Cuzcurrita Laundry

The history of this washhouse begins at the beginning of 1862, when the contractor from Casalarreina, Marcelino Olabe, presented the Cuzcurrita Town Council with the plan, budget and cost of a washhouse for our town.
The initial plan was not carried out for reasons unknown to us, the original project was modified and this washing place was built instead, which for 118 years was used by all the residents of Cuzcurrita to wash their clothes.
How many stories and anecdotes of the village had to hear these old stones in the daily work of the neighbours of Cuzcurrita!
The original project had a double row of six columns on each side, the outer ones of stone and the inner ones of wood, which were replaced by a single row of five stone columns on each side and a central row of wood to support the roof, and it is from this final project that we have a photograph, which also illustrates this work.
The Town Council approved the budget for the second project and work began on 9 April 1862. The accounts for this construction are preserved in the archives, and the total cost of the work was 7,576 reales, with a few items that I believe to be the most curious and significant.
The ten ashlar stone columns, three and a half metres high, at 40 reales each, cost 400 reales.
The five central poplar wood posts, with a stone support or podium, cost 432 reales.
The five poplar beams, 36 feet long, cost 258 reales each.
The 27 slabs of stone for the washerwomen, well carved and entrenched, were paid for at 8 reales each.
And finally, the roof was made of 4,300 tiles, at 200 reals a hundred.
In the 1970s it began to crumble, and finally collapsed in the 1980s. In 1997 it was rebuilt by the Cuzcurrita Town Council.