Issue date: 29 Oct, 2015
RURAL ARCHITECTURE
For the second year, the Rural Architecture issue will highlight another series of rural buildings from different areas of Spain that are notable for their regional character and originality: the Masía Catalana, the Casona Montañesa and the Silo.
The stamps feature images of these buildings enhancing the landscape and blending into it; the Premium sheet includes images and accompanying texts as well as a space to personalise it with a name and surname.
Masías Catalanas are used for agriculture and livestock operations, and are generally south-facing and isolated. Those built between the 16th and 18th centuries are noted for their good craftsmanship and frequent Romanesque touches like voussoired entrance doors and polylobed arched windows, as shown on the stamp. They usually have two floors: the first for farm work and the second used as a living space. On the coast they tend to have open façades with porches and galleries, and sometimes even defensive towers.
A Casona Montañesa is a synthesis between a traditional mountain house and a palace, with architectural features and decorative elements from the different regions of Cantabria, along with family coats of arms. Their roots date back to the 17th and 18th century, a time when the great lineages of Cantabria were shedding their military activities and joining the new productive workforce. On agricultural estates or in villages, the casonas usually have gables jutting from the ends of their main or south-facing façades, where the ground floor can be seen with its portico of arches and the first floor with its terrace or balcony.
Silos have been used as stores for grains and other food items since the earliest civilisations. In the 19th-century United States, the mass production of grain, the development of steam power and new materials gave rise to the construction of large silos, which later made their way to Europe. The material most frequently used in these buildings, halfway between engineering and architecture, is concrete. In Spain the 1920s and 1930s saw the beginning of what are now known as "forgotten cathedrals," though construction on them peaked between the 1940s and 1980s.
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