Ecomuseum of Somiedo

The Ecomuseum of Somiedo was born from the project, about an ethnographic museum, that the Town Council commissioned to the anthropologist Adolfo García Martínez in 1991.
He started with the idea of an eco-museum because it is the one that best suits the aim of disseminating the ways of life, technical and social behaviour, etc., of rural society. Thus, the equipment studies cultural landscapes that human communities have been writing and tries to recover, read and interpret this text. In this sense, the natural environment and the cultural heritage are the two faces or the two components of the same reality.

The project is structured in three parts: the trades, the house and the ethnographic routes.
Initially, the part dedicated to the traditional trades was located in Pola de Somiedo and was inaugurated in 1996. Following the development of the project, the part dedicated to the house was opened to the public in 2001.

It consists of three dwellings that still conserve their vegetable cover, of broom, "teitos de escoba" and through their furniture, distribution, parts that compose them, etc., you can take a tour through the types of housing and their evolution over time, which is closely related to an agrarian, livestock, subsistence economy.
Subsequently, in 2011, the part dedicated to trades was extended and the exhibition was moved to the Caunedo school. It is a beautiful building inaugurated as a public school in 1953 and financed by Jose Feito Taladrid, a native of the village who emigrated to Cuba.

The project for this school was commissioned to the architect Julio Galán Gómez and the construction manager was Enrique Rodríguez Balbín. It consists of two floors and a basement, as well as an annex building that was the teachers' living quarters.

The exhibition of the trades (madreñeiro, carpinteiro, goxeiro, ferreiro and canteiro) is made up of the tools and implements necessary for the development of each of them, displayed in an educational way and complemented with videos showing the work of the craftsmen. Almost the entire collection of the Ecomuseum comes from donations from the inhabitants of Somiedo.

One of the classrooms is dedicated to remembering the history of the building itself and its uses as a school, school-workshop and now museum, as well as being used for presentations, talks, exhibitions, etc.
On the first floor, through some objects, videos and panels, we approach the concept of transhumance, a livestock farming technique based on economic rationality, as it consists of moving the animal throughout the annual cycle, so that it can take advantage of the pastures. There are three types of transhumance in Somiedo: inland or short-range (from the villages to the 'brañas'), long-range or 'vaqueiros d'alzada' (from villages in Somiedo to other villages at lower altitudes) and 'mesteña' (from the flocks of sheep from Extremadura to the Somiedo passes).

The eminently stockbreeding character of Somiedo is evident in its landscape, in the way it is organised: meadows, mountains, brañas, paths, etc. The numerous "brañas" (huts) scattered throughout the council, which can be visited on signposted routes, are made up of grazing areas and their cabanas and "corros" which, depending on their use, vary in size and the materials used for their construction. Thus, there are those of teito de escoba (with a circular or rectangular floor plan) such as those in the Saliencia valley, La Pornacal or braña Viecha, and whole stone ones (with a circular floor plan) such as those in Sousas or La Mesa. There is also a hórreo (granary) in the village of Urria and a mill in El Valle.