No two are the same: some look like stone houses, some are more like pits.Now a local government is Spain It is hoped that part of its network of 500 igloos will be officially declared as assets of cultural value.
During the “Mini Ice Age” in Europe that lasted from 1600 to 1850, snow often fell in places it had never seen before.The long cold current led to the widespread construction of igloos, especially in Aragon, which produced some extraordinary Ice building (Ice Building) Appears in the form of a huge stone refrigerator.
Northern Spain is known for its extreme temperatures and refrigerator, Or igloo, and famous for its architecture, is an ingenious way to save enough ice and snow in winter for use in hot summer.
Alberto Bayod, a historian who has studied the Aragon igloo, said that the beginning of the Mini Ice Age coincided with the increase in the use of ice and snow in medicine, especially in the treatment of fever, inflammation, bleeding and In terms of burns.
working Relief from thirsty In his medical paper “Thirst Relief” (Thirst Relief) published in 1576 by Francisco Micón, he praised the health benefits of “cold drink, water and wine, cooled with snow to maintain health and cure many diseases.”
Bayod said: “In Aragon, almost every town or village has its own ice store for medical treatment, cold drinks and food preservation,” adding that food has never been stored in ice stores, and they will not. A refrigerator used as a refrigerator. Modern.
There are many forms of igloos. Most are round stone structures, composed of pits arranged by deep stones, sometimes almost invisible from the surface. Others, such as the igloo-shaped igloo in Fuendetodos, the birthplace of the painter Francisco Goya, are more prominent. Fuendetodos provides ice cubes to Zaragoza, 30 miles (50 kilometers) to the north.
Snow and ice are sometimes piled up on a wooden platform, with a layer of about 50 cm (19.6 inches) thick, separated by straw and sawdust to provide insulation. The stone walls are also insulated with straw.
Scoop out the ice in spring and clean it up and sell it Remove dust and straw (No dust and straw), this expression still exists today, meaning that there are no strings attached.
Some ice storages are large, up to 18 meters in diameter, and can store thousands of tons of snow. Many of the largest are located in Lower Aragon, bordering Valencia, exporting fish inland.
The religious prescription to eat fish on Fridays led to a boom in the salt cod business, mainly run by the Basques, as a way of supplying pickled fish to areas hundreds of miles from the sea. However, fresh fish also entered the interior.
“Fresh fish transported from the coast of Valencia to Zaragoza pass through Lower Aragon. These large ice banks seem to ensure that the fish are fresh when they arrive inland,” Bayold said.
He said that it is not clear why the igloo was abandoned in the mid-19th century because commercial production of ice in Spain has not yet made progress. People started dumping garbage and dead animals in it, and it was not until the 1990s that restoration work began.
Now Aragon Tourism Bureau has organized a travel Six Cold storage (Cold storage) in Lower Aragon.
Bayod said: “These spectacular igloos have many unique features. They share common characteristics, but they are completely different from each other… faithfully reflect pre-industrial activities, commonplace between the 16th and 19th centuries, but It disappeared later.”.
The oldest igloo record dates back to Mesopotamia around 1700 BC.
