Spanish traditional rural dwelling
A cortijo is a type of traditional rural dwelling (akin to the German "Bauernhof", also known as a farmhouse in English) in the southern half of Spain, including all of Andalusia and parts of Extremadura and Castile-La Mancha.
"Cortijos" may have their origins in ancient Roman villas, for the word is derived from the Latin "cohorticulum", a diminutive of "cohors", meaning 'courtyard' or inner enclosure. They are often isolated structures associated with a large family farming or livestock operation in the vast and empty adjoining lands.
Description.
A "cortijo" would usually include a large house, together with accessory buildings such as workers' quarters, sheds to house livestock, granaries, oil mills, barns and often a wall limiting the enclosure where there were no buildings surrounding it. It was also common for isolated "cortijos" to include a small chapel.
In mountain areas, rough stone was often used for wall construction and ashlar for corners, doorways, windows and arches. In ancient "cortijos", mud or slaked lime were used as mortar. However, the traditional materials were replaced by cement and brick construction in more recent ones. In places where stone was hard to come by, adobe was more common as a construction material. Usually "cortijos" were whitewashed.
Roofs were built with wooden beam structures and covered with red ceramic roof tiles.
The master of the "cortijo" or "señorito" would usually live with his family in a two-story building when visiting, while the accessory structures were for the labourers and their families —also known as "cortijeros". The latter buildings were usually of more simple construction.
The "cortijo" as a habitat is surrounded by cultivated lands, such as olive trees or other kind of agricultural exploitation. In certain desolate areas of the southern Central Meseta, Extremadura and Sierra Morena, a "cortijo" would be the only inhabited center for many miles around. Thus, most of them were self-sufficient units, as far as that was possible.
Many "cortijos" became deserted following General Franco's "Plan de Estabilización" and the abandonment of traditional agricultural practices by the local youth, including the lifestyle changes that swept over rural Spain during the second half of the 20th century.
References.
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