PRIMITIVE ISLAMIC URBANISM
The Phoenicians also came to the area, as did the Romans and the Visigoths. According to Titus Burckardt, a historian specialized in Wisdom and Tradition, the Alpujarras are one of the few, if not only, examples of primitive Islamic urbanism in the Iberian Peninsula, with La Taha de Pitres one of the best- preserved areas.
The way the houses are distributed without defined axes, with an organic growth off the urban centres, streets running through the houses, covered street sections (tinaos), dead ends to access some houses (adarves), and flat launa-covered roofs are all characteristics that define this type of urbanism. Characteristics that are still very much a part of Atalbeitar today.
As with the other villages of La Taha, Atalbeitar has almost miraculously preserved much of the original essence and construction. Neighbour and master builder Donald Gray describes parts of the village as "authentic poems of stone and mud and pieces of trees".
BUILDING A HISTORY
It's probable that this way of building existed even before the Moorish period, given that the houses were built with native materials accessible to inhabitants. This type of construction had its peak in the Moorish era and remained, albeit with some modifications, after the expulsion of the Moors and the re-population of the Alpujarras. The structure of the urban nuclei was conserved, yet the design of the houses was transformed with the introduction of facades bearing a more classic cut, and the widening of holes in these facades. They incorporated slate eaves from the now-closed Berchules quarry, and allowed more pronounced flights, which sometimes were supported on wooden corbels to cover balconies and other elements in the facade. The manufacture of moldings and other classic ornamental elements in the facades were developed, and some wrought iron balconies were added to the traditional wooden ones.
THE MEZQUITA
The remains of a Neolithic settlement stand proudly between Atalbeitar and Busquistar. According to Patrick Cresier's study on archeology in La Alpujarra, this impressive site containing a series of caves takes advantage of the land's special characteristics: a promontory raised on three sides, accessible only by part of the hill and thus facilitating its defense. From its location atop a ridge, the Mezquita is an undoubtedly strategic look-out point. In the area called Castillejo you can still see the remains of the foundations of a mud brick construction from the Moorish period. The area around the Mezquita was the first inhabited in La Taha.
LOGISTICS
The isolation of the area has played a big role in maintaining buildings as authentic relics of these ancestral construction models. The main road did not reach Pitres until the mid-20th century, and the road to Atalbeitar was only built in the late 1970s.
This made transporting heavier materials complex and very expensive, leaving locals with little choice but to maintain the stone structure of their houses. For the most part, modifications and enlargements were made with respect for the original design, traditional construction techniques and materials.
Today, it's increasingly difficult to keep the original purity of the buildings, partly due to the absence of a clear criterion of what is to be protected, and partly due to progress, which has lead to new construction materials and modern machinery being readily accessible. This makes it easy to destroy the magic, replacing it with banal, basic constructions.
The harmony of these villages is based on a 1000-year-old tradition, transmitted until recently by master builders. As all buildings are connected, villages must be viewed as group constructions, in which all elements are part of the whole. It's important to take this into consideration when restoring a building, and the support of experts in this type of construction is fundamental in any big renovation project.
Luckily, there are still a few master builders in La Taha de Pitres willing to share the secrets of these types of constructions.
MATERIALS
STONE
Mules were the main way of transporting goods down the narrow mountain trails, making it difficult to obtain all the necessary construction material. So apart from their orientation, villages were often built in areas with a profusion of rocks, which were used as part of the structure of the houses and as quarries for obtaining the building stone. Atalbeitar is a good example of this, where many houses have rocks embedded in both the inside walls and outside, forming part of the foundations.
In the most primitive buildings the stone was whitewashed, which after centuries softened the rocky facades into a pleasant, harmonious texture. Whitewashing with lime is still used today to clean and maintain the facades.
WOOD
Most beams were taken from the many chestnut trees in the area, though they could also be made of ash or oak, depending on what was most available. The carpentry of doors and windows, as well as the rails and parapets, were made with local noble wood, like chestnut and cherry walnut. These elegant and varied designs were sadly replaced over time by others with a rather inferior appearance.
The ceilings of the tinaos, terraces and azoteillas have also been preserved, adding greatly to the village atmosphere. Atalbeitar is known for having a large number of traditionally built tinaos.
PLASTER AND LIME
In La Taha de Pitres, the plaster and lime were made in ovens in the area of Panjuila, on the Corona hill. Here, the type of stone changes and the shale is replaced by limestone, from which the lime and the Aljez stone are obtained, and from which the gypsum is extracted. Its purity and resistance are ideal for the manufacture of floors, for the jambs and thresholds of openings, as well as for interior plastering
LAUNA
Another of the particular characteristics of the popular architecture of the Alpujarra are the terraos, or earth covers of launa, a type of gray clay that is formed by the decomposition of shales, which are terrain stones of laminar structure. The launa, from the Latin lamina, is formed by microscopic plates that overlap and when compressed form a waterproof coating that is used to cover the roofs, preventing water from penetrating the houses. Lately a plastic has been introduced, which is placed between two layers of the screen and finished with a thick layer of launa without screening to form the slope.
