26 October, 2021
Sierra Espuña snow wells
What would you think if I told you that already, at the end of the 14th century, you could enjoy an ice cream or a cold drink with ice to alleviate the effects of the torrid Murcia summers? You may think that it is impossible, probably because you do not know the existence and use of the Snow Wells distributed across the region.
In the 18th century, the city of Murcia had 8 of them. Many others were also documented in other municipalities, like Cartagena or Lorca. However, the ones that stand out are those scattered around the highest peaks of Sierra Espuña, at about 1,400 m.a.s.l. According to the documentation, in 1794, these last ones, almost 25, generated ca. 700,000 kilos of ice, can you imagine it?
Next to the most important wells, we can also find the ruins of buildings where their labourers lived. The season started in October. It was then when the work began to clear the ground where the snow would fall. Once the place was covered with the icy white mantle, hundreds of people went up to collect and safeguard it in the wells to fill them.
In the early morning hours of the summer, to avoid the hottest hours, day labourers would load their mules with ice protected with albardín, a grass often confused with esparto grass that was used to cushion the blocks inside sacks and to transport it quickly. But, irremediably, they used to lose up to a third of the ice on the journey.
For a couple of years until today, there have been ongoing works for their recovery and enhancement. Furthermore, there is the intention to declare them an Asset of Cultural Interest, something, without a doubt, necessary to guarantee their protection and preservation in the future.
For more information about this exciting project, see the following links:
AUTHOR: Carlos Velasco
Perspective of well number 11.
When I visited it for the last time, in 2016, ivy had practically colonized the interior of the well.
View the partially collapsed dome of well number 13, whose reintegration is intended for future museumization.
There is an interesting sundial, probably dating from the eighteenth century, incised on one of the exterior plaster of one of the houses where the labourers resided in times of snow and work in the wells. I believe that it would be necessary, as with the wells themselves, its restoration, protection, documentation and safeguarding.
Watch out under the stones if you sit down to eat, in case you come across a scorpion. Don’t let it bite you! It could ruin your excursion. But let them live their lives in peace. Just as the wells are cultural and ethnographic heritage, the yellow scorpion is part of our natural heritage, with its beauty and interest.
