The Basque farmhouses of Zelaa and Maiz Goena: New dendrochronology-based findings about the evolution of the built heritage in the northern Iberian Peninsula

Abstract

The Basque farmhouse, a characteristic building type for north-western Spain, is an architectural solution that allows the combined management of different rural activities. In addition to providing living quarters and a space for a cider press these farmhouses were designed to function as, among others, stable, barn and warehouse. They were often owned and managed by one family, with no links to ecclesiastic organizations. Architectural studies have established that these buildings first were constructed at the end of the 15th century without previous local precedent. This places their initial construction in a calm and relatively secure period, when the wars between the aristocratic lineages which had started in 1418, and which had resulted in assaults, looting and fires, had come to an end. The timing of their first occurrence has led to the interpretation that they represent a building tradition imported from the North. Dendrochronological research initially confirmed their late fifteenth-century origin. However recent restoration work in two previously undocumented farmhouses at Ezkio and Lazkao (Gipuzkoa territory) has enabled a reassessment of this interpretation. The architectural analysis of these buildings shows that their construction plans, which are quite similar, deviates from the general plan according to which the majority of Basque farmhouses were built. The newly identified model, wholly executed in wood with the exception of the roof covering, is based on the repetition of frames and bays. Together these generate the volume of the building, which is larger than the volume of other farmhouses. We collected a total of 81 oak (Quercus sp.) samples from both farmhouses and using Basque chronology ARAB9 as a reference established that these represent trees that were cut down in the spring of 1445 and in 1453 respectively. Since construction most likely took place within a few years after the trees were felled, this indicates that Basque farmhouses began to be constructed decades earlier than expected. At that time wars still raged in the Basque Country. If it is true that the political situation determined the degree of diffusion of non-indigenous architectural concepts in this region, the new findings can be interpreted as supporting the hypothesis that Basque farmhouses reflect a regionally-developed building tradition.