The Center d’Estudis Martorellencs (CEM) is organizing the talk ‘Dry stone: huts, banks and paths’ on Friday 29 November (7pm) at Farmàcia Bujons. A world without cement’. The vice-president of the entity Alfred Mauri will talk about this historical construction technique and its possible current validity. The activity is part of the 5th Week of Pedra Secawhich is celebrated throughout Catalonia from 22 November to 1 December.
The CEM adheres for the third consecutive year to this initiative created in 2020 by the Associació per al développement integral rural (ADRINOC) and which is currently captained by Torrebesses City Council and the Association of Microtowns of Catalonia. It brings together a network of entities, collectives and volunteers who work for the maintenance and dissemination of dry stone, a construction technique for making walls, huts and cabins based on fitting and piling stones without the use of any cement to stick them together .
Mauri explains that on Friday “we will ask ourselves if this technique is valid, if it can be applied today and if it makes sense to do it, where it can be learned and what examples of restoration and dissemination there are”. The lecturer has already advanced that the answer may be affirmative in the case of new constructions: “Perhaps not so much in terms of the huts, but yes in the case of the banks and paths”.
Alfred Mauri, vicepresident del CEM
And this is possible because the construction of structures using the dry stone technique around the paths “minimizes the impact of erosion, especially now at a time of climate change and where we suffer more and more torrential rains, which bring the “drag of sediment and that impoverish the territory and harm the establishment of vegetation”.
In addition, the dry stone walls “play an important role” when it comes to avoiding water drainage problems during torrential rains.
Alfred Mauri, vicepresident del CEM
The CEM was added to Dry Stone Week last year with the study entitled ‘Dry stone work in the mountains of Les Torretes and l’Ataix’. Every year there have been some activities, such as itineraries to discover elements made of dry stone around Martorell.
Alfred Mauri, vicepresident del CEM
Just a year ago, the organization presented the results of the study in its premises, which aimed to map all the constructions of huts and dry stone banks, carry out a planimetric survey and generate digital models , assess its state of conservation and the needs for restoration, consolidation and preservation.
The work team sought to document the context in which they were built, analyzed their typology, technique, materials used, promoted knowledge and dissemination and promoted the declaration of Cultural Property of Local Interest, to preserve – its conservation and restoration. As a final result, twenty dry stone elements were located and described around the Ataix and Les Torretes mountain ranges. Mostly shacks, although there is also some corral and construction under a balma, plus a few kilometers of walls.
Source: martorelldigital.cat
