Rehabitation of an abandoned village. 1/?

 Here is, part one of, a story of an anarcho-collective symbiotic organisation.  One branch of the grand ecosystem of the land. Land, which, like all that lives and dies within it, has the moral right to thrive. This is a story of dynamic principles, growth and autonomy.
A story of hopefully rendering obsolete and irrelevant the machinery of domination by using all the available faculties of the heart, head and soul.

This story, like all true stories, has a long and complex background. This is my comprehension, drawn from general sources and more specifically the book La Solana by Carlos Baselga Abril (ISBN; 84-605-8764-9). Photos are from that book or our own.

()

We sit on a terrain upheaved by pressures unimaginable. On a smaller ripple in the ancient collision of continents. Cracked and smoothed, cracked and smoothed, the cycle of water and wind wore the valley out. With wide slopes facing to the sun and sheltered from the harshest northern cold wind, a warm microclimate is created. Hence the name, Valle de la Solana, valley of the late afternoon sun. Oak, beech, birch, ash, hazels, chestnuts and pines all thrived and played host to an abundance animal life. Bears, mountain lions, wolves and eagles all stood at the top of a highly diverse food chain.
()

Who knows when man first 'settled' in these valleys and slopes. Being so far from the, so called, centers of civilization records are hard to come by. The Celts are known to have been all over the Ebro river tributaries from around the 1st century. They built many dolomites and it can be seen in the names that they founded many villages, including the one we are in. There was surely some interesting conflicts of opinion and 'authority' between the tribal Celts and Roman statists.

Kings court records show, that at least as far back as 700ad, the land was titled to dukes and lords, who will no doubt have made life much better for their new serfs. Probably partly due to miss management of the fertile valley bottoms, and a growing population, around c15 a decree was issued that claimed to give ownership of the most mountainous land to any one willing and able to put the effort into digging and enclosing terraces upon it.

()

And so the people spread out from the overpopulated valley villages and towns, the old Celtic terraces and waterways were fixed and new ones were dug. A staggering amount of work was done to terraform the mother rock and soil, until the whole mountain was leveled and full of human impact. From 700m to 1800m high terraced and plantable.

The people inhabited and expanded the existing villages, using the stone and wood to build strong, warm homes from themselves. Sometimes living with more then 20 people to a house with only one open fireplace they inevitably developed strong familial ties. The casual but firm hierarchy of wealth (land, for grain and animals) and patriarchy, would have made live bearable for most, but fairly difficult for some to deal with. I recommend, The Frost on His Shoulders by Lorenzo Mediano.

()

They planted mainly grains and potatoes for themselves, and turnips for the pigs and mules. There was parcels of oak and mixed forest set aside, for acorns and wood. They lived primarily off the land, building or carving what they need, with only a few metal tools between them. At upto 15Km remote from the valley road, the villages were connected by pathways crisscrossing the slopes and rivers. Progress and invention was slow but stable through a dynamic network of interdependance. Life was hard on the body but rich in spirit. And so they lived for many a generation. 

..

to be continued..