March 29, 2022

Casa Blanquita

History and description of the house.

Casa Blanquita started in 2017 as part of a family adventure. We wanted to venture into a new work project but make it completely our own.

The house is a traditional Molinaseca dwelling, built in 1912. We know the date because on the second floor balcony of the main facade there are the initials “R.B.” and the date 1912. These initials correspond to Ramón Balboa, a well-known man in Molinaseca at the beginning of the 20th century.

It is a protected building located in the very center of the historic center of Molinaseca, on the corner of Plaza El Rollo and Real Camino de Santiago.

The house, which has three floors above ground and a small first floor, was destined on the first floor to various businesses such as traditional winery, grocery store and even fishmonger. The two upper floors were always used for housing and the first floor for a small warehouse.

In 2017 a complete rehabilitation of the house was made, respecting all the original materials with which it was built, so that all the stone and wood currently existing is the original of 1912.

Restoration

Thus, the ground floor is built of stone, with ashlar in corners, doors and windows; and the rest of the floors with a wooden structure with long poplar beams, cross beams and stone and brick framework.

The house has five balconies and three windows on the two upper floors, plus two small windows in an alley at the rear for service. The balconies and windows of the upper façades are granite. The railings of the iron balconies, existing since 1912, were restored and the railing of the upper balcony of the Plaza del Rollo was added the detail of a legend in the same style as the lower one but indicating “R.V. 2017” (Rocío Vicente, current owner, and year of rehabilitation).

On the main facade, on the left side there is a simple and small heraldic coat of arms of granite stone, coat of arms of the Luaces family.

It has four bedrooms, a toilet, two bathrooms, living room and kitchen.

Staircase

Finally, and to make the Casa Blanquita project even more ours, we created a logo to reflect all the spirit and history. We reflected a house next to the Roman bridge of Molinaseca, where the river Meruelo passes and, along with it, we added two concepts to highlight: the religious symbol of the Camino De Santiago (pilgrim’s shell) and the coat of arms of the Luaces surname (family name).

Logo

But the most important thing was to give a name to this great project. Why Casa Blanquita? The reason is very simple: if our family lives in Molinaseca it was thanks to a wonderful woman called Blanquita. We thought it was a good way to remember her, to give a name to a beginning and the least we could do to thank her.