The school buildings in a region of Leon: metaphors and case study

Abstract

Introduction. The aim of this essay is to study the school buildings in a region called La Cepeda, in León. It includes a variety of buildings from the construction of the first school in the area (1896) to the last one built in 1983. Method. The methodology deals with ethnography through which field data of forty-six buildings were collected, but also with descriptive-interpretative and hermeneutical methodology through which data about files of History and Education, in addition to the literature of schools in the period studied were compiled. Results. The main hypothesis of the issue copes with the fact that the evolution of school buildings in the region of the Cepeda has a parallelism with the economic and social development of it. These buildings are temporarily classified and they are also metaphorically studied in: a) from the start date of 1920 we have called pastoral school; b) from 1920 to 1950 which are called peasant school and c) from 1950 to 1983 which we have called monastic school. In every period it is specified the villages which have every type of school, building materials, the space arrangement and the certain building characteristics. Discussion. The results are unprecedented and they also represent a significant contribution to the school’s architectural heritage although there is a piece of missing information due to the fact that some buildings were demolished as well as losses. The knowledge of the importance of school buildings are converted into public buildings, in bars and other type of places.

Keywords

• construcciones escolares
• escuelas leonesas
• arquitectura escolar
• metáforas de construcciones
• elementos arquitectónicos.