A WALK IN THE COUNTRYSIDE OF IBIZA

A WALK IN CORONA

Winter is one of the most beautiful season to enjoy the countryside of the island. It´s True that sometimes the weather is not really nice but in few days the weather changes for good and no rain or wind, and in numerous occasions we have an anticyclone above that gives us sunny days like these last days and where walking through the countryside is a delight. One of the most amazing things are these isolated houses of the island countryside. Although local architectural canons bet on the white following a Phoenician tradition of whitewashing the house, some are stone. The green countryside contrasts with these houses with stone colour.

The traditional Ibiza´s house starts with a relatively small building of one room and as the children born, or depending on whether the new marriage had to stay living with the parents or parents in law, the house become bigger and usually adding new rooms when needed with the growth of the family. Some had two floors.

Although most houses like the image above itself is whitewashed, some of the side walls were left unlimed. Sometimes the traveler will be able to watch when unlimed walls, that the doors and windows have a white frame around them, or even some with a white cross, which was used to ward off witches and evil spirits, due to when a few decades ago Ibiza was still an island with many superstitions.

This one on the image could be an example of a house starting to be a home for a newlywed couple who lived alone, and still without any children. Just with an inner porch that served as a living room, a kitchen and a room.

Further, they were adding more units at the house; rooms, corrals, barns and whatever was needed. Sometimes the whitewashed area of the house, tells over the oldness of the building respect to the not whitewashed area, that was generally the newest. .

Special features of typical houses were that they were usually surrounded by trees, olive trees, carob trees, prickly pears, or even (as something exotic but very common) a date palm. Another essential element formerly were the cars, a mule or horse(depending on the capabilities of the family) always was in a separate place from the main house. The car carrying the seed from the fields to the barn to the house during the work week, and on Sunday the carriage was used for the family for transportation to go to town (usually at some distance) to hear Mass and meet the village people. It was the rural Ibiza, on a very different times...