida an ethnographic open air museum which recreates traditional rural life on the island of Fuerteventura, in the nineteenth and early twentieth century. The museum is housed in the houses of the hamlet of La Alcogida located about 1 km southwest of the village of Tefía on the FV-207 road, going towards Betancuria.

The people who lived in this place traditionally was dedicating to raising cattle and grain farming. These economic activities have left their mark on the landscape that was conditioned over time to culture and to take advantage of water resources.

The village owes its name to the proximity of a “alcogida”, that is to say, a field for collecting rainwater; Water is transported to various reservoirs. The aridity of the land and the low annual rainfall compelled the inhabitants to develop a complex system of water collection: ditches, tanks, filters, pipes and wells, elements that are integrated into the landscape of La Alcogida. The museum retains the name locals have given to this area because everything has ground to collect rainwater that ran in nearby ditches.

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. the Plan The museum Alcogida. Click to enlarge the image.The hamlet of La Alcogida was partly inhabited until the 1970s and was in ruins. Because the resort is comprised of a set of representative dwellings of traditional domestic architecture of Fuerteventura, the hamlet was restored in the 1990s by the Insular Chapter (Cabildo Insular) to become an ethnographic museum; the ruined houses have been restored in the traditional architecture and original materials. The tour includes the discovery of seven houses and maisonettes typically majoreras but different architectural: since most elaborate homes of wealthy families to modest buildings that recall the humble peasant of Fuerteventura and the harshness of rural life. Each house retains the name of its former owners. Thus one can see the house of Mr Jacinto, Ms. Herminia, that of Mr Teodosio Ramos, or those of Herreras and Cabreras, families, in some cases, lived there until the 1970s.

In this museum is recreated traditional daily life of the island, with furnished houses of peasants, outbuildings (ovens, animal traction mill (tahona), barns, stables, barns etc), domestic animals (goats, chickens , cows, donkeys majorero, and one that was for centuries the workmate of the inhabitants: the dromedary), domestic and agricultural tools, and activities that were part of the daily chores of the inhabitants. Craftsmen installed in some of the houses to make the visitor of crafts: pottery, lace, embroidery and palm wickerwork or wicker, cheese and gofio. The village even has its own crop of Canarian plants. One can witness the milling of grain through the tahona, operated by a small ass a bit sad, and three times a week, a baker comes bake special bread with anise in a small bread ovens (horno de pan).

Visit the Ecomuseum La Alcogida :

Hours: daily, except Saturday and Monday from 10 am to 18 pm.

Admission: € 5.

Phone: 00 34 928 175 434

There is a gift shop (home of Mr Jacinto) where you can buy handicrafts made ​​on site, and a small café.

CottageThe house # 1
The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. House No. 1. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The house No. 1, Casa de Señor Jacinto, is divided into two parts, one north, which corresponded to the living area with south-facing addictions. The doors of the other block, for animals, cooking and “tahona” (mill driven by a donkey) are oriented north and west. The central patio is closed to the east by a wall provided with an open vestibule on the west.

Housing is constructed entirely of limestone and exposed cavities are sealed with rubble and dung.

The coating cole porter leave exposed freestone worked adorning the corners and door frames and windows. The exterior walls of outbuildings kitchen and stables on which one can see the cut edges made of medium-sized stone remain bare. These dependencies have small windows as an aeration and wooden skylights.

The roof system is the same for almost all the dependencies: the finished coping with crab and borders completed by stone slabs serve as gutters to protect the finish. The most room to the west has a flat roof and beams arranged transversely to its smallest dimension.

Other interesting features of this home are the bread oven backed the southwest wall of the “tahona”. To the east, taking advantage of the prevailing wind, there is a small area where threshing practice during harvest, on a ground raw flat stones. In the same place we appreciate the construction of a straw warehouse.

CottageThe house No. 2
The house No. 2, Casa de Señora Herminia y Señor Donato is a small country housing to its basic function; although its architecture is the home of these poor families. It consists of three main rooms side by side and two small outbuildings built against the west.

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. The Alcogida, dining room of the house # 2. Click to enlarge the image.The walls of stone and mud are mounted in stone worked on the corners and door frames and windows. They are partially coated with a mixture of lime and sand to the bedrooms, leaving appear some big stone. Dependencies shed and kitchen are made of dry stone without siding.

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. The Alcogida, bedroom of the house # 2. Click to enlarge the image.The roofs vary by room. The most west arm, the result of a later extension has a flat roof and wooden beams on the walls, respecting the transverse line of the piece. The hurdle is the element that is placed between the beams to strengthen the cake layer. Adjoining rooms also use the reed and in this case, the roof is in hood, decorated with a ledge stone slabs that protects the cake.

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida The kitchen of the house # 2. Click to enlarge the image.The roof of the kitchen, slightly sloping, facilitates the flow of water. The trunks of tamarisks are used (tarajal) for beams and tree tobacco stalks (mimo) and tamarisk (tarajal) (local plants) between each space.

The poverty of this home is evident. In the tiny kitchen, the stone bench serves home made of three stones on which rests the cauldron.

The house is closed to the south by a small dry stone wall, creating a sheltered patio, where are grown herbs (mint, coriander, basil, etc.) and flowering plants (geranium, etc).

The garden, in front of the house, produced vegetables to feed the whole family garlics, onions, radishes, peas, corn, and so on.

CottageThe house # 3
The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. The Alcogida house # 3. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The house No. 3, Casa de Señor Facundo, is composed of two rectangular blocks. The largest in the south, has five rooms including three for housing. North and west, two juxtaposed parts are used respectively as stable and as a barn. The other block, smaller, single arm, home to a kitchen whose opening faces the rooms.

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. The Alcogida house # 3. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).This traditional habitat has the distinction of having no external coating. then one can appreciate the materials and the voids are filled with pebbles. The angles are volcanic stone red, quarried Mountain Bermeja, and some others are lighter colored sandstone.

We also use the stone to make supporting arches on the top of the doors. The space between the lintel and the arch is filled with rubble.

The roofs are flat and rainwater is discharged, for some, the patio through a wooden pipe and other gifts for the back of the house, in the same way. On the smallest length are interspersed beams where the planking is fixed with chopsticks to hold the cake.

In the north, the house has a small playground and a place to store the hay bales. This is a frustoconical construction, usually made of barley straw outside and hollow inside, for storing products such as wheat, thus isolating it from moisture and creating a closed space, dry and ventilated for both longer storage products.

CottageThe house # 4
The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida house # 4. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The house No. 4, Casa de Señor Teodosio Ramos, is located in the village center of Alcogida is a more complete both functionally and architecturally. It is a construction of large composed of two parts connected by a courtyard. To the east, you go out of a framed wooden door of a large wall while in the south, a small grid is borrowed iron forged to leave.

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida house # 4. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The outbuildings used as dwellings are facing south. The other rooms are used for economic purposes.

All ornaments are realize in stone and terracotta, the door frames and windows are worked in volcanic limestone.

The most remarkable part of the house is covered with lime and sand, leaving few stone walls, and in the corners and jambs of doors and windows.

The exterior walls of the “tahona” (mill powered by cattle) and those of the farmyard and barn to be free coating.

On the roof alternate chaperone systems and flat roofs. To consolidate the cake in the attic flat roofs, is used in the bedrooms of the reed. For the stable year using wooden planks and tamarisk wood (tarajal) for “tahona”.

This accommodation has tanks, one inside and one in the courtyard. They are covered with a masonry arch structure over which rely on stone slabs. The tank of the patio collects water flowing from the roof and the second tank equipped with a filter screen is outside the court, in the back part of the house. This one is short and recovers water flowing around. These are channeled and when the tank is full it flows into the patio.

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida, dining room of the house # 4. Click to enlarge the image.The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida, bedroom of the house # 4. Click to enlarge the image.The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida, bedroom of the house # 4. Click to enlarge the image.
The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida, home cooking 4. Click to enlarge the image.The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida, home cooking 4. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida, filtered water from home No 4. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).
The house has dependencies directly related to the economic activity that had developed in the area. These dependencies are the straw loft and the farmyard and a pen and “tahona” (inside mill driven by donkeys).

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida, dromedary. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The barn housed the animals with the largest market value such as cattle, camels, donkeys, mules, etc ...

The outbuildings on the ground floor and attic were used as warehouses. Downstairs, agricultural equipment were kept, tools, and so on. The attic insulated to store crops (cheese, figs and prickly pears, dried fish and so on).

This home has a “tahona” addiction that many homes did not have and which frequently belonged to and was used by several heirs.

The house is also equipped with a lime kiln.

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida, tahona the house # 4. Click to enlarge the image.The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida, Traction ass. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida, tahona the house # 4. Click to enlarge the image.
CottageThe house No. 5
The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida, courtyard of the house 5. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The house No. 5, Casa de los Herrera, craftsmen, a house is more complex in structure. It is composed of two houses, one in the shape of “L”, facing south, and another, larger, shaped like a “U” facing it.

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida, bread oven in the house 5. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The walls of the building are made of stone and mud and stone angles, except the south side of the house. The rest of the cladding is partially coated with lime and sand, revealing some large hewn stones on the walls and jambs.

There are two types of roofing, flat and chaperone finished cake, mud and gypsum. The chaperone is in turn divided into two parts: the two sides are based on the ridge beam and siding; both sides rely on the gears, that is to say, they are placed parallel to the ridge.

To enhance the cake layer, is used in some outbuildings planks of wood (embedded), others are covered with reeds and when the dependencies acted as “taro” (grain warehouse and cheese), it strengthened the with wood tamarisk (tarajal).

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. The Alcogida, baking bread (author Frank Vincentz). Click to enlarge the image.The cavities are filled with shaped cut stones and lintels with wooden ties. Only the main room “la sala”, located to the west, which had frames of the door and the window in light sandstone.

The most part northwest has an irregular floor. Its walls do not form any corner and found depressions created to serve closets and small window-openings, revealing that it was a “taro”.

In a small enclosure near the house, one can see the remains of an old plantation prickly pears and agaves, remains of the different economic stages of Fuerteventura. During the second half of the nineteenth century, just after the civil war, the island has boomed thanks to the exploitation of cochineal and agave.

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida house 5. Click to enlarge the image.The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida, home workshop 5. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. Alcogida, cheese home 5. Click to enlarge the image.
CottageThe house No. 6
The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. The Alcogida, house No. 6. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The house No. 6 Casa de los Cabrera, artisans, is a house built in the shape of “L”, with the north, the most important part and the south dependencies for the rooms and the hall. In the west wing, smaller, is for cooking.

The rooms located in the corner of the house have a ground floor and an attic.

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. The Alcogida, bread oven of the house No. 6. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The walls are made of stone and mud. Edges and frames are worked in volcanic limestone, as well as the arches, lintels and certain doors. Beyond the walls of the kitchen, all the others are partially coated with lime mortar and sand mixture, leaving uncovered the edges of stone and door frames.

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. The Alcogida, weaving workshop of the house No. 6. Click to enlarge the image.The roof is flat and parts of the beams between which were placed reeds rest directly on the side walls and support the cake cover. The kitchen and the attic have a chaperone roof that protects the finish cake using a stone gutter worked red size.

To access the attic, you borrow an external staircase volcanic stone that draws on a wall in which is embedded a tank to filter rainwater.

In front of the house there is a stone wall creating a small courtyard which defines the family plot.

Near the house, to the west, beyond the court, a square stone tank covered with lime mortar remains open.

The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. The Alcogida, pottery workshop of the house No. 6. Click to enlarge the image.The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. The Alcogida, straw home workshop 6. Click to enlarge the image.The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. The Alcogida, weaving workshop of the house No. 6. Click to enlarge the image.
CottageThe house No. 7
The house No. 7 Casa de los Molina.
The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. The Alcogida, house No. 7. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. The Alcogida, house No. 7. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).The village of Tefía in Fuerteventura. The Alcogida, bread oven in the house No. 7. Click to enlarge the image in Adobe Stock (new tab).

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