The rural housing in the Catalan Pre Pyrenees and Pyrenees (11th - 16th Centuries)

Abstract

From the Antiquity, the Catalan Pre Pyrenean and Pyrenean zone was permanently inhabited.  The rural home experienced there succesive evolutions throughhout the time.  From the oldest form, the cave or "espluga" (from the Latin spelunca) the rural housing evolved to other forms.  In a first period, as isolated rural houses, whose prototype is the "manso" or the "mas"; later, by grouping toghether as little villages.

This evolution will centre the subject of our communication where we adopt the Medieval Archeology viewpoint; we finalize our intervention with the presentation of an example of the 16th Century house, the Casa- Torre or Casa Nova of Clarà, in the Solsonès country, whose drafts are conserved until today.