The main building elements used in the Jara region folk architecture are clearly determined by its location. The basic materials are stone (slate, granite, quartzite, and boulders), wood and mud.

The use of lime mixed with sand or mud is typical of la Jara. This mixture is used as mortar, plaster, and as whitewash.

The main element in buildings is slate masonry (La Nava de Ricomalillo, Mohedas de la Jara, El Campillo de la Jara), although granite masonry is also found (Aldenueva de Barbarroya), as well as adobe and brick walls. Particularly remarkable are the curved or cornerless walls of the region, which avoid the need for large stone blocks and prevent cracks.

Roofs are a very characteristic element of Jara buildings. In the Jara, they are usually made of curved or Arabic tiles. Tiles are placed on a base of mud and rockrose, broom, or hurdle branches, over pinewood rafters or a wood covering. Usually roofs are gabled, almost always parallel to the street, with equal sloped and slight inclination.

In Jara homes, windows are an important element in the building structure. They are small, yet large enough to allow the minimum light and air to come in. Lintels are made of wood, stone or brick, window frames are wooden, and shutters on frameworks have simple grates, surrounded by plaster and whitewashed. It is typical of some town to place a protection against rain on top of the window, with large slate slabs forming a vertex.

Doors usually have a thick holm oak or ash lintel, or granite or slate lintel, although there are also lintels in the shape of a semi-circular arch or a basket-handle arch. Most lintels are masonry or brick, with granite lintels with large doorposts being less frequent.

Of particular interest are the Toledillo neighbourhood in La Estrella, the Zorra neighbourhood in El Campillo and the upper reaches of the La Nava de Ricomalillo old town, as they preserve the traditional buildings of the Jara region. There are some houses in Mohedas de la Jara whose folk architecture is more impressive than the humble buildings found most often in the region. Particularly remarkable is the house which was the birthplace of one of the most famous local personages, don Juan Álvarez de Castro, Bishop of Coria.

LAVADERO DE LA FUENTE BLANCA

El interés y empeño de la corporación municipal del Ayuntamiento de Aldeanueva de Barbarroya, por recuperar este singular lavadero público, es un claro ejemplo de la sensibilización para la recuperación de la memoria histórica de las sociedades pretéritas.

El lavadero público de la Fuente Blanca es un claro exponente de la arquitectura popular tradicional, siendo uno de los mayores complejos de lavaderos existentes en el occidente toledano y el más significativo de la Comarca de la Jara. Se localiza a unos 500 m. al suroeste del núcleo urbano de Aldeanueva de Barbarroya, donde confluye el Camino de las Posadas con el Camino del Cancho, en el entorno denominado como: "La Fuente Blanca" o "El Cercón".

Las primeras referencias documentales que hacen alusión al complejo del Lavadero de la Fuente Blanca, datan de finales del siglo XIX, cuando comienzan a adoptarse una serie de medidas de carácter higiénico-sanitarias, destinadas al mantenimiento y mejora de la salubridad de fuentes y manantiales sitas en el término municipal de Aldeanueva. Con posterioridad, y como fruto de esta serie de disposiciones, en 1923, se lleva a cabo una reestructuración del espacio de la Fuente Blanca, canalizando las aguas a través de una cañería dotada con varios registros y la construcción de dos pilones.

El complejo de la Fuente Blanca se compone de diferentes elementos, todos ellos asociados a la tradicional actividad del lavado de prendas:
Por un lado, encontramos el elemento más característico, las pilas de lavar, en su origen calculamos que había en torno a ochenta y tres pilas, actualmente, encontramos sesenta y cuatro pilas, que se distribuyen en once filas alineadas formando calles dispuestas de forma paralela en torno a una fuente-depósito de doble pilón. Las pilas, todas ellas realizadas en piedra granítica, presentan una forma paralelepípeda con cajeado interior profundo, orificio de evacuación de aguas situado generalmente en uno de los laterales o en el frente, las pilas se adaptan al terreno mediante una o varias piedras que sirven de calzos o poyetes. Hay una mayor presencia de pilas de doble lavadero en relación con las de lavadero único. En algunas pilas se aprecian inscripciones con las iniciales de los nombres y apellidos de sus respectivos dueños, ya que algunas de ellas son de propiedad privada.

El doble pilón se sitúa en el sector noreste del conjunto. Consta de un primer pilón de planta rectangular compuesto por doce bloques rectangulares de granito, unido con mortero y lañas de hierro, a los que se suma una pieza dispuesta verticalmente en el centro del lado sur en la que se embute un caño de hierro. Esta pieza presenta en su cara anterior la siguiente inscripción: 1923/ALCALDE/VICENTE/R. G. El segundo pilón es de planta cuadrangular y ambos elementos se comunican por medio de un pequeño canalillo.

Por otro lado, encontramos elementos destinados a la traída de aguas desde el "Pozo de la Fuente Blanca" hasta el lavadero, consisten en una canalización realizada con alcabijas, piezas cilíndricas de cerámica cuyos extremos se acoplan en el extremo más ancho de la siguiente y dos registros de planta cuadrada con cubierta de piedra granítica.

Nota: Texto extraído, con autorización de los autores (Alberto Moraleda y Sergio de la Llave Muñoz), del estudio realizado a petición expresa del Excmo. Ayuntamiento de Aldeanueva de Barbarroya sobre el lavadero de la Fuente Blanca; estudio que se encuentra actualmente en proceso de publicación.

 

 TELARES

El Campillo de la Jara en el siglo XVIII, año 1782, tiene 150 vecinos y el pueblo es conocido en la comarca por sus 30 telares asistidos por mujeres, cuyos productos, las afamadas mantas "pingueras" o "campillanas", eran vendidas por las mismas mujeres en toda la comarca. Unas pocas familias campillanas han mantenido esta actividad como medio de vida hasta los años 60 y 70. Algunos de estos telares aún se conservan y los últimos tejedores, ahora más hombres que mujeres, siempre están dispuestos recordarnos esta actividad, que ya es una tradición.

CIUDAD DE VASCOS

A Hispano-Muslim town inhabited between the 9th and 12th centuries CE, which was declared a historical-artistic monument in 1932. It’s located in the West of the current province of Toledo, in the municipality of Navalmoralejo, where there currently stands an “Interpretation Centre” providing videos, explanatory panels, and an exhibition of pieces found in the archaeological digs.

Known by the inhabitants of nearby towns, it was used from the end of the Middle Ages and during the Modern Age as a pasturing spot and a spot for agricultural activities. In this way, Muslim remains underwent certain alterations which made their identification difficult. It was in this context that archaeological excavations started in 1975, funded from the 1980s by the Educacion and Science Council, and led by Professor Ricardo Izquierdo Benito of the University of Castile-La Mancha.

The name of the town in Muslim times has been the object of controversy. Nowadays it seems clear that it was Nafza (from the name of a tribe of the same name), belonging to Basak, one of the districts of Talabira (Talavera de la Reina). After being abandoned, it was the name of the territory that was preserved in tradition, finally becoming identified with the town and turning into the current term “Vascos”. The town was located in a remote área of difficult access, surrounded by the river Huso. It was founded around the late 9th century CE, with the aim of controlling the territory.

In the historical context of civil wars within Al-Andalus, known as the First Fitna, many rural áreas like this (occupied by Berbers) became fortified. It appears that what was first built in Vascos was a small military fortress which depended from the Arab-descended Umayyad power in Cordoba, the capital of the Emirate. These fortresses were known as husun or hisn dependiendo de su importancia. Later on, the fortress became a citadel when the settlement grew and the town was built, an act which entailed a new political and legal status, requiring nomad peoples from the área or immigrants to settle there and adopt and urban way of life. This possibly happened in Vascos during the reign of the first caliph of Al-Andalus, Abd al-Rahman III or that of his son Al-Hakam II (between 930 and 960 CE). During the next period of the Taifa kingdoms, in the 11th century, Vascos belonged to the kingdom of Toledo, on the frontier with the enemy kingdom of Badajoz. In that hostile climate, which grew harsher under Christian pressure from the North, its military role also increased. 

Fianlly, the town came under Castilian-Leonese power at the time (1085 CE) when the King of Toledo Al-Quadir surrendered and handed all his lands over to Alfonso VI. As a consequence, the Muslim population was forced to leave the area with all the belongings they could carry with them.  

The town of Vascos is divided into different areas, on the basis of its two main parts. That of the town itself, which was within the town walls, the Madina (Arabic for “town”), within which rose the main building, the “Alcazaba” or Citadel, later known by Christians as “Alcázar”. As for the town outside the walls, it remains mostly unexcavated, and is not very well known due to its more modest and ill-preserved remains. The Vascos Madina spreads over a total of some 8 hectares. It was delimited to the North by a stone and adobe walls, adapted to the irregular terrain, and crowned by quadrangular towers. It had a North-South orientation, flanked by two gates (of which two have been preserved, the South and the West gates) and four smaller “portholes” or openings in the wall for the removal of rubbish and rainwater, and not too visible from outside. Due to the mixed form of its construction, it seems clear that the wall was built in a short time by different work gangs working at the same time. Within this Madine rose the Citadel, the centre of political and military power, to the Northwest of the town, next to the Huso river. It was renovated and enlarged several times (the different spaces can still be seen inside), particularly during the last decades of Muslim occupation, when many smaller spaces were built to house military troops. It was during those final times when the “main” Mosque was also built inside the Citadel.

With the Christian conquest, the Citadel was still used as a watchtower by a small Castilian troop, which also used the Mosque as a church and burial place. The rest of the town had already been deserted, and its final abandonment must have taken place before the end of the 12th century. However, the Citadel, from its beginnings, had the characteristics of a fortress within the town itself: it had a wall defended by towers, a barbican (a security ante-wall), and a double-gate entry through a passage in an upwards slope. These were impressive security measures towards the population itself. Moreover, it is the only áaea in the dig which is thought to have been occupied in Roman and Visigothic times by some sort of worship building, such as a shrine. And even before that: remains of a small Bronze Age settlement have been found under the Islamic buildings. 

Outside the Citadel and within the Madina were the houses, of different qualities: the most luxorious ones had more than seven or eight rooms with slate floors around a central patio. (Most houses were much more modest). The materials found in the digs show that there were pens for small animals inside the houses, and that there probably were “specialised” neighbourhoods: shops in some areas, manufactures (including metal) in others. There was another, “minor” Mosque, smaller than the main one but built when the town was first founded in a neighbourhood near the Citadel Hill. Like all Muslim towns, the layout of its streets (whose pavement was the rock itself, sometimes carved) was irregular, even more here due to the irregular terrain. Even so, there was a cobbled main street which probably went from the Citadel to the South gate.

 As the town was not destroyed or suddenly abandoned, most valuable objects were taken away by their owners. Even so, much crockery has been found, of different kinds depending on its function: cooking, storage, transportation, or preservation, in addition to objects with leisure purposes (in stone or brick), such as chips for games or tic-tac-toe. Metallic objects have also been found, such as nails and locks, iron ornaments, and bronze bracelets, pins, and cosmetic objects. Also agricultural objects, such as loom pieces, scissors, scythes, needles… and some small bronze coins with Arabic inscriptions. But above all, remains of building materials, such as brick and tiles, over the remains of collapsed houses.  

Outside the walls spread the suburbs, which, as in any other Hispano-Muslim town, were located certain economic and commercial activities (the Market). But Burial Grounds were also located in this area. There were two of these in Vascos: the main one, very badly preserved, to the South of the town, and another one to the West. Graves were simple pits, half a metre deep, which were not even marked from the outside with gravestones. Of course, corpses were laid following Islamic ritual: on the side, on the right shoulder, arms along the body, bent knees, facing South or Southeast. It is known that in Vascos, the tanneries, where hides and leather were tanned, were in the Northwest suburbs, next to one of the gates, not far from the oil press area.

Proximity to what is known as Arroyo de la Mora (“the Moorish Woman’s Stream”, which leads to the nearby rive Huso), and which surrounded the town on the North, placed all activies related to the need for water in this area. For this reason, small dams were built to create reservoirs: some have been located. The Public Baths were also located here. This place (the Hamman), in addition to performing social and hygienic functions, also played a religious role, related to the necessary purification which every Muslim must carry out in order to pray in the Mosque. Excavations have yielded structures which combine stone, adobe, and local slate slabs, in which the different wardrobe, cold, tepid, and hot bath areas can still be seen. 

LA ALDEHUELA DOLMEN

This dolmen, found in the estate known as La Aldehuela, was raised more than 4,500 years ago by Bronze Age people, and seems to be a circular funerary chamber with a triple ring.
This structured was slightly modified by agricultural activity, but even so this dolmen can be seen to be composed of a series of twelve stone blocks with a height of up to 1,80 m, only one part of which still remains on the ground. These stone blocks are huge granite slabs in a circle, creating a chamber. This chamber is accessed by a corridor formed by two rows of six lower blocks, among which can be seen a slate block with an engraved bowl and another block which has fallen into the chamber.

The corridor also presents a number of engravings of pans and very schematic anthropomorphic figures simulating human figures. These bowls are semi-spherical cavities whose meaning is unknown, although speculations have been made regarding their symbolic nature, their possible use in certain rituals, or their being simply astronomical maps.

The entire megalithic ensemble is surrounded and covered by a barrow formed by the accumulation of soil and small stones.

Silex knives, pins, rough earthenware… have been found inside the Dolmen, as well as some inscriptions on some of its stones. It seems to date from some 3,000 years BCE.

Measurements: the corridor is 7.70 m long and 1.80 m wide. The concentric circles are 7 m large, with the outer one measuring 6 m and the middle one 4,5 m. 
 

AZUTÁN DOLMEN

Discovered and excavated near the town of Azután, this is a wonderful example of local magalithic architecture. Astonishingly, it dates from 4,500 BCE. The Azután Dolment was the first of the megalithic remains to be found in the South Plateau.

The dolmen was subjected to systematic excavations and studies from the early 1980s until 2001, and still has intact archaeological remains, as well as remains from an underlying hábitat. It has a huge chamber and corridor structure and a lintel covering, where burials were made and collective ossuaries placed from the Middle to the Final Neolithic (5th millennium BCE) and during the Bronze Age (in its Maritime Bell-Shaped period, during the 4th millennium BCE), whereas the habitat inside the barrow displays a 6th-millenium chronology. The archaeological remains documented and found near the dolmen are based on abundant evidence of earthenware, bone work, stone work – carved and polished – as well as some beads. To all this must be added the obvious total ornamentation of the funerary space by menas of engravings and fine incisions with wavy and zigzagging lines, as well as wide geometric and anthropomorphic engravings, and even bas-reliefs and paintings in the chamber stone blocks, as well as free-standing figures of a sculptural nature (menhirs) within the chamber space.

Also significant from the archaeological point of view, in addition to its intrinsic monumental nature, is its connection to water flows, as it stands near to the Tagus river and to the Linares and Anguilucha streams, and is also linked to underground water flows in the same archaeological areas. 

La Jara, like all Toledo regions, preserves the remains of crafts which once provided its livelihood.

Many crafts are found in the region, sometimes overlapping between the various towns.

Many craftsmen have workshops for manufacturing and sales, but many crafts are produced by amateur craftsmen who know their elaboration techniques, such as that of wicker work.

 
Aldenueva de Barbarroya

One of the most characteristic activities of the town is embroidery. This is a high-quality femaly craft which, despite preserving certain characteristics of its own, has been commercialised together with other, better known designations of origin.

Calera y Chozas

One of the most remarkable crafts is painting on wood (clothes racks, napkin holders, trays), metal (milk pitchers, lamp stands) and fabric (lamp screens, t-shirts, cushions). Restoration of old furniture and felt accessories are other local products.

El Campillo de la Jara

The following crafts can be found: artisanal tiles, cork, wicker, lace, homemade soap, candles…

The Rural Market that takes place in the summer is an opportunity to display these crafts, as well as of promoting local craftsmen.

La Estrella

The following crafts can be found: artisanal embroidery, and wood and bronze carvings, among others.

La Nava de Ricomalillo

The most widespread crafts are baskets, artisanal embroidery, and cork.

Puerto de San Vicente

The crafts practised are artisanal embroidery and homegrown honey.

Sevilleja de la Jara

The most widespread crafts are cork, artisanal embroidery, and soap.