Living landscape · territorial memory
The juniper woodland: a forest providing home and shelter
Spanish juniper boughs roofed traditional pastoral chozones: dry-stone walls beneath thatched branches without nails or tiles, in Escalera, Lebrancón, Ablanque, and Olmeda de Cobeta.
Chozones sabineros are traditional pastoral huts built with dry limestone walls beneath conical thatched roofs of dense juniper branches up to 1.5 metres thick, built without mortar, roof tiles, or nails. Used since medieval times, they sheltered sheep flocks and shepherds against severe winter blizzards.
The oldest examples are circular, occasionally incorporating a living juniper trunk at their center as a supporting pillar. Over time square designs evolved, and from the 1950s interior wooden pillars were eliminated. The finest clusters stand in Ablanque, Escalera, and Olmeda de Cobeta.
Across the highest, coldest parameras, prostrate juniper (sabina rastrera) hugs the rocky ground, creating a distinct mottled pattern called «leopard skin».
Stories to read this part of the landscape
Middle Ages – 1960s
Building the shepherd shelter
Trunks and rafters formed the supporting cone while juniper boughs created the weather-resistant thatch shedding rain and snow.
Enter the chozones and their memory →20th century, with earlier practices
Traditional wild plant wisdom
Villagers distilled wild lavender in Peralveche, boiled asphodel leaves for livestock in Checa, and pollarded oaks for winter fodder in Olmeda de Cobeta.
Read about plants of everyday life →Memories of the 20th century
Materials inside rural homes
In Masegosa, the escriño was a coiled rye-straw basket, the gamellón a hollowed log trough, and the colodra a carved cow horn for carrying coarse salt.
Follow the memory of materials →Villages to follow the thread from
Every name opens its locations and memories, leading to other readings of the territory.
Traces on the ground
These places connect stories with what endures. Their guides allow you to locate them on the map and explore them in person.