Meeting with the Architecture of Villanueva del Pardillo

A few weeks ago was celebrated the Architecture Week in our town. It was a good opportunity to get to know the history of Villanueva del Pardillo, to show the concerns of young people in terms of leisure time and town design, and best of all... it was an excellent experience because fourteen and fifteen year old students met Mrs. Carmen, a lovely woman whose life captivated all of us. 

Carmen Moreno, the local government architect, organized the activities and let us know the creator of Hackity, a web application to raise social awareness an collaboration to improve towns and cities with hacks. So, thank you all!

And now, enjoy the chronicles of two 4th ESO journalists...

                        Plan de Regiones Devastadas

Alfredo O.

Regiones Devastadas is a title given from the SNRDR (Servicio Nacional de Regiones Devastadas y Reparaciones), that is a national service created by Franco after the Civil War to start the reconstruction of Spain. In Villanueva del Pardillo, this area is located in the surroundings of the town hall.

  It’s where the new buildings were built after the Civil War, because every single  construction was destroyed, excepting La Casona, where the people sheltered.

This area has three main characteristics:

·   1. The streets are almost only for the people to walk, instead of for vehicles. 2.There are lots of trees placed in the streets, but mainly high trees, and some nightlights. 3. The design of the houses is different from the one we have nowadays. They consisted of the main room, with a huge courtyard, where plants and livestock were usually placed, and finally a little balcony on top of the house. This kind of houses are no longer built.                                                                                                                                    

Señora Carmen

Pablo G.

After we finished talking about the maps and the town, we went on to talk with Mrs. Carmen.  She was  an old woman who was born some months before the Spanish Civil War started. She told us how life was in our town during the post-war. The entire village was destroyed except one house. It was a big house, so all the families went there to live; including her big family (she had a lot of brothers and sisters). 

She also told us life was very hard at that time.  There was no water or electricity, and her siblings had to work hard to get ahead. When the village was reconstructed, they were granted a house, where she continues living nowadays (now it has water and light). She is married and she has 4 children.

To end with, she explained the origin of the name of one of the streets in our village, “Mr. Lodge”. He was a man who worked in the United States Embassy. 

He once came to Villanueva Del Pardillo and gave all the families shoes, clothes… In appreciation of their hospitality, he gave the village a television that was placed where later San Lucas School was built. The village thanked him by naming one of the main streets after him. 

Finally we all took some pictures with Mrs. Carmen. It was a very good talk, she was very kind and we all learnt a lot about our town. ¡Gracias, Señora Carmen!