The Azaraque State: Casas de las Paleras
Two cottages with three double bedrooms and another with two double
bedrooms and one single bedroom: lounge-dining room, fully-furnished kitchen
with refrigerator, glass-ceramic hob, microwave oven, dishwasher, washing
machine (leading makes); two bathrooms, TV, fireplace, terrace, barbecue,
Moorish bread oven.
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The grounds of the Azaraque estate, in the village of Agramón, extend
from the dam of the same name, built in the XIX century on the river Mundo,
along the river banks and adjacent lands to the end of the Camarillas
reservoir. In former times, it was the leading agricultural and cattle-rearing
estate in the area, thanks to the fertility of the soil, the climate and the
abundance of water, qualities that had not yet been replaced by mechanical
means, trickle irrigation or greenhouses.
At that time, the estate had a large number of buildings typical of a
large farm: houses; esparto factories, mill, cattle pens, dovecotes, threshing
floors, water basins, granaries, farmhouse.
The Azaraque manor house, built in 1625, with the river at its foot,
stands out among them, both for its size and representativeness and because it
formed a nucleus with a large part of the farm buildings around it, three of
which have been reconditioned. It forms a complex that genuinely represents
what rural life was like with all its activities.
The traditional gravity irrigation channels that have existed on the
estate from time immemorial are still there and carry water from both the
Azaraque Basin and from the river. With all this water it is not surprising
that the estate is called, Azaraque, from the Arab “as-sarb” (in Spanish
“azarbe”) the channel where all the excess water or seepage from the irrigation
channels collects.
The use of irrigation channels, today forbidden, also helps in the
conservation and protection of the river fauna. The shady river banks and the
areas of thickets and reed beds, provide invaluable shelter for wild-life.
Here can be seen and heard, with different frequency, the mallard, grey
heron, black tortoise, kestrel, eagle owl, barn owl, ocellated lizard,
dormouse, genet (its tracks), golden oriole, nightingale, bee-eater, great
spotted woodpecker, hoopoe, cuckoo, jay, scops owl (with its insistent call),
nightjar, the stone curlew, common buzzard and game.
This complex offers the visitor not only an exceptional countryside, tranquillity
and a glimpse of rustic life but also all the rural environment moulded by the
hand of man.