|
La Alberca is in the Sierra de Francia, west of Salamanca and we were fortunate to visit there in April, 2005. It is a very small village in the mountains that you would not find unless you were specifically looking for it. Luckily, we were told about it by our friends, Antonio & Anita, from Benalmadena. We took a side-trip on our way to Salamanca to visit this tiny pueblo in the mountains. Below is a photo of the main town square and we enjoyed lunch at the restaurant pictured at the left of the picture.
 |
|
|
The most unusual feature of La Alberca is the building style: the ground floor of the buildings are all stone, while the upper floors are timber-framed. While half-timbered houses are commonly seen in France and Germany, this is the first time we have seen this in Spain. Many have the traditional half-timbered look with exposed timbers and rendered siding between (like the house on the left in the picture below). However, most are exposed stone between the timbers (like the house on the right in the picture below), something we’ve never seen elsewhere.
It was a rather gray and rainy day, so riding on the pebble-stone streets was a real thrill. At left is a photo of the main street through town (about 2 blocks long on either side of the square). All the streets in town are this narrow, obviously from a time before the automobile. With the upper floors jutting out a bit, you could almost shake hands with your neighbor across the street. It was a quiet day and without the tour bus in town, I don’t think we would have seen many people at all.
|
|
|
