Annual cleaning of the medieval irrigation channel of Barjas

About 80 persons involved in a captivating showcase of rural heritage preservation good practice

Posted on: 26 February 2018

Share

Cattura1On Saturday 17th of February, the University of Granada, together with the local irrigators community, organised the annual cleaning of the medieval irrigation channel of Barjas and of the branch La Hijuela, surrounding Cáñar. In this fieldwork activity took part 80 people, 64 volunteers and 16 irrigators.

The volunteers involved were university students from different disciplines, cultural and environmental associations members, and people interested in the conservation of this particular rural heritage and its corresponding cultural landscape. They came from Spain, France, Italy, Germany and Chile, and for some of them was the first time visiting Sierra Nevada and discovering historical irrigation channels.This annual cleaning is intended to help local farmers to put in use 3 km of irrigation channel, recovered in 2014 as part of the FP7 MEMOLA project (http://memolaproject.eu/node/927), and to start the irrigation period. This irrigation channel helps having water during summer period and increase the water availability in the village springs.

Cattura2

Volunteers participating in this one-day action came in contact with the local population, working side-by-side and learning from their practices the values of this hydraulic rural system.The cleaning was carried on throughout the morning, then, when the water could flow through the channel, the traditional water celebration started and the local community invited all participants to have lunch together, tasting local products and traditional kitchen recipes. After lunch, a local group of musicians entertained the public with traditional music.
The University of Granada took the opportunity to hand over the  Hispania Nostra good practices award(http://memolaproject.eu/node/2316) to the local irrigators community, for the recovery of Barjas channel in 2014. Similar events will take place next month in collaboration with others local irrigators communities in Sierra Nevada, in the framework of REACH project pilot case on rural heritage.

 

Leave a Reply

Related Articles

Participatory activity of Rural Heritage pilot
Saturday 15 February 2020 in Sorbas, Almería (Spain), MEMOLab, REACH project and local associations had collaborate in the cleanliness of Fuente de los Caños. This monumental fountain, abandoned decades ago, gave water to the town and was used as a laundry. Here, much of the social life of the community developed. The importance of this source is that it is supplied by a water mine, now practically lost. University of Granada, leader of REACH Rural Heritage Pilot, conducted the participator...
Participatory approaches for territorial cohesion - REACH International Workshop
The third REACH international workshop will take place on the 26th November at the Oficina de Proyectos Internacionales (OFPI) in Granada.   It will be organized by University of Granada, REACH Partner and Leader of REACH Rural Heritage Pilot.   This event aims to investigate the value of participatory preservation of Cultural Heritage specifically agrarian/rural heritage and cultural landscapes; it will address the themes of territorial cohesion and involvement of ru...
“The legal framework of cultural landscapes in Andalusia (Spain): limits and possibilities of public...
The independent European journal of post classical archaeologies PCA recently published an article facing the theme of the participation on cultural landscape. The contribution was given by Dott. L. Delgado Anés and  Prof. J.M. Martín Civantos from the University of Granada, both  engaged for years in projects promoting forms of participation for the protection and recovery of the heritage of landscapes. Indeed, as explained by the authors in the introduction of the article, “the choice of this...
Good practices from the Rural Heritage Pilot: MEMOLab campaign “recovery of historic irrigation chan...
MEMOLab laboratory of the University of Granada, in the framework of REACH project, continues the planning and implementation of events dedicated to the recovery and use of historical irrigation systems. Also this year the "recovery of historic irrigation channels" campaign was organized; the cleaning of the historic irrigation channels with the irrigation communities was started already in March, earlier than usual, because the irrigation communities of the province of Granada, due...