Visiting a cave house in Campo de Criptana

Today I want to invite you to return again to the beautiful La Mancha town of Campo de Criptana and forgetting for a moment whether or not this was the real place where Miguel de Cervantes set the battle that the gentleman Don Quixote had with the windmills, whose fantasy made him confuse with giants, visiting one of its main attractions, which I hope will surprise you, at least because of your curiosity: a cave house.

The caves, as you know, were the first ceiling of Humanity and in them, man experienced for the first time the sense of habitation, refuge and of course, home.

In them, also for the first time he felt safe from the adversities of an overwhelming world and made them, likewise, the sanctum of that Anubis syndrome, as some researchers call the first human experiences with the supernatural, of those derived from the complex world of Religion and also the first rudiments of creativity, which would be the origin of something so exciting and motivating, such as Art.

In them and from them, the first sparks arose, metaphorically speaking, that would lay the foundations for the establishment of great empires and civilizations and also, why not say it, the first inequalities and the creation of a system of castes, of a pyramidal nature, which marked differences between the royal and priestly caste, which occupied the upper part and the people, relegated to occupy the lowest part and therefore, to support the base on which the former were to maintain their status. and privilege, a classification that, as you well know, remains in force today.

This supposed, logically, and said in the most abbreviated way possible, that many people lacked sufficient means to maintain healthy living conditions and access to decent housing, so it is not surprising that in many places, from both Spain and the world, what we could call a necessary return to the caves arose.

Updated with this background, I think you will better understand the reasons that pushed many families, especially farm laborers or shepherds, to have to live in conditions that today almost all of us seem miserable.

Because, in addition, it must be taken into account, as you can see in the video and in the photographs, that within the family nucleus, the animals - either a donkey, a few sheep or a hen - that they might possess were also included.

And we are talking, as in this cave house, which is shown in Campo de Criptana, as a tourist attraction, a family had to live together, their scarce goods and animals, in a space of barely thirty or forty square meters.

Most of them are located in the upper part of the town, in the popular Albaicín neighborhood, generally next to the windmills, except for the one I show you here, which is part of a typical La Mancha house, which Taking advantage of the cave, already existing or drilled with the intention of serving as a warehouse, it was also leased to families of day laborers or shepherds, as has been said, without the means to obtain a more dignified home, until relatively recent times.

It is known as the Casa-Cueva de la Pastora Marcela and curiously, it is located next to what today constitutes the area where hotel establishments and rural houses are most abundant.

I hope that this walk, through a part of ancestral Spain and the good or bad name of the Black Legend, has been to your liking or at least has been an unexpected foray into what could also, deservedly, be called the Marginal Spain.

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