Salamina, National Monument

How to read a Patrimonial city?

Proposal booklet to know the names of the different parts of the old houses in order that the tourist identify, recognize and value this type of architecture in a Patrimonial City in Colombia

This post is intended to bring some Architectonic history in order to value the historical cultural and his process, that represents our authenticity through the preservation of old houses in the Coffee axis, as a Patrimonial Value[1]

In order to better understand and visualize this wrirringt through intended by Salamina Caldas, this booklet present some information of the constructive details that you can observe traveling through this city,but also can be used to recognized Pijao, Filandia, Salento, Circasia, Santa Rosa de Cabal, Manizales, Neira, Aranzazu, Filadelfia, Santuario and many others

The coffee cultural landscape is represented not only by the crops of coffee but also by the quality of its people, its customs, foods, traditions, festivals and imaginaries, but also by the architectural works that were built in those towns, often forgotten in the mist of the mountains of Caldas, Risaralda, Valle and Quindio and that can be visited to delight the eyes and knowledge of this culture

You can arrive to Salamina after 3 hours of travel from Manizales, by good road, going through Neira and Aranzazu, and you can easily walk the two main streets, take pictures and share with the people of the place

Take your time to walk the whole town, its old streets and its old and well preserved houses, talk to people, photograph the surroundings, drink like “Mistela” and “Macana” or taste the best coffee in the world with tranquility the delights of traditional cuisine,

We strongly recommend visit the Church, the main park with its fountain imported from Germany, its Romanesque-style gazebo, the Colonial hotels where they allow the entrance at any time, in order to observe the patio, the corridors run and the layout of the rooms,

It Is necessary to observe the facades of the houses, its carved doors, the behind gates, and the balconies.

Like an Introduction:

For a better understanding, it is necessary to say, that a town like Salamina, is an open book that shows us the history of the people who founded and built it, this story is remarkable in all houses and is necessary to know how to read, and in this booklet there are the keys for your reading and enjoyment.

The authenticity of a culture constitutes a true wealth and the links that we can observe in the stories that those who built this architectural heritage is a way to root the feeling of identification of the inhabitants with their environment, so: ¡Welcome to this Good patrimonial denominated "Salamina"  !

Salamina was declared since 1982 “NATIONAL MONUMENT and in the year 2005 it was ratified as BIEN OF CULTURAL INTERESTS OF NATIONAL CHARACTER due to the architectural characteristics of its buildings and the level of urban conservation; that faithfully represent the Antioquian colonization and in the year 2010 began to be part of the “Network of Patrimonial Villages of Colombia”,

You can walk calmly through the city, trying not to interrupt the traffic of people or cars.

It is not advisable to give alms to the inhabitants of the street so as not to increase the begging.

As you know,  the Colombian laws, about buying objects of archaeological origin as they are very severe,  so please abstain from buying any item arqueologycally.

Equally banned the use and handling of psychoactive substances drastically sanctioned in this country

Feel welcomed by this people and have no fear for asking to the guide any questions about the consumption of food as the purchase of a souvenir ü or object of remembrance since there are stores specializing in products of artisanal origin

I recommended to visit, Bolívar Park, the Palace Municipal, kiosk Main Plaza,  Pila Fountain Temple of the Immaculate Chapel of the Mercedes Architectural Heritage with wooden carved doors, Cristo Rey Chapel, San Esteban Cemetery, Consolata Temple in the corregimiento of San Felix, The House of Deguello , House where the film "Edipo Alcalde" was filmed, Casa Carola, built about 140 years ago in wall and bahareque.

The carvings of the many windows, doors and thresholds of the master Eliseo Tangarife, the carving of the doors of the dining rooms, constituted by clusters of grapes, peaches, pomegranates and pomegranates. furniture, beds, shelves, picture frames, showcases and dining room,  Casa Cural, the House of Manuel Arias Betancur,

Lexicography:

Historical Center. It is usually conforming by of the houses that surround the plaza and the main streets. There, the main families that founded the villages were established and their traces have been written in the mood, dimension and forms of each of the houses that will be seen by walking from the street.

“Fondas” The first manifestation of inhabited site used by the peasant gathering and meeting place of the travelers, who were founding “Parroquias”  towns and later cities. Some of these “fondas” still persist but all the towns were founded from this original nucleus.

“Bahareque”. Some say it is a constructive style and others things that corresponds to a local adaptation of colonial architecture. It is characterized by its Simplicity of construction using from the elements of the region where they used land, small rocks, cane of Guadua, and other bamboos.

Windows When observing the windows we can find its size, the symmetry with the doors, the presence of balconies, the harmony of the front, the “Aleros” and , the exposed beams.”Vigas a la vista”

Walls You can recognize the colors, size, materials from which they are made. Those that are made in stepped wall, “Tapia Pisada” come from their Mediterranean ancestors whose vestiges are in the ruins of Pompeii.

They are thick and their solid structure allowed that the houses built with this type of walls did not collapse during the earthquakes, for that reason they were called walls "tembloreros"

Nevertheless, they are very susceptible to the humidity, reason why it is necessary to cover them in their lower part of a sort of flooring called skirting, “Zócalos” like moisture protector which in its outer part mainly contributed with its colors to give it that special touch of the peoples of Antioquia colonization.

The walls stepped tread wall “Tapias Pisadas”  as the name implies, were built by means of formats “wooden Formaletas ” that were filled with land and small stones with some water to give it consistency. Then when was stepped on by means of wooden logs called “Pisones” handled by the workers from above.

Once they dried, another section was assembled. These walls of tread wall were used mainly in flat lands of Cundinamarca and Boyacá, where they are also used as border fences between farms and on the edges of roads and came to be used in old Caldas as a legacy of Antioqueños who funded this towns.

The weight of these of these walls prevented the construction of second floors so it is believed that a variation of this technique included the use of lighter materials from Guadua or chusque mats, or “Caña Brava” tied with vegetable fibers since no lace or metal wire was available. These new walls replaced the tread walls, constituting in this way the structure known as bahareque

You can observe that the iron is not used, because in this time, the iron was imported from Spain, More time after, the iron can be used because the cost was reduced by the national production of that mineral could be founded.

These bahareque walls, also had trampled with superficial land, (Tierra de Capote) sand, lime, ashes, horse dung, sometimes ox blood, that it was called “bahareque relleno”

While the one that only had as structure of Guadua, with something of mud and straw, “angeo de gallinero” it was light, cool, with thermo-dynamic advantages insulating from heat or cold, which were attractive especially in hot climates. were called bahareque hollow ,  “Bahareque Hueco”.

This color matched very well with the colors of the baseboards “Zócalos” that reached up to one meter and twenty centimeters high, achieving an attractive contrast for the eyes.

Roofs. The terracotta tile and its origin from Mesopotamia through the customs and constructive techniques of the Arabs who, also through Spain, also brought us the words brick, wall, potter, adobe, tile

Playground. (Back yard) Copy the Roman “Atrium” that was surrounded by corridors and columns. In its center you can find a pool or fountain – Alberca o Fuente to collect rain water, this is equivalent to the "Pluvium" of Roman times. Many playgrounds were paved with river stones or tiled.

The solar. Corresponds to the mangers (feeding trough) or gardens built inside some houses since the owners of farms wanted to simulate a small farm in the back of their house. There they could have some cow with their calf for the milk for the family, laying hens and the orchard of medicinal plants among others.

It is for this reason that one of access doors were wider, where they could fit the loaded mounts. Many of these wide doors were later extended to build the entrance to the garage when the owner already had sufficient resources to purchase a car

Point arch. It is a typical element of Roman and Arabic architecture that are based on the arch from a mid point located between the termination of two walls.

The construction was made with some type of Guadua formwork and with annealed bricks placed carefully on the formwork. When the forged Iron rods began to arrive, these forms were substituted by arcs made of this material.

The columns were introduced to support the beams and the roof, They used the Guadua and sawn wood and sometimes turned. The carpenter of this time had the ability to assemble several pieces of wood in such a way that no such assembly was noticeable.

Equally, this kind of task,  was so respected that with wood the floors of tables would be delicately built, but where art is most noticeable is in the ceilings, where they played with the lines, the assemblies, the forms and the famous “Calados” openings located in windows and doors as upper enclosure.

In many hand-carved they made drawings, with chisel “formon” and hammer there was a waste of figures that remembered leaves and flowers.

The frames of the doors and windows, the carving of the door panels and after gates, the lintels, “Dinteles y Aleros” the eaves, the set of laths and on all the handmade carvings of human figures, zoomorphic and biomorphic , on the lintels of the doors, are the cultural heritage of the villages of Caldas.

Another constructive detail to observe in this city are the famous balconies of which the carpenters showed their technique. Some made them towards the interior of the house what constituted a social meeting center. These are the so-called straight balconies.”Balcones corridos”

Likewise, outwards as a prolongation of a window in such a way that they connected several pieces outside the house, others made them in corner sites with a profusion of shapes, dressings that would include drafts, curved rails, with rods or use of the “Macana de chonta and the “Chambranas”

A final reflection on this historical heritage, goes in the sense of ensuring its conservation, since a house destroyed to build a modern home, is an irreparable loss of a national heritage.

Henry Plazas Olaya

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[1] Los orígenes del Bahareque de la colonización Antioqueña. Pedro Felipe Hoyos. Colección pequeña historia, Hoyos Editores

Diagnostico cualitativo de los municipios deSalamina, Aguadas, Riosucio, Manizales, Marmato, Pensilvania, Victoria y Marulanda.Luz Helena Arias JiménezAlba Lucia Gómez HoyosManizales, 2014