Winepresses / washing places

The winepresses are infrastructures derived from the vine production, an important feature of the cultural forms of Los Realejos. There was extraction of unfermented grape juice to elaborate broth of a well – known quality all over the world. In the area of La Cruz Santa and as a parochial property, there is an excellent sample. The twin winepresses in El Jardín and the one of the Country Manor of El Llano are some of the many winepresses of the town.

The washing places are other elements related to the countryside tasks and to those of everyday life. These were shared places where the washing up of clothes took place daily, besides turning into a way of meeting for women. Many times they brought the dirty clothes after the everyday work, and they came to these places to do the washing up, because of the poverty of those years. Among the most important respect with its use and conservation we can mention the washing places of Tigaiga which date from 1701 and have been restored recently, the washing places in Dornajo ravine and the ones in El Dorno neighbourhood.

During the stage the water supply at home was seance in all the municipality, the gushes were essential for the public supply. Men, women, children went there to bring water in barrels, cans and pitchers which they consume everyday and they carried them over their heads, with a rounded piece of cloth or leaves that made the weight easier to carry by the women and girls, or through a kind of hook from which the containers hung the men and boys brought. The gush became a place of meeting where people talked, gossiped, discussed and they established a relationship among the neighbours while they waited the turn to fill in the containers. To find out them we have to go to those places such as the Pila Road in Realejo Bajo, El Jardín or Tigaiga among others.