Pueblear … Exploring the charm of small towns

Pueblear … Exploring the charm of small towns – Artosilla, Spain

June 21, 2023

This will probably be the first in a series of blog posts entitled: Pueblear, but first, a lesson in linguistics.

Let’s be clear, the word “pueblear” does not officially exist in Spanish, but it should! It is a verb that has been created from the noun “pueblo”, meaning village. “Pueblear” is the action of exploring small towns, learning about their history, and appreciating the unique charm that each has to offer. The fabricated English equivalent would be “small-towning”. To borrow a little attitude from Barbara Mandrell, I was pueblear when pueblear wasn’t even a made-up word yet!

Small towns in Spain, like those in the USA, have declined immensely in population. Unless the community has been able to reinvent itself from its agrarian roots into a modern economic system, it risks becoming nothing more than a parcel of dilapidated buildings. Because most of the architecture of northern Spain consists of building with stone, for me… dilapidated or not, the structures found in the pueblos here are filled with old-world enchantment.

In the 1980’s a group of people who wanted to escape the noise, and fast-paced lifestyle of the cities asked the government of Aragón (region of Spain) for possession of a handful of abandoned villages in the Guarguera region in the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains. The region is one of the most depopulated areas of Spain despite it being located in the gorgeous, lush mountains of the Guarga River Valley.

The intention of the group was to create ecovillages that were more socially, culturally, economically, and ecologically sustainable with the least negative impact on the natural environment. They formed the Artiborain Association (la asociación Artiborain) and got to work restoring the crumbling buildings of three villages, one of which I explored this past weekend: Artosilla.

Artosilla sits at about 3,250 feet altitude in what is called the Pre-Pyrenees… basically the foothills of the Pyrenees Mountains. The first indication that you are about to leave modern civilization is the row of mailboxes situated at the turnoff from the modest blacktop highway, and at the start of the three-mile narrow mountain road leading up to the village. According to the official 2021 statistics, Artosilla has a population 27 habitants, about a third of them children.

The first mention of this village in the history books was in 1177. The defense tower and church date from the early 1600’s. The Association began restoring the buildings in 1986 with volunteers and limited financial resources and today has succeeded in rebuilding all but a few structures.

You cannot just decide to move to Artosilla. Because it is an ecovillage, there are no “citizens”, you are a member of the community. There is a series of steps that you must take in order to apply for membership into the community not limited to but including: making your initial application in person in front of an assembly of the current members, and spending 6 to 12 months in a “mutual knowledge period” during which time you and the other members get to know each other better, and the prospective member understands the norms of living in the community.

In addition to not being a typical citizen, you also cannot own property in Artosilla. The entire village was yielded over to the Association Artiborain whose philosophy is to “create a different kind of coexistence in the villages based on the non-individual ownership of spaces and on the shared and solidary use of the different resources.” Basically, what some might call a “hippy community” … to which I would reply, to each his own.

Personally, I love to see these historic structures honored and brought back to life, and respect those who choose to live a simpler and more natural lifestyle.