The name "Igartubeiti" is composed of two terms in Basque, the term "igartu" and the term "beiti". The latter, "beiti" translates as "below", referring to the location with respect to the main nucleus of the town, popularly it is called "Beiti", "the one below". The original name of the place is "Igartu" which comes from "iartu" and its variations "Yartu" and "Ihartu" come to determine a place where there is a large dry and stiff or rigid tree, in Spanish "yerto".[5]​.

The Igartubeiti hamlet was built in the middle of the century, around the year 1540, by the Igartua family, who bore the name of the site and whose first documented references date back to 1383 and are related to the founding of the nearby Villarreal de Urrechua, as Peydro de Iartua and Per Ynegues de Iartua from Ezkioga appear in the petition to the king for its foundation. It was expanded in 1630 to adapt to new techniques and products, especially corn, which quickly replaced millet, which changed ways of life and work.

On the site where the construction was built there was a small building that was built with perishable materials, a cabin bottom, remains of a short wall, artificial depressions and post holes, there being no evidence of other settlements in the nearby environment. The remains found describe an ellipsoid cabin with a gabled roof that was aligned with the roof of the current building, which coincides with the watershed of its location. The entrance to the back of the cabin coincides with the entrance that was given to the farmhouse. This cabin had two rooms separated by a shelter made of branches and mud posts. The space was divided between a third for the front part and the rest for the innermost part, which must have been used for housing, as can be suspected due to a raised floor that could have served as a long bench or bunk bed. This hypothesis contradicts the most accepted one regarding the use of this type of buildings in the rest of Europe, which have been designated as auxiliary facilities. It does not seem coherent that in the century the Igartu lived in buildings of this type, but there is nothing to indicate how the cabin background could have evolved from then to the construction of the current building. There is evidence that in the Middle Ages the usual housing form was that of the village made up of several housing units linked by the church and the cemetery but with a certain degree of dispersion that allowed them to be perceived as a grouped nucleus that was neither urbanized nor ordered. In any case, there is no evidence linking the Igartu family with the buildings belonging to the remains found, until the construction of the current hamlet.

At the end of the century and beginning of the century there was a radical and widespread change that changed the old cabins for a much more sophisticated housing model. From this change was born the hamlet, a type of specific regional construction of European vernacular architecture that has remained in force to the present day. In new constructions, a radical change occurs when the work is entrusted to specialized professionals and the demolition of the previous constructions is left solely in the hands of the owners, since these new ones were going to be built on the same site, and the hauling of the material. These constructions are not an evolution of the previous ones, but are a completely new architectural typology that requires importing, learning to use and disseminating new construction tools and techniques and affect intra-family relationships by forming a new scenario of domestic life with changes in gender roles "Gender (biology)"), intergenerational hierarchy and coexistence. As well as the distinction between public and private spaces and the introduction of concepts such as intimacy, comfort and social representation due to the quality and ostentation of the home.

The hamlet is conceived as a home and agricultural production unit, a complex and sophisticated structure as well as expensive. The characteristic of the central lever winepress is not exclusive to Igartubeiti since there is evidence that it was a fairly common piece in the hamlets of Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya of which there are still remains in a hundred of them. In this type of buildings, the residential elements begin to have a secondary aspect, both in space and in the hierarchy and the effort dedicated to them. The space allocated for family habitation is no more than 15% of the total, the rest is allocated to productive work, both agricultural, livestock and crafts.

In Igartubeiti, as in the majority of this type of hamlet, only the front section of the ground floor is habitable, leaving the rest used for stables, warehouses or cellars, while the upper floor, already under cover, was intended for a granary, drying room, hayloft, apiaries (the hives were located inside the house) and attic, all around an essential element, the lever press, an exceptional machine in its size that was integrated and It was a fundamental part of the structure of the building.

The construction techniques were complex and required learning from professionals from other areas of Europe. The Gothic stonework of Aquitaine was completed with Germanic carpentry techniques and mechanical technologies from the Mediterranean and Castilian and Andalusian ornamentation. The walls were made of carved stone from the religious and military architecture that came from western France to Burgo and from there spread to Guipúzcoa during the century. In common language these walls were called "lime and stone". The buildings had a wooden structure that acquired extraordinary prominence and almost total load-bearing self-sufficiency. This relevance of wood would be what would lead new constructions. Large wooden posts linked together that support the structure of the gabled roof. The joints are made using mortise and tenon assemblies secured against tensile stresses by wooden pins or pegs, without iron nails ever being used, among other reasons because oak wood corrodes metals in humid environments. Braces and ubiquitous elements are used to strengthen the joints of the vertical posts with the horizontal beams that support the floor. These carpentry techniques, from the German region of Swabia, were introduced when a family of German masters from 1442 with numerous officials and

temporary artisans from the Basque Country.

The Igartubeiti hamlet stands out for having maintained in good condition the essential elements of the construction that also represent the rural way of life that was maintained for centuries in the territory. This, together with the study process that has been carried out in the restoration for its musicalization, which has allowed an exhaustive process of documentary, archaeological, ethnographic and architectural research. Igartubeiti's study allows us to delve into three questions; the model of dispersed settlement on hillsides that was widely disseminated in the holohumid zone, the birth of the hamlet as a typology of housing and production unit and the ways of life that developed in recent centuries.

The Igartu estate, like that of its neighbors, went through different relationships with the feudal lords and surrounding towns. Until 1661 it remained united to the mayor's office of Areria and they achieved its independence by paying the king 800 ducats. This structuring of the population into scattered hamlets has been one of the fundamental models of territory occupation in the sunny areas of the Cantabrian slope of the Basque Country, which there is evidence of was already solidly established in the Late Middle Ages. The inhabitants of Igartu in the century were humble common people, although with a certain prestige among their neighbors, described by the crown as "good men and without suspicion."

Around the year 1540, the construction of the current building was carried out, although smaller in size, it had about 200 m², half of what it currently has, and its characteristics were rather humble. The exterior enclosures were made of wood, leaving the "lime and stone" walls relegated to a short plinth on the main and eastern façades. They were masonry walls of concerted tabular slab, with a good load of mortar, made without the intervention of any stonemasonry official and under the supervision of a master in assembly carpentry. The partitioning was made of planking bulkheads, tongue-and-groove slit boards, placed vertically in successive registers assembled into channeled bridge beams.

It is believed that the construction was carried out by Joan de Beisagasti, a local carpenter who worked a lot at that time. The carpentry work is signed by small marks made with the adze on the edges of the pieces that are going to be joined to the mortise and tenon or half-wood. Although there is no documentary evidence, it is believed that the owners who ordered the work were the last descendants of the Igartu family and that they died shortly after, leading to estimates that the hamlet may have been uninhabited shortly after its construction. At a meeting of all the owners of the Ezkioga council held in 1564, no one represented the Igartubeiti hamlet. In 1567, three years later, in another meeting on the occasion of some works in the local parish, Miguel de Eliçalde appears as a representative of the Igartubeiti hamlet and it is indicated that Ana de Ygartua and her brother and father have recently died, so it is estimated that these were the promoters of the new construction.

At the beginning of the century, after the introduction of corn, a comprehensive renovation of the building took place to adapt it to the new crop and improve its comfort. In 1625 the marriage took place between Catalina de Cortaberria, heiress of the farmhouse, and Domingo de Arregui. Surely, as was common practice at the time, the groom's dowry served to finance the beginning of the renovation works. Catalina Joan de Cortaberria Ygartua's father did not have sons to assist him in the farming work and he neglected the fields, devoting himself mainly to livestock. Domingo Arregui came from the Eizaguirre neighborhood of Azpeitia and after marrying Catalina he took charge of the hamlet and undertook its remodeling and adaptation to the new needs. He became alderman of Ezkioga and his descendants remained without interruption in Igartebeitia until the beginning of the century. HIS son, Pedro de Arregui, married to Catalina de Usabiaga, was one of the promoters of the segregation of the mayor's office of Areria and the independence of Ezkioga in 1661 and was part of the company of armed men, formed the following year, who reaffirmed the full autonomy of the town.

The renovation, which gave it its current appearance, consisted of expanding the building by adding bays&action=edit&redlink=1 "Crujías (architecture) (not yet written)") on each side and another front that would create a new façade with a large porch covered and paved with black stone slabs and above it, a large barn closed by boards. The arcade created by the porch became an ideal place to carry out different tasks. So much so that it came to be called "era" as it was the place where threshing was usually carried out. It was also used as a warehouse or as a breeding space for small animals such as chickens or rabbits.

The space created above the portico was dedicated to the corn drying and granary, which required a different treatment than wheat and millet. Corn, which was called "borona de las Indias" or "millet of the Moors" and ended up remaining in Basque with the name of millet, artoa, which was later called artatxikia", required a drying process before it could be stored and taken to be ground..

In this new area, the cob leaves were cleaned and the cobs were beaten with a mallet until the grains came off through the holes made in the masher after having dried the cobs by spreading them on a very ventilated and covered surface. Once cured, they had to be shelled so that they did not spoil.

In 1804, Francisca Arregui de Igartubetia inherited the farmhouse, after having declared her half-brother Ignacio María, son of Ignacio Arregui and his second wife María Antonia Aramburu, insane. Francisca married Juan Ignacio Mendiguren from the hamlet of Mendeun in Itxaso and the descendants of this marriage lived in the hamlet for seven generations until the end of the century. The eldest son of the couple received the farmhouse through an agreement signed by his parents in 1827, common in Guipúzcoa, which was usually made in order to avoid Castilian law and leave the property to a single heir. Francisca Arregui and Julio Mendiguren passed the hamlet to their son Ignacio María who married Josefa Lizarralde, they passed it on in 1855 to their son Felipe who married María Teresa de Aranburu who after signing the corresponding capitulations that guaranteed coexistence in the social and family structure of the hamlet, they ended up abandoning the hamlet in 1858 and renting it to their younger brother José María which meant that, for the first time For once in history, the exploitation of the farmhouse and its ownership were carried out by different people. The tenancy regime was common in the Gipuzkoan hamlets in the 19th century.

In 1858, the hegemonic couple formed by Francisca Arregui and Juan Ignacio Mendiguren lived in the hamlet and the four youngest children, Felipe, the first-born and to whom they had transferred the property, lived outside with his wife, the best daughter of Francisca and Juan Ignacio, he had a disability and the family had to pay rent to Felipe. The hamlet became the responsibility of José María, who remained single and without offspring, who was supported by his brother Bernardo who married Paula de Azcue that same year and they had a son immediately after, who would be the first of three. This meant that in order to maintain such a high number of inhabitants of the house and its income, production had to be increased, so Juan Bautista Mendiguren Aramburu was hired, using the figure of a servant or morroi who worked in exchange for shelter and food. Bernardo Mendiguren, after failing in an investment in the thriving industry that was emerging in the valley, committed suicide in 1879 at the age of forty-five. In 1892 the youngest son, Juan Ignacio Mendiguren married Nicolasa Aramburu from whose marriage they had, by 1918, nine children, Santi Echeverría who was the servant lived with them. The conditions of the lease contract froze any maintenance or renovation work (neither the owner had the obligation to do it nor were they going to turn it off to the tenant in its entirety) which caused the hamlet to deteriorate as it had not been touched since 1858, it is estimated that it was at that time when the moving parts of the winery were dismantled, which would already be deteriorated.

In 1931, a series of Marian apparitions occurred in a field near the hamlet that attracted thousands of pilgrims to Ezkiola. Of the nine children of Juan Ignacio and Nicolasa, only Vicente, who remained single for the rest of his life, and José remained at home at that time. José Mendiguren married Francisca Bereziartua in 1944. After this wedding, some improvements were made to the farmhouse, the kitchen was changed, reducing it to a third of its surface and installing an economical cast-iron stove, a chimney with a pyramidal hood and the window was enlarged, a hallway was made that gave access to the rooms and a staircase leading up to the attic and a toilet was installed in the part of the block. Electricity had arrived before the civil war and water arrived in 1960.

In 1975, the western slope of the roof collapsed, in the area where some wooden posts had been removed for the construction of the façade in the 19th century, which was poorly repaired. In 1985 the Mendiguren-Bereziartua family bought the farmhouse from Felipe's descendants and heirs and after studying the possibilities of reform to adapt it to the needs and comfort of the century, they decided to demolish it to create a new building that would house several homes for its owners.

The Provincial Council of Guipúzcoa, in the attempt to safeguard the cultural heritage, negotiates with its owners the renovation of the building while maintaining its essential values. Commission a project to remodel and adapt the hamlet so that, maintaining its values, a multi-family home can be built. The project is commissioned by architect Ramón Yerza, who is a specialist in historical heritage and a native of the area. The owners of Igartubeiti reject the project. The council chooses to include Igartubeiti in the Master Plan for the Dissemination of Built Heritage and makes a purchase proposal for the building and the surrounding land to the owners who accept it. This is done with the aim of maintaining the hamlet as part of the Guipuzcoan heritage, respecting its full historical integrity. In 1993 the building passed into the hands of the provincial administration and the Mendiguren-Bereziartua family left Igartubeiti.

The Department of Culture of the Provincial Council of Guipúzcoa, within the Master Plan for the Dissemination of Built Heritage, which is responsible for the acquisition and restoration of significant buildings linked to vernacular aspects of daily rural life in the surroundings of the hamlet for the purpose of their exhibition and dissemination, takes charge of Igartubeiti and proposes its comprehensive restoration, recovering the original values, to turn it into a museum facility.

The values ​​presented by the Provincial Council of Guipúzcoa to carry out this management are the following:

• - Building of the century expanded in a clear way with respect to the main building.

• - The original wooden structure and a good part of the beam winepress that defines the rural architecture of the time are preserved almost entirely.

• - Farmhouse known for its typical style, which stands out for its formidable wooden façade.

• - Danger of disappearance of the property.

• - Central location very close to important communication axes and other cultural heritage assets such as the Zumalacárregui museum in Ormáiztegui, the Santa María de la Antigua hermitage in Zumárraga or the Igartza mill-iron complex in Beasáin.[5]​.

Contenido

El edificio tiene una planta cuadrangular de 19 por 21 metros de lado, siendo el mayor el correspondiente a la fachada principal que mira al sursureste. Esta tiene en su parte central un cerramiento de madera, tanto en la estructura como en los cierres que se han resuelto con con entablados verticales. Los laterales están realizados en mampostería de piedra pizarrosa local. Tiene una planta baja y otra bajo cubierta. El tejado se ha realizado a dos aguas con la cumbrera perpendicular a la fachada principal. En planta hay dos partes diferenciadas, el núcleo y el perímetro, siendo el núcleo la más antigua y con planta estrictamente cuadrada de 14,5 metros de lado. Esté está formado por cuatro hileras de cinco postes, mientras que el perímetro queda definido por la ampliación posterior que se desarrolló en todo el alrededor del núcleo central y cerrado por muros de mampostería a excepción de la parte sur que se cubre con madera.

En la relevante estructura de madera de roble del edificio destacan algunas características constructivas; los postes de una sola pieza que van desde el suelo a la cubierta; el lagar de palanca, que forma parte estructural del edificio, formado por una gran viga móvil sobre dobles postes centrales y bernias formado, además de la viga móvil, por tornillo, tuerca, piedra, masera y sovigaños (vigas maestras del lagar) ; los cierre de laterales de madera y los suelos y los cabrios de la cubierta que son de una sola pieza, siendo los más cortos del siglo y los de mayor longitud del siglo . Los muertes de piedra están realizados en mampostería, la fachada principal, debida a la ampliación del siglo es también de tablas de roble.

La planta de la edificación es cuadrada y está cubierto por un tejado de teja a dos aguas. En la fachada principal, orientada al sur y toda ella de madera, destaca el soportal abierto en toda la longitud de la misma. El interior se estructura en doble "L" contrapuesta, sistema tradicional guipuzcoano, en el que se ubican las cuadras y la vivienda en la parte baja y el espacio para el almacenaje en el espacio creado bajo cubierta. El centro del edificio es un gran lagar de palanca para la fabricación de sidra, que forma parte intrínseca de la estructura.

El lagar se presenta como el corazón del edificio y se sitúa en la primera planta ocupando, en toda su longitud, el eje central de la misma. El elemento principal es una gran viga móvil de madera de roble de una longitud de metros (lo normal es que fuera de entre 9 y 15 metros) que hace de brazo de palanca que se acciona mediante un gran tornillo vertical con un gran peso, en el caso de Igartubeiti es una piedra caliza de unos 1700 kg, en el extremo delantero de la misma. El trasero está apoyado en el fulcro (punto de apoyo), que es regulable y en el centro de la misma se sitúa la masera, la plataforma de prensado, donde se ubican las manzanas a prensar ya troceadas y se cubren con un castillete de tablas y maderos que distribuye uniformemente la presión. La masera debe ir bien apoyada en la estructura ya que soporta toda la carga, por ello se apoya en un gran forjado de vigas paralelas a la palanca que se denomina sobigaños y se apoyan en sobre dos jácenas transversales estando a trasera, llamada ballesta, con sus extremos libres en voladizo.

La viga móvil, que trabaja como una palanca de segundo orden, tiene su punto de apoyo entre dos grandes pilares, los mayores de la construcción y que dan la cumbrera de la misma, que se denominan bernias, solidarias con el resto de la viguería de la construcción. En las bernias hay unas acanaladuras verticales en las que se introducen las llaves para regular la altura de la palanca de prensado. El lagar determina la longitud y la altura de la construcción así como su volumen y la distribución interior. Este tipo de interrelación entre el elemento fabril, el lagar, y la estructura de la casa de labranza no tiene paralelismo en a la arquitectura popular europea y constituye uno de los rasgos históricos más originales del caserío guipuzcoano.

La prensa de palanca estaba difundida por todo el Mediterráneo desde, al menos, la época romana y había sido ampliamente utilizada en el territorio de Vasconia desde siempre. El cambio relevante es su introducción en un edificio para realizarla en un tamaño enorme y estructuralmente ligado a él donde se establece la vivienda. Esta composición fue muy popular en todas las construcciones de caseríos del siglo hasta que en el siglo siguiente dejaron de construirse. Algunos de estos caseríos, a pesar de las dificultades de mantenimiento, y en particular de sustitución de piezas, se mantuvieron en activo hasta el siglo .

Igartubeiti fue uno más de una serie de construcciones ya probadas, cuando se construyó los caseríos lagar ya era popular, había algunas versiones que modificaban el tipo de contrapeso, de tornillo o el tipo de bernia que regulaba el ángulo de presión de la palanca. El lagar, que solía funcionar una vez al año para la fabricación de sidra en octubre, llegaba a prensar unos tres y cuatro mil kilos de manzana cada temporada. La producción se dedicaba a la venta y en especial para los viajes navales donde la sidra era la sustitución de agua potable y por su alto contenido en vitamina C prevenía el escorbuto, siendo este negocio uno de los aporte importante a la economía familiar.

El poste trasero que conforma la cumbrera recibe a distintas alturas los puentes que forman la estructura del entramado. Cada caja está numerada en orden ascendente desde el suelo al tejado, mediante pequeñas muescas realizadas con la azuela. Las vigas que se ensartaban en ellas estaban codificadas de la misma forma (sistema de contramarca). La contramarca también se utilizó en para señalar la ubicación de los tornapuntas que arriostran la viga puente que remataba la fachada principal.

Bajo la supervisión del encargado de la obra se realizaban todas las labores, desde el acopio de los materiales, hasta el armado y ensamblado de los pórticos en tierra, que luego se alzaban, hasta la posición vertical, para su ubicación definitiva.

Inicialmente, en la construcción del siglo , el volumen de la construcción era aproximadamente la mitad de la construcción actual, ya que en el siglo , debido a los nuevos productos llegados de América y en especial el maíz, se realiza una ampliación que consistió en añadir sendas crujías&action=edit&redlink=1 "Crujías (arquitectura) (aún no redactado)") en los laterales de la construcción existente. Estas se realizaron en mampostería y en ellas se crearon nuevos espacios. En el bajo del lateral derecho se dedicó el nuevo espacio a la creación de habitaciones dormitorio para los habitantes de la casa, mientras que el fondo y el lateral izquierdo fueron designadas a la ampliación de la cuadra y almacén. En la parte alta, surgieron espacio de almacenamiento de grano y forraje. La ampliación de la parte frontal se creó un gran pórtico cubierto creado por el cuerpo adosado a la fachada que se alzaba sobre grandes postes de roble y se cerraba en el piso superior con un gran frontón de tablas que llegaba hasta al cumbrera y se las pendientes del edificio existente, de esta forma la fachada principal anterior quedó como pared interna, que en la parte superior separaba el lagar y pajar del nuevo granero. El suelo del pórtico estaba pavimentado por un enlosado con lajas de piedra negra. Sobre este pórtico surgió una amplia superficie cubierta y bien aireada, a la que se le denominó "camarote nuevo". El suelo y la pared de la fachada principal eran de se tablas, ideal para el secado y almacenado del maíz.[5]​.

The ground floor

The original construction of the Igartubaiti farmhouse lacked an arcade. On its main façade there were two double-leaf doors that closed from the inside and lacked locks, one of them intended for access to livestock and implements and the other to access the kitchen area, after ascending a raised threshold on two stone steps. The kitchen area served as the hallway, being the center of the home. It was a large open space of about 65 m² from which you could access the rest of the rooms. It was distributed in different environments in which the most important was the hearth (in Basque the term for kitchen is sukaldea which literally translates as "the area around the fire") which was located in the farthest part of the access door, the fire, which occupied a central area, was lit on the waterproof clay floor compacted by tamping and lacked a chimney. Above the fire hung the llar (chain from which the pot or cauldron is hung over the fire) suspended from a rotating davit that allows it to rotate 180°. Square holes cut into the boards of the eastern wall located above the level of the users' heads served as shooting windows. Under these gaps there must have been a high-backed piece of furniture with a seat long enough for a person to lie down on. The room had windows to the outside without glass, sometimes the glass was replaced with fine linen fabrics stretched over a wooden frame and waterproofed with white wax. The windows, made in the reconstruction, follow the examples that have been preserved in other neighboring hamlets, they have been made twin with marquetry arches and sliding type sashes formed by several vertical boards joined on the back by cut-out combs.

A plank bulkhead divides the surface of the ground floor transversely, separating the kitchen-hall area from the stables. In it, a door created in the same shape as the windows, connects the kitchen with the stables. In the kitchen-hallway area, the spaces are distributed through furniture, in such a way that the only fixed elements are the perch of the chair and the counterweight stone of the wine press lever. Within this space is the stairwell that connects to the first floor, located in front of the entrance door but perpendicular to it, leaving its side visible, which is decorated with a simple carving of triangular teeth.

Right in the central axis of the farmhouse, under the large rotating beam that acts as the lever arm of the wine press, the counterweight system of the lever press is located. A large limestone weighing about 1700 kg joined by a system of clamps and wooden wedges, which allow rotation, to the large vertical screw that is embedded in the mobile beam of the press and that, when activated by a wooden bar, causes it to screw into the beam, causing the counterweight to hang (it rises a few centimeters) from it. The characteristics of the screw allow it to be handled by a single person. The currently existing system, recreated in the reconstruction of the hamlet, may not have been the original, since there is no record of it. The pressing systems used in this type of construction in the century were of three types; that the counterweight was fixed to the floor (there is evidence of this in the Iribar hamlet in San Sebastián, whose winepress was in operation until 1908); Another system was for the bolt to be integral with the central post of the front façade without a stone counterweight, this post being the one that withstands the pressing forces (there is evidence of this system in the remains in Gipuzkoan hamlets) and finally the one recreated in Igartubaiti, in which a large counterweight can move and rise at the end of the lever when the large vertical screw is turned. This floating counterweight system allows for continuous pressure and with less effort on the press dough, resulting in the flow of the juice, in this case apple, obtained flowing slowly and constantly, which apparently provided a better tasting cider. The justification for the choice for the recreation of the floating counterweight type in Igartubeiti was the absence of traces of the other types, both on the ground and on the main post of the façade.

The upper floor

The upper floor, the attic, is the space that is created under the roof. The center is occupied by the large cider press with the large mobile beam 10 meters long and 50 cm on each side above the masera (the pressing area) that occupies 28 m². The two pairs of monumental bernias with their lateral adjustment channels define the height of the ridge and with it the vertical dimension of the space. The long braces supported the central area of ​​the roof truss, which is equipped with a double ridge. The winery only worked a couple of weeks a year, during the cider season at the beginning of autumn. This space, as well as the rest of the existing space in the plant, was dedicated to the storage of fodder for livestock and the storage of grains, mainly millet and wheat, first and then corn, which was made in waterproof wooden furniture with a capacity of up to 50 bushels with a two-sided and lockable lid. These "kutxas" had the edges carved with peelings. Initially the space under the roof was open with no differences in height on the ground. All the sides were closed by tongue-and-groove boards except for the rear one, where the loading access for the stored items was located.

On the portico built in the century, the so-called "new cabin" was created, which was the place where the corn was handled, drying and shelling it. The space is separated by what had previously been the façade of the farmhouse, the winepress and the hayloft. In the space left by the wheat barns, the corn shelling table was placed. The façade that formed the new cabin has windows that allow optimal ventilation of the space.

Above the bedrooms that emerged on the ground floor, a series of auxiliary spaces were created that were a little below the level of the existing floor. These spaces were used for storing nuts, onions, turnips, etc. as well as for drying skins and leather.

The reform also touched the winepress, the guide clamp that kept the screw vertical, formed by two half-moon pieces of wood that were inserted into the solibos of the floor, was replaced by a thicker perforated beam arranged orthogonally to the posts. For this function, one of the poles removed from the previous structure was reused.[5]​.

Tras la adquisición del caserío y el terreno circundante por parte de la Diputación Foral de Guipúzcoa este queda bajo la competencia del Departamento de Cultura que lo incluye dentro del Plan Director de Difusión del Patrimonio Edificado quien plantea la restauración integral del mismo para destinarlo al estudio, exhibición y divulgación de la historia, etnografía y cultura popular vasca convirtiéndolo en una instalación museística.

El planteamiento de la recuperación de la pieza patrimonial se basó en el máximo respeto al edificio y al entorno. Se trató al edificio como un ser vivo que evolucionó en el tiempo adaptándose a cada circunstancia en las funciones claves de su uso, la habitabilidad y la producción, aunque el objetivo final no las tuviera en cuenta, ya que la nueva funcionalidad del equipamiento cultura era la investigación y la difusión. Desde su construcción hasta el momento de la restauración Igartubeiti pasó por diferentes fases adaptándose a cada momento histórico. Había que determinar que momento de la evolución del caserío en los 450 años de vida, se iba a mostrar. Se eligió el año 1630 como momento referencial de la reconstrucción, aunque con la consciencia de que lo ideal hubiera sido fosilizarlo en el estado real de conservación con toda la información y situaciones marcadas en su estructura, pero dada la fragilidad de los materiales constructivos y el destino que se iba a dar al elemento cultural, que iba más haya que la propia restauración del edificio y tenía como objetivo la divulgación didáctica de determinaron las siguientes consideraciones:.

• - Debía de ser una restauración científica y cumplir con el Plan General de Divulgación.

• - Al ser la primera de estas características que se daba en Euskadi, debía plantearse con una vocación de experimental de procedimientos de oficio e investigación directa en la evolución de la arquitectura vernácula.

• - No debía pretender la recuperación del caserío para su uso productivo o residencial, sino para la muestra del edificio original y sus características singulares.

Se creó un equipo multidisciplinar que incluía desde personal administrativo y técnico, hasta especialista de diversos campos. Lo formaron:.

• - Manu Izaguirre, técnico de patrimonio de la Diputación de Guipúzcoa y responsable del Plan Director de Difusión del Patrimonio Edificado.

• - Iñaki Sagarzazu, arqueólogo del departamento de cultura de la Diputación de Guipúzcoa.

• - Ramón Ayerza, arquitecto. Autor y director del proyecto arquitectónico.

• - Jesús Lascurain, aparejador.

• - Luis Ariz, aparejador.

• - Alberto Santana, historiador, responsable de la investigación histórica y arqueológica y de su interpretación.

• - M.ª José Torrecilla, arqueóloga.

• - Marta Zabala, arqueóloga.

• - Maite Ibáñez, arqueóloga.

• - Julián Elorza, contratista especialista en madera, ejecutor de la obra.

• - Jesús Epelde, contratista especialista en madera, ejecutor de la obra.

Junto a ellos trabajaron otros especialista que se encargaron de la intervención previa, el estudio geotécnico, el desarrollo estéreo-fotométrico, investigación etnográfica, conservación y producción de sidra.

The intervention

The first phase of the intervention, which was carried out between 1993 and 1994, was the selective emptying of the building, both movable and immovable material, making construction additions disappear. A study of the real situation of the complex was carried out, measuring the angles of collapse of the vertical structures and the associated deformations, the degradation of the lower parts of the wooden posts produced by the environmental situations during the life of the building (mainly due to humidity coming from capillarity and silt from the area dedicated to stables) was detected and evaluated. and an archaeological and geotechnical study was carried out.

With the information obtained in the previous intervention, the structural consolidation of the farmhouse and the comprehensive recovery of the oak wood structure, which was dismantled piece by piece, marking each one of them, documenting its disassembly, recording each piece, classifying it, stacking it, recovering it for the subsequent reconstruction of the structure, was decided.

The purpose that was going to be given to the building, musicalization for cultural dissemination, required the implementation of a series of undoubted rules and requirements in an area open to the public, such as safety and accessibility regulations, as well as the alteration of some elements for didactic dissemination.

The security systems that had to be installed, as well as the centralization of the new electricity and plumbing installations, had to be integrated into the setting but at the same time had to provide all their services. A rear exit was built and a space was buried under the access to the attic for the centralization of water connection services, electricity, alarms, video monitoring control, toilets, etc. A reinforced door with a conventional lock was also installed.

The accessibility of visitors to the new museum facility had to be adjusted to regulations, both in the associated interpretation center and in the hamlet itself. While in the interpretation center there were no problems due to it being a new construction, in the hamlet a multitude of problems had to be resolved, due to its morphological characteristics and its age. Access to the attic, where one of the key pieces of the installation is located, seemed complex without the introduction of external and distorting elements. It was decided to create access from the outside to the attic through an elevated path, of traditional typology. Then the specific obstacles were resolved with small fixes such as ramps.

For a better understanding by visitors of some construction details typical of the time in which it was decided to carry out the reconstruction, some things that were kept hidden due to the evolution of time and daily purposes, both productive and domestic, were made visible. In the kitchen space, from the 19th century, a part of the century wall was left exposed to show the smoke outlet holes opened in the wooden bulkhead. The original construction was differentiated from the 19th-century extension; for this purpose, entire rafters were placed from the ridge to the old side facades and shorter rafters between adjacent runs. On the attic floor, the construction characteristics of each era were differentiated in the width of the flooring, the joints, dimensions and parallelisms. The wooden façade of the century was rebuilt to delimit the space of the bedrooms, although it had disappeared with the extension reform of the century.

The interpretation center

Although the building was the object to be exhibited, for the understanding of the knowledge to be communicated and the explanation of its context, an interpretation center was created, separate from the farmhouse. The center had to provide, in addition to the didactic function, a series of services to visitors. A large space was built, to the south, near the farmhouse, at a lower level, using the upper part of it as a parking lot for visitors, without causing any visual or landscape impact. The Center is equipped with an exhibition area with an audiovisual space. The exhibition shows the archaeological remains within the evolutionary sequence of the hamlet and the details of the restoration, daily life, the history of the environment, customs and contractive and operating techniques of the winepress. There is a multipurpose area intended for experimental didactic activity, workshop type, for group work, as well as a meeting room, a store and a visitor reception point. Access is through a balcony corridor that allows a view of the hillside in the eastern area. Access is via stairs and an elevator, and also allows pedestrians, along a small path, to access the hamlet between apple tree plantations of different types with identification plates, and orchards.[6]​.

The heritage laboratory

In the restoration of Igartubeiti, a heritage laboratory was carried out that resulted in the creation of a more realistic work in accordance with the period that was wanted to be shown. The project itself, which included a multidisciplinary management team made up of technicians in each of the fields that affect it, was the embryo of the laboratory. A follow-up of the disassembly and assembly works, maintenance, recovery and cleaning of the wood was carried out, identifying the original methods used and the demonstration of various theories in this field, in which it was possible to learn new details about the way of working in large wooden structures, their assembly and assembly systems and the distribution of spaces and their uses.

An investigation was carried out on the history of the building and its inhabitants, being able to determine in detail the events and people involved from the origin of the construction to its passage to the Provincial Council of Guipúzcoa, as well as their way of life and customs over time. Ethnographic research, not only of Igartubeiti but of other hamlets in the area, made it possible to equip the different spaces of the hamlet with utensils and furniture. Likewise, an investigation was carried out on the beam winepress, seeking information and documentation to reconstruct it as it was in the 19th century.

A relevant difficulty was found in the way of construction of the internal and external walls, which required special experimentation in relation to the plastering and screeds, which were carried out with lime mortars mixed with different granulometries and colorations of aggregates and were applied with a "trowel tip". Two layers were given on the external walls and one on the internal ones. Wrought iron nails were made by hand to restore the floors and plank walls.

The beam winepress was studied in a special way. Each of its unique pieces was investigated, especially the beam and the stone weight. The result of the study was reflected in the choice, for the stone weight, of an ophite rock typical of the place and of great density, which was worked as determined by the similarity with other similar winepresses. The threaded shaft was also made taking data from the remains existing in other hamlets of the time. It was determined that the most suitable wood was oak and a 6 meter long threaded piece was designed and built and turned in a specialized workshop that had previously carried out similar work. The beam of the press was made of oak; the measurements resulting from the structural study of the building resulted in a piece 10 meters long and with a square section half a meter on each side. To make it, we had to find a tree that would allow us to extract a piece of that size. In the current forests of the peninsular Basque Country there are no specimens of those dimensions and it was found in a forest in Labort, the construction was carried out in an experienced sawmill and it was moved to the farmhouse with all the steps documented. The objective of the restoration of the winepress was to leave it fully functional, which made it possible to verify the effectiveness of the actions carried out and end the production of cider in the old-fashioned way of the century.[6]​.

archaeological study

As part of the restoration and musealization process of the Igartubeiti farmhouse, an archaeological investigation was carried out to find structural remains of the original building that may have disappeared. The result was negative but remains of a structure prior to the farmhouse were discovered. The archaeological work extended to the documentation of the existing structural elements and the detailed identification of all the pieces that made up the hamlet and their locations, which allowed, after its recovery, the exact assembly of the structure.

The documentation obtained formed a record in which all the relevant data of all the pieces were collected in the annotations and comments. Data such as changes in location, very recent additions, state of conservation, etc., allowed us to have a list of the elements and their status and treatment followed as well as their final destination, detailing their location in the new structure or their disposal because they were irrecoverable or irrelevant. The documentation work was completed with the elaboration of the mold of the habitation structure discovered in the farmhouse.

The archaeological intervention initially focused on two objectives of the historical-architectural study of the building, one to verify the location and characteristics of the stone that served as the weight of the winepress and determine the original design of the property and the other to find evidence that confirmed the century's extension with the addition of the two side bays. The intervention began in 1994 with the first series of surveys that had uneven and unexpected results. In the work carried out vertically from where the screw of the beam press was located, only 3 holes were found made next to a recess in the natural rock, which invited the consideration of larger drilling surfaces that took shape in an excavation process that began in 1995, after having dismantled the contemporary structures (cement floors, kitchen compartments, toilets, stables, etc.), drillings were carried out in the eastern intermediate and rear bays and an excavation in the front that spanned from the kitchen area to the entrance to the stables that confirmed the surface of the building in the century and indication of a cabin prior to its construction.

After the initial findings, the opening of the entire area that covered the original building, including the stable and the hallway, was proposed. Two small walls were found located in the second bay, near the previous structure. In 2000, a study of the field before the main entrance was carried out. It began with three divergent probes: one in extension of the axial axis of the construction and two others oblique with respect to it, which gave a negative result.

In the survey carried out in the room next to the kitchen, a hole was found attached to the south wall measuring 1.5 meters by 2.5 meters and 80 cm deep. and two series of footprints that each formed a quadrangular space that could have corresponded to a container, the second series of footprints was formed by four stone slabs to provide a seat for the supports of a large container. The hole was identified as a hiding place and it was determined that it was made more recently, probably in the century in relation to the Carlists and the Napoleonic invasion, it could even have been made in the context of the civil war of 1936-1939.

Restoration execution

After the acquisition by the Provincial Council of Guipúzcoa of the property, it remained empty and everything related to its use as a home was removed. In these operations, I observed the state of the rear wall that had to be propped up, for which an earthen ramp was built to access the attic, following the usual typology of the hamlets in the area. Only the interior wooden structure, the roof, the exterior walls, the wall that separated the kitchen from the main room, inherited from the original building, and the enclosure of the porch were left. The exterior walls, made of local slate stone masonry, were very damaged and intervened with finishes made, with various materials, over time. The wooden structure, made mainly of oak, was made up of very old and large pieces to which some more recent pieces of pine wood had been added. The old oak structure was in a good general state of conservation although it had parts that were more damaged by time and use, such as the pillars that coincided with the stable area that were damaged at their bases, there was also damage from attacks by xylophagous insects, deformations and damage from later interventions, in general it was all very dirty. The efforts that the wooden structure endured over time caused, due to traction efforts, tongues and pegs to break and loosen, causing it to open in the upper part and, in some cases, damaging some of the walls.

After verifying the structural state of the property, it was decided to dismantle the wooden structure for its comprehensive recovery and repair of the bases of those pillars that were damaged. To do this, a meticulous procedure had to be carried out that would allow the structure to be reassembled as faithfully as possible. The first step was to carry out a thorough and detailed documentation of the state in which the building was located, so the Architectural Graphic Expression Laboratory of the University of Valladolid was commissioned to take precise photogrammetric pairs that determined the shapes of the hamlet prior to the intervention and Lorenzo García García and Javier Martín Lapeyra drew up the sketches and plans of the hamlet.

Each piece was pointed out and identified, also indicating its location and orientation in the structure. Plastic labels were used that were placed on the north face of each piece (as it was located in the structure of the building) and had to maintain verticality when reading. For the vertical pieces they were placed at the lower end and on the face that faced south. The horizontal pieces parallel to the south façade will be numbered on the underside of the end closest to the south façade. In the inclined pieces, the vertical orientation of the label was maintained and if they were parallel to the south façade they followed that specific protocol. If a piece that was believed to be whole was made up of different sections or was split, asterisks were added to the code number. This identification was completed by the location plan of each of the pieces. The identification and marking was carried out by Manu Izaguirre and Iñaki Sagarzazu while the graphic part was carried out by Itziar García Larrañaga. All of this listed and reclassified with letters according to the function that each piece performed.

The building

As the final action in the reconstruction of the hamlet and its musicalization, we proceeded to set it to place it in the time that had been decided. The use of wood from different sources, the original of the building was washed due to the conservation processes used, forced to achieve a perfect integration and mimicry of these new elements until achieving a uniform but not artificial appearance of the whole. An intervention was carried out in each room of the building, adapting it to the individual needs of each room.

On the ground floor was the kitchen area that required specialized treatment. The kitchen area had to reproduce the black atmosphere given by the lack of a chimney. There were only three holes intended for the evacuation of smoke next to the windows and doors of the room. This caused smoke and soot to seep into the neighboring rooms and the upper floor. The setting was made with a paint produced by mixing aquaplast with smoke black pigment, burnt umber and white glue that was applied with a brush in a non-homogeneous way, where the fire and with it the grease and soot had the greatest impact, progressively decreasing the thickness of the layer until it simply stained the areas furthest from the fireplace and all those areas where the smoke had reached. The behavior of smoke was studied empirically by lighting a fire daily in the home and observing its movement. Fat was also burned to in turn impregnate the environment with authentic smell. The kitchen area was also impregnated with a mixture of virgin wax highly diluted in turpentine, dyed black and applied by misting with a spray gun.

In the stable area, all the new elements were aged, which in this space were quite a few. A base color was created with a mixture of

matte brown-blackish water to unify the whole by applying it with a nebulizer and then personalizing the details of each case. To achieve the different chromatic effects, water-based anilines of different colors were used, which were also applied with a nebulizer in a non-homogeneous way and retouched, while still fresh, with brushes and sponges. The beams were decorated with dust to reproduce the passage of time and in the lower parts they were given a mixture of mud, fresh grass, hay and color simulating splashes. The new pieces made with new wood were decorated by making scratches and dents that they would have had in real use.

In the rooms, the existing elements were cleaned of the remains of the modern paintings that had been used when the farmhouse was used as a home. Ranges of different colors were used and applied non-uniformly by nebulizer until the desired appearance was achieved. The room that existed in the century and was left for work use after the expansion was given the same treatment as the stable area.

The main façade of the farmhouse, which was built in the 19th century, was reassembled with all the original material after receiving the relevant conservation treatments and did not require major intervention. To the interior, which made up the porch and was from the previous century, 2 new entrances were added, one to the stable and the other to the kitchen, and it was made with old recovered wood but that diverged in the calorimetry that required an intervention to equalize it. To give it the nuance that it would have had when exposed to the elements (it must have been weathered as could be seen in the remains that had been preserved on the first floor), it was wetted and left to dry in the sun for a while, thus causing natural aging. The leaves of the entrance doors were made of new oak wood, which required a more aggressive treatment, first they were aged with a blasting of iron particles and then proceeded with water and tannin, which reacted with the remains of the iron giving a much darker color that required a subsequent lightening to match them to the rest.

The facade canvases of the century, in some places on the main façade and on one side, were completed with recovered wood that had to be brought to the chromatic nuance by weathering and decorating it, playing with chromatic effects, to achieve a vision that would result in a natural aging effect. On the side façade, where there were more remains, they were dismantled, treated and cleaned, avoiding the removal of the crust due to the smoke in the kitchen, which was consolidated with organic glue dissolved in water and finished in virgin wax. The missing boards, most of the lower part, were remade with new wood and were treated as in the case of those in the kitchen.

The set of elements that make up the beam winepress was made of new wood and had to be stained so that it was integrated into the environment of the first floor. The screw was impregnated with grease so that it could work well. The rest of the deck structure and bulkheads did not need more than a few occasional touches in those places that had been rebuilt.

The spaces and the trousseau

The temporary stage chosen for the reconstruction of the Igartubeiti hamlet was the century when the complex acquired full historical identity, specifically after the wedding of Catalina de Cortabarria with Domingo de Arregui in 1536 and the subsequent expansion reforms. The comprehensive renovation of the building was completed with a recreation of its interior, both in terms of the facility's own production tasks, with specific emphasis on cider production, and the daily life customs of its inhabitants. An interpretation of that situation was made on which a hypothetical recreation of it was based.

Two main axes of interpretation were used, one the analysis of the existing traces in the different spaces that gave clues about their functionality and the other the documentary study on historical sources that could inform about the set of furniture, furnishings and clothing commonly used in a farmhouse of the estimated economic level used at the time. The documentary source consisted mainly of lease contracts, wills, post-mortem inventories and marriage contracts. All of this gave rise to a list of material to be found, some pieces were among those already existing in the hamlet at the time of its purchase by the Guipúzcoa council.

About 140 pieces from the period were selected from the collections belonging to the Provincial Council of Guipúzcoa. Furniture and work tools were chosen from the work carried out in the farmhouse. The pieces were conditioned, cleaned, treated against the different pests that could affect them and repaired them, if necessary. On the other hand, they were sought and acquired in surrounding farmhouses, mainly in the grain barns, the corn sheller, the bee hives or part of the farm machinery of the house.

Some necessary and typical elements of the time, such as cider barrels or beds, were impossible to locate, so their construction was chosen based on documentary descriptions, local iconographic references, and references to elements of similar function existing in other geographical areas.

The recreation of the temporal historical stage was extended to the language, trying to compile the terms in Basque and Spanish used to name the different elements in the century. For this purpose, in addition to the existing archived documentation, in which there was not much abundance of them, especially the Basque terms, a linguistic study was carried out based on interviews with the oldest residents of the area.

The kitchen is the main living space of the home and its main point is the hearth where the fire is made (in Basque kitchen is said sukaldedea which literally translates as "the area around the fire"). In this space the main tasks of daily life are carried out, the preparation of food, the daily tasks of housework, eating, taking care of the children and creating a warm and pleasant atmosphere, especially in the cold season. The home lacked a chimney.

Igartubeiti is located in the Santa Lucía valley, a natural route that connects the Guipuzcoan regions of Alto Urola and Goyerri whose orography, with very steep slopes, makes it difficult to cultivate the land. It is located on a landing in the middle of the slope of Mount Kizkitza") at about 80 meters right in the water division, on the left the Irantxaberri Erreka stream and on the right directly at the Ollaintxiko Erreka. The construction faces south, as is usual in this type of buildings. The platform on which the hamlet sits is irregularly shaped, about 150 meters in the north-south axis and 50 meters in the east-west transverse axis, not suitable for the grouping of different buildings. The building, with a square plan, sits on a narrowing of the hill.

The complex is located on the edge of the road that connects the two towns of Ezkioga, Anduaga in the lower part and Ezkioga or Exkio itself where the parish church of San Miguel stands. The large communication axes pass through the lower part of the valley, the A-636 highway, which is part of the Durango Basque road axis "Durango (Vizcaya)")-Beasáin and the branch of the high-speed train of the so-called Basque Y, which has a station there.[4]​.

The name "Igartubeiti" is composed of two terms in Basque, the term "igartu" and the term "beiti". The latter, "beiti" translates as "below", referring to the location with respect to the main nucleus of the town, popularly it is called "Beiti", "the one below". The original name of the place is "Igartu" which comes from "iartu" and its variations "Yartu" and "Ihartu" come to determine a place where there is a large dry and stiff or rigid tree, in Spanish "yerto".[5]​.

The Igartubeiti hamlet was built in the middle of the century, around the year 1540, by the Igartua family, who bore the name of the site and whose first documented references date back to 1383 and are related to the founding of the nearby Villarreal de Urrechua, as Peydro de Iartua and Per Ynegues de Iartua from Ezkioga appear in the petition to the king for its foundation. It was expanded in 1630 to adapt to new techniques and products, especially corn, which quickly replaced millet, which changed ways of life and work.

On the site where the construction was built there was a small building that was built with perishable materials, a cabin bottom, remains of a short wall, artificial depressions and post holes, there being no evidence of other settlements in the nearby environment. The remains found describe an ellipsoid cabin with a gabled roof that was aligned with the roof of the current building, which coincides with the watershed of its location. The entrance to the back of the cabin coincides with the entrance that was given to the farmhouse. This cabin had two rooms separated by a shelter made of branches and mud posts. The space was divided between a third for the front part and the rest for the innermost part, which must have been used for housing, as can be suspected due to a raised floor that could have served as a long bench or bunk bed. This hypothesis contradicts the most accepted one regarding the use of this type of buildings in the rest of Europe, which have been designated as auxiliary facilities. It does not seem coherent that in the century the Igartu lived in buildings of this type, but there is nothing to indicate how the cabin background could have evolved from then to the construction of the current building. There is evidence that in the Middle Ages the usual housing form was that of the village made up of several housing units linked by the church and the cemetery but with a certain degree of dispersion that allowed them to be perceived as a grouped nucleus that was neither urbanized nor ordered. In any case, there is no evidence linking the Igartu family with the buildings belonging to the remains found, until the construction of the current hamlet.

At the end of the century and beginning of the century there was a radical and widespread change that changed the old cabins for a much more sophisticated housing model. From this change was born the hamlet, a type of specific regional construction of European vernacular architecture that has remained in force to the present day. In new constructions, a radical change occurs when the work is entrusted to specialized professionals and the demolition of the previous constructions is left solely in the hands of the owners, since these new ones were going to be built on the same site, and the hauling of the material. These constructions are not an evolution of the previous ones, but are a completely new architectural typology that requires importing, learning to use and disseminating new construction tools and techniques and affect intra-family relationships by forming a new scenario of domestic life with changes in gender roles "Gender (biology)"), intergenerational hierarchy and coexistence. As well as the distinction between public and private spaces and the introduction of concepts such as intimacy, comfort and social representation due to the quality and ostentation of the home.

The hamlet is conceived as a home and agricultural production unit, a complex and sophisticated structure as well as expensive. The characteristic of the central lever winepress is not exclusive to Igartubeiti since there is evidence that it was a fairly common piece in the hamlets of Guipúzcoa and Vizcaya of which there are still remains in a hundred of them. In this type of buildings, the residential elements begin to have a secondary aspect, both in space and in the hierarchy and the effort dedicated to them. The space allocated for family habitation is no more than 15% of the total, the rest is allocated to productive work, both agricultural, livestock and crafts.

In Igartubeiti, as in the majority of this type of hamlet, only the front section of the ground floor is habitable, leaving the rest used for stables, warehouses or cellars, while the upper floor, already under cover, was intended for a granary, drying room, hayloft, apiaries (the hives were located inside the house) and attic, all around an essential element, the lever press, an exceptional machine in its size that was integrated and It was a fundamental part of the structure of the building.

The construction techniques were complex and required learning from professionals from other areas of Europe. The Gothic stonework of Aquitaine was completed with Germanic carpentry techniques and mechanical technologies from the Mediterranean and Castilian and Andalusian ornamentation. The walls were made of carved stone from the religious and military architecture that came from western France to Burgo and from there spread to Guipúzcoa during the century. In common language these walls were called "lime and stone". The buildings had a wooden structure that acquired extraordinary prominence and almost total load-bearing self-sufficiency. This relevance of wood would be what would lead new constructions. Large wooden posts linked together that support the structure of the gabled roof. The joints are made using mortise and tenon assemblies secured against tensile stresses by wooden pins or pegs, without iron nails ever being used, among other reasons because oak wood corrodes metals in humid environments. Braces and ubiquitous elements are used to strengthen the joints of the vertical posts with the horizontal beams that support the floor. These carpentry techniques, from the German region of Swabia, were introduced when a family of German masters from 1442 with numerous officials and

temporary artisans from the Basque Country.

The Igartubeiti hamlet stands out for having maintained in good condition the essential elements of the construction that also represent the rural way of life that was maintained for centuries in the territory. This, together with the study process that has been carried out in the restoration for its musicalization, which has allowed an exhaustive process of documentary, archaeological, ethnographic and architectural research. Igartubeiti's study allows us to delve into three questions; the model of dispersed settlement on hillsides that was widely disseminated in the holohumid zone, the birth of the hamlet as a typology of housing and production unit and the ways of life that developed in recent centuries.

The Igartu estate, like that of its neighbors, went through different relationships with the feudal lords and surrounding towns. Until 1661 it remained united to the mayor's office of Areria and they achieved its independence by paying the king 800 ducats. This structuring of the population into scattered hamlets has been one of the fundamental models of territory occupation in the sunny areas of the Cantabrian slope of the Basque Country, which there is evidence of was already solidly established in the Late Middle Ages. The inhabitants of Igartu in the century were humble common people, although with a certain prestige among their neighbors, described by the crown as "good men and without suspicion."

Around the year 1540, the construction of the current building was carried out, although smaller in size, it had about 200 m², half of what it currently has, and its characteristics were rather humble. The exterior enclosures were made of wood, leaving the "lime and stone" walls relegated to a short plinth on the main and eastern façades. They were masonry walls of concerted tabular slab, with a good load of mortar, made without the intervention of any stonemasonry official and under the supervision of a master in assembly carpentry. The partitioning was made of planking bulkheads, tongue-and-groove slit boards, placed vertically in successive registers assembled into channeled bridge beams.

It is believed that the construction was carried out by Joan de Beisagasti, a local carpenter who worked a lot at that time. The carpentry work is signed by small marks made with the adze on the edges of the pieces that are going to be joined to the mortise and tenon or half-wood. Although there is no documentary evidence, it is believed that the owners who ordered the work were the last descendants of the Igartu family and that they died shortly after, leading to estimates that the hamlet may have been uninhabited shortly after its construction. At a meeting of all the owners of the Ezkioga council held in 1564, no one represented the Igartubeiti hamlet. In 1567, three years later, in another meeting on the occasion of some works in the local parish, Miguel de Eliçalde appears as a representative of the Igartubeiti hamlet and it is indicated that Ana de Ygartua and her brother and father have recently died, so it is estimated that these were the promoters of the new construction.

At the beginning of the century, after the introduction of corn, a comprehensive renovation of the building took place to adapt it to the new crop and improve its comfort. In 1625 the marriage took place between Catalina de Cortaberria, heiress of the farmhouse, and Domingo de Arregui. Surely, as was common practice at the time, the groom's dowry served to finance the beginning of the renovation works. Catalina Joan de Cortaberria Ygartua's father did not have sons to assist him in the farming work and he neglected the fields, devoting himself mainly to livestock. Domingo Arregui came from the Eizaguirre neighborhood of Azpeitia and after marrying Catalina he took charge of the hamlet and undertook its remodeling and adaptation to the new needs. He became alderman of Ezkioga and his descendants remained without interruption in Igartebeitia until the beginning of the century. HIS son, Pedro de Arregui, married to Catalina de Usabiaga, was one of the promoters of the segregation of the mayor's office of Areria and the independence of Ezkioga in 1661 and was part of the company of armed men, formed the following year, who reaffirmed the full autonomy of the town.

The renovation, which gave it its current appearance, consisted of expanding the building by adding bays&action=edit&redlink=1 "Crujías (architecture) (not yet written)") on each side and another front that would create a new façade with a large porch covered and paved with black stone slabs and above it, a large barn closed by boards. The arcade created by the porch became an ideal place to carry out different tasks. So much so that it came to be called "era" as it was the place where threshing was usually carried out. It was also used as a warehouse or as a breeding space for small animals such as chickens or rabbits.

The space created above the portico was dedicated to the corn drying and granary, which required a different treatment than wheat and millet. Corn, which was called "borona de las Indias" or "millet of the Moors" and ended up remaining in Basque with the name of millet, artoa, which was later called artatxikia", required a drying process before it could be stored and taken to be ground..

In this new area, the cob leaves were cleaned and the cobs were beaten with a mallet until the grains came off through the holes made in the masher after having dried the cobs by spreading them on a very ventilated and covered surface. Once cured, they had to be shelled so that they did not spoil.

In 1804, Francisca Arregui de Igartubetia inherited the farmhouse, after having declared her half-brother Ignacio María, son of Ignacio Arregui and his second wife María Antonia Aramburu, insane. Francisca married Juan Ignacio Mendiguren from the hamlet of Mendeun in Itxaso and the descendants of this marriage lived in the hamlet for seven generations until the end of the century. The eldest son of the couple received the farmhouse through an agreement signed by his parents in 1827, common in Guipúzcoa, which was usually made in order to avoid Castilian law and leave the property to a single heir. Francisca Arregui and Julio Mendiguren passed the hamlet to their son Ignacio María who married Josefa Lizarralde, they passed it on in 1855 to their son Felipe who married María Teresa de Aranburu who after signing the corresponding capitulations that guaranteed coexistence in the social and family structure of the hamlet, they ended up abandoning the hamlet in 1858 and renting it to their younger brother José María which meant that, for the first time For once in history, the exploitation of the farmhouse and its ownership were carried out by different people. The tenancy regime was common in the Gipuzkoan hamlets in the 19th century.

In 1858, the hegemonic couple formed by Francisca Arregui and Juan Ignacio Mendiguren lived in the hamlet and the four youngest children, Felipe, the first-born and to whom they had transferred the property, lived outside with his wife, the best daughter of Francisca and Juan Ignacio, he had a disability and the family had to pay rent to Felipe. The hamlet became the responsibility of José María, who remained single and without offspring, who was supported by his brother Bernardo who married Paula de Azcue that same year and they had a son immediately after, who would be the first of three. This meant that in order to maintain such a high number of inhabitants of the house and its income, production had to be increased, so Juan Bautista Mendiguren Aramburu was hired, using the figure of a servant or morroi who worked in exchange for shelter and food. Bernardo Mendiguren, after failing in an investment in the thriving industry that was emerging in the valley, committed suicide in 1879 at the age of forty-five. In 1892 the youngest son, Juan Ignacio Mendiguren married Nicolasa Aramburu from whose marriage they had, by 1918, nine children, Santi Echeverría who was the servant lived with them. The conditions of the lease contract froze any maintenance or renovation work (neither the owner had the obligation to do it nor were they going to turn it off to the tenant in its entirety) which caused the hamlet to deteriorate as it had not been touched since 1858, it is estimated that it was at that time when the moving parts of the winery were dismantled, which would already be deteriorated.

In 1931, a series of Marian apparitions occurred in a field near the hamlet that attracted thousands of pilgrims to Ezkiola. Of the nine children of Juan Ignacio and Nicolasa, only Vicente, who remained single for the rest of his life, and José remained at home at that time. José Mendiguren married Francisca Bereziartua in 1944. After this wedding, some improvements were made to the farmhouse, the kitchen was changed, reducing it to a third of its surface and installing an economical cast-iron stove, a chimney with a pyramidal hood and the window was enlarged, a hallway was made that gave access to the rooms and a staircase leading up to the attic and a toilet was installed in the part of the block. Electricity had arrived before the civil war and water arrived in 1960.

In 1975, the western slope of the roof collapsed, in the area where some wooden posts had been removed for the construction of the façade in the 19th century, which was poorly repaired. In 1985 the Mendiguren-Bereziartua family bought the farmhouse from Felipe's descendants and heirs and after studying the possibilities of reform to adapt it to the needs and comfort of the century, they decided to demolish it to create a new building that would house several homes for its owners.

The Provincial Council of Guipúzcoa, in the attempt to safeguard the cultural heritage, negotiates with its owners the renovation of the building while maintaining its essential values. Commission a project to remodel and adapt the hamlet so that, maintaining its values, a multi-family home can be built. The project is commissioned by architect Ramón Yerza, who is a specialist in historical heritage and a native of the area. The owners of Igartubeiti reject the project. The council chooses to include Igartubeiti in the Master Plan for the Dissemination of Built Heritage and makes a purchase proposal for the building and the surrounding land to the owners who accept it. This is done with the aim of maintaining the hamlet as part of the Guipuzcoan heritage, respecting its full historical integrity. In 1993 the building passed into the hands of the provincial administration and the Mendiguren-Bereziartua family left Igartubeiti.

The Department of Culture of the Provincial Council of Guipúzcoa, within the Master Plan for the Dissemination of Built Heritage, which is responsible for the acquisition and restoration of significant buildings linked to vernacular aspects of daily rural life in the surroundings of the hamlet for the purpose of their exhibition and dissemination, takes charge of Igartubeiti and proposes its comprehensive restoration, recovering the original values, to turn it into a museum facility.

The values ​​presented by the Provincial Council of Guipúzcoa to carry out this management are the following:

• - Building of the century expanded in a clear way with respect to the main building.

• - The original wooden structure and a good part of the beam winepress that defines the rural architecture of the time are preserved almost entirely.

• - Farmhouse known for its typical style, which stands out for its formidable wooden façade.

• - Danger of disappearance of the property.

• - Central location very close to important communication axes and other cultural heritage assets such as the Zumalacárregui museum in Ormáiztegui, the Santa María de la Antigua hermitage in Zumárraga or the Igartza mill-iron complex in Beasáin.[5]​.

Contenido

El edificio tiene una planta cuadrangular de 19 por 21 metros de lado, siendo el mayor el correspondiente a la fachada principal que mira al sursureste. Esta tiene en su parte central un cerramiento de madera, tanto en la estructura como en los cierres que se han resuelto con con entablados verticales. Los laterales están realizados en mampostería de piedra pizarrosa local. Tiene una planta baja y otra bajo cubierta. El tejado se ha realizado a dos aguas con la cumbrera perpendicular a la fachada principal. En planta hay dos partes diferenciadas, el núcleo y el perímetro, siendo el núcleo la más antigua y con planta estrictamente cuadrada de 14,5 metros de lado. Esté está formado por cuatro hileras de cinco postes, mientras que el perímetro queda definido por la ampliación posterior que se desarrolló en todo el alrededor del núcleo central y cerrado por muros de mampostería a excepción de la parte sur que se cubre con madera.

En la relevante estructura de madera de roble del edificio destacan algunas características constructivas; los postes de una sola pieza que van desde el suelo a la cubierta; el lagar de palanca, que forma parte estructural del edificio, formado por una gran viga móvil sobre dobles postes centrales y bernias formado, además de la viga móvil, por tornillo, tuerca, piedra, masera y sovigaños (vigas maestras del lagar) ; los cierre de laterales de madera y los suelos y los cabrios de la cubierta que son de una sola pieza, siendo los más cortos del siglo y los de mayor longitud del siglo . Los muertes de piedra están realizados en mampostería, la fachada principal, debida a la ampliación del siglo es también de tablas de roble.

La planta de la edificación es cuadrada y está cubierto por un tejado de teja a dos aguas. En la fachada principal, orientada al sur y toda ella de madera, destaca el soportal abierto en toda la longitud de la misma. El interior se estructura en doble "L" contrapuesta, sistema tradicional guipuzcoano, en el que se ubican las cuadras y la vivienda en la parte baja y el espacio para el almacenaje en el espacio creado bajo cubierta. El centro del edificio es un gran lagar de palanca para la fabricación de sidra, que forma parte intrínseca de la estructura.

El lagar se presenta como el corazón del edificio y se sitúa en la primera planta ocupando, en toda su longitud, el eje central de la misma. El elemento principal es una gran viga móvil de madera de roble de una longitud de metros (lo normal es que fuera de entre 9 y 15 metros) que hace de brazo de palanca que se acciona mediante un gran tornillo vertical con un gran peso, en el caso de Igartubeiti es una piedra caliza de unos 1700 kg, en el extremo delantero de la misma. El trasero está apoyado en el fulcro (punto de apoyo), que es regulable y en el centro de la misma se sitúa la masera, la plataforma de prensado, donde se ubican las manzanas a prensar ya troceadas y se cubren con un castillete de tablas y maderos que distribuye uniformemente la presión. La masera debe ir bien apoyada en la estructura ya que soporta toda la carga, por ello se apoya en un gran forjado de vigas paralelas a la palanca que se denomina sobigaños y se apoyan en sobre dos jácenas transversales estando a trasera, llamada ballesta, con sus extremos libres en voladizo.

La viga móvil, que trabaja como una palanca de segundo orden, tiene su punto de apoyo entre dos grandes pilares, los mayores de la construcción y que dan la cumbrera de la misma, que se denominan bernias, solidarias con el resto de la viguería de la construcción. En las bernias hay unas acanaladuras verticales en las que se introducen las llaves para regular la altura de la palanca de prensado. El lagar determina la longitud y la altura de la construcción así como su volumen y la distribución interior. Este tipo de interrelación entre el elemento fabril, el lagar, y la estructura de la casa de labranza no tiene paralelismo en a la arquitectura popular europea y constituye uno de los rasgos históricos más originales del caserío guipuzcoano.

La prensa de palanca estaba difundida por todo el Mediterráneo desde, al menos, la época romana y había sido ampliamente utilizada en el territorio de Vasconia desde siempre. El cambio relevante es su introducción en un edificio para realizarla en un tamaño enorme y estructuralmente ligado a él donde se establece la vivienda. Esta composición fue muy popular en todas las construcciones de caseríos del siglo hasta que en el siglo siguiente dejaron de construirse. Algunos de estos caseríos, a pesar de las dificultades de mantenimiento, y en particular de sustitución de piezas, se mantuvieron en activo hasta el siglo .

Igartubeiti fue uno más de una serie de construcciones ya probadas, cuando se construyó los caseríos lagar ya era popular, había algunas versiones que modificaban el tipo de contrapeso, de tornillo o el tipo de bernia que regulaba el ángulo de presión de la palanca. El lagar, que solía funcionar una vez al año para la fabricación de sidra en octubre, llegaba a prensar unos tres y cuatro mil kilos de manzana cada temporada. La producción se dedicaba a la venta y en especial para los viajes navales donde la sidra era la sustitución de agua potable y por su alto contenido en vitamina C prevenía el escorbuto, siendo este negocio uno de los aporte importante a la economía familiar.

El poste trasero que conforma la cumbrera recibe a distintas alturas los puentes que forman la estructura del entramado. Cada caja está numerada en orden ascendente desde el suelo al tejado, mediante pequeñas muescas realizadas con la azuela. Las vigas que se ensartaban en ellas estaban codificadas de la misma forma (sistema de contramarca). La contramarca también se utilizó en para señalar la ubicación de los tornapuntas que arriostran la viga puente que remataba la fachada principal.

Bajo la supervisión del encargado de la obra se realizaban todas las labores, desde el acopio de los materiales, hasta el armado y ensamblado de los pórticos en tierra, que luego se alzaban, hasta la posición vertical, para su ubicación definitiva.

Inicialmente, en la construcción del siglo , el volumen de la construcción era aproximadamente la mitad de la construcción actual, ya que en el siglo , debido a los nuevos productos llegados de América y en especial el maíz, se realiza una ampliación que consistió en añadir sendas crujías&action=edit&redlink=1 "Crujías (arquitectura) (aún no redactado)") en los laterales de la construcción existente. Estas se realizaron en mampostería y en ellas se crearon nuevos espacios. En el bajo del lateral derecho se dedicó el nuevo espacio a la creación de habitaciones dormitorio para los habitantes de la casa, mientras que el fondo y el lateral izquierdo fueron designadas a la ampliación de la cuadra y almacén. En la parte alta, surgieron espacio de almacenamiento de grano y forraje. La ampliación de la parte frontal se creó un gran pórtico cubierto creado por el cuerpo adosado a la fachada que se alzaba sobre grandes postes de roble y se cerraba en el piso superior con un gran frontón de tablas que llegaba hasta al cumbrera y se las pendientes del edificio existente, de esta forma la fachada principal anterior quedó como pared interna, que en la parte superior separaba el lagar y pajar del nuevo granero. El suelo del pórtico estaba pavimentado por un enlosado con lajas de piedra negra. Sobre este pórtico surgió una amplia superficie cubierta y bien aireada, a la que se le denominó "camarote nuevo". El suelo y la pared de la fachada principal eran de se tablas, ideal para el secado y almacenado del maíz.[5]​.

The ground floor

The original construction of the Igartubaiti farmhouse lacked an arcade. On its main façade there were two double-leaf doors that closed from the inside and lacked locks, one of them intended for access to livestock and implements and the other to access the kitchen area, after ascending a raised threshold on two stone steps. The kitchen area served as the hallway, being the center of the home. It was a large open space of about 65 m² from which you could access the rest of the rooms. It was distributed in different environments in which the most important was the hearth (in Basque the term for kitchen is sukaldea which literally translates as "the area around the fire") which was located in the farthest part of the access door, the fire, which occupied a central area, was lit on the waterproof clay floor compacted by tamping and lacked a chimney. Above the fire hung the llar (chain from which the pot or cauldron is hung over the fire) suspended from a rotating davit that allows it to rotate 180°. Square holes cut into the boards of the eastern wall located above the level of the users' heads served as shooting windows. Under these gaps there must have been a high-backed piece of furniture with a seat long enough for a person to lie down on. The room had windows to the outside without glass, sometimes the glass was replaced with fine linen fabrics stretched over a wooden frame and waterproofed with white wax. The windows, made in the reconstruction, follow the examples that have been preserved in other neighboring hamlets, they have been made twin with marquetry arches and sliding type sashes formed by several vertical boards joined on the back by cut-out combs.

A plank bulkhead divides the surface of the ground floor transversely, separating the kitchen-hall area from the stables. In it, a door created in the same shape as the windows, connects the kitchen with the stables. In the kitchen-hallway area, the spaces are distributed through furniture, in such a way that the only fixed elements are the perch of the chair and the counterweight stone of the wine press lever. Within this space is the stairwell that connects to the first floor, located in front of the entrance door but perpendicular to it, leaving its side visible, which is decorated with a simple carving of triangular teeth.

Right in the central axis of the farmhouse, under the large rotating beam that acts as the lever arm of the wine press, the counterweight system of the lever press is located. A large limestone weighing about 1700 kg joined by a system of clamps and wooden wedges, which allow rotation, to the large vertical screw that is embedded in the mobile beam of the press and that, when activated by a wooden bar, causes it to screw into the beam, causing the counterweight to hang (it rises a few centimeters) from it. The characteristics of the screw allow it to be handled by a single person. The currently existing system, recreated in the reconstruction of the hamlet, may not have been the original, since there is no record of it. The pressing systems used in this type of construction in the century were of three types; that the counterweight was fixed to the floor (there is evidence of this in the Iribar hamlet in San Sebastián, whose winepress was in operation until 1908); Another system was for the bolt to be integral with the central post of the front façade without a stone counterweight, this post being the one that withstands the pressing forces (there is evidence of this system in the remains in Gipuzkoan hamlets) and finally the one recreated in Igartubaiti, in which a large counterweight can move and rise at the end of the lever when the large vertical screw is turned. This floating counterweight system allows for continuous pressure and with less effort on the press dough, resulting in the flow of the juice, in this case apple, obtained flowing slowly and constantly, which apparently provided a better tasting cider. The justification for the choice for the recreation of the floating counterweight type in Igartubeiti was the absence of traces of the other types, both on the ground and on the main post of the façade.

The upper floor

The upper floor, the attic, is the space that is created under the roof. The center is occupied by the large cider press with the large mobile beam 10 meters long and 50 cm on each side above the masera (the pressing area) that occupies 28 m². The two pairs of monumental bernias with their lateral adjustment channels define the height of the ridge and with it the vertical dimension of the space. The long braces supported the central area of ​​the roof truss, which is equipped with a double ridge. The winery only worked a couple of weeks a year, during the cider season at the beginning of autumn. This space, as well as the rest of the existing space in the plant, was dedicated to the storage of fodder for livestock and the storage of grains, mainly millet and wheat, first and then corn, which was made in waterproof wooden furniture with a capacity of up to 50 bushels with a two-sided and lockable lid. These "kutxas" had the edges carved with peelings. Initially the space under the roof was open with no differences in height on the ground. All the sides were closed by tongue-and-groove boards except for the rear one, where the loading access for the stored items was located.

On the portico built in the century, the so-called "new cabin" was created, which was the place where the corn was handled, drying and shelling it. The space is separated by what had previously been the façade of the farmhouse, the winepress and the hayloft. In the space left by the wheat barns, the corn shelling table was placed. The façade that formed the new cabin has windows that allow optimal ventilation of the space.

Above the bedrooms that emerged on the ground floor, a series of auxiliary spaces were created that were a little below the level of the existing floor. These spaces were used for storing nuts, onions, turnips, etc. as well as for drying skins and leather.

The reform also touched the winepress, the guide clamp that kept the screw vertical, formed by two half-moon pieces of wood that were inserted into the solibos of the floor, was replaced by a thicker perforated beam arranged orthogonally to the posts. For this function, one of the poles removed from the previous structure was reused.[5]​.

Tras la adquisición del caserío y el terreno circundante por parte de la Diputación Foral de Guipúzcoa este queda bajo la competencia del Departamento de Cultura que lo incluye dentro del Plan Director de Difusión del Patrimonio Edificado quien plantea la restauración integral del mismo para destinarlo al estudio, exhibición y divulgación de la historia, etnografía y cultura popular vasca convirtiéndolo en una instalación museística.

El planteamiento de la recuperación de la pieza patrimonial se basó en el máximo respeto al edificio y al entorno. Se trató al edificio como un ser vivo que evolucionó en el tiempo adaptándose a cada circunstancia en las funciones claves de su uso, la habitabilidad y la producción, aunque el objetivo final no las tuviera en cuenta, ya que la nueva funcionalidad del equipamiento cultura era la investigación y la difusión. Desde su construcción hasta el momento de la restauración Igartubeiti pasó por diferentes fases adaptándose a cada momento histórico. Había que determinar que momento de la evolución del caserío en los 450 años de vida, se iba a mostrar. Se eligió el año 1630 como momento referencial de la reconstrucción, aunque con la consciencia de que lo ideal hubiera sido fosilizarlo en el estado real de conservación con toda la información y situaciones marcadas en su estructura, pero dada la fragilidad de los materiales constructivos y el destino que se iba a dar al elemento cultural, que iba más haya que la propia restauración del edificio y tenía como objetivo la divulgación didáctica de determinaron las siguientes consideraciones:.

• - Debía de ser una restauración científica y cumplir con el Plan General de Divulgación.

• - Al ser la primera de estas características que se daba en Euskadi, debía plantearse con una vocación de experimental de procedimientos de oficio e investigación directa en la evolución de la arquitectura vernácula.

• - No debía pretender la recuperación del caserío para su uso productivo o residencial, sino para la muestra del edificio original y sus características singulares.

Se creó un equipo multidisciplinar que incluía desde personal administrativo y técnico, hasta especialista de diversos campos. Lo formaron:.

• - Manu Izaguirre, técnico de patrimonio de la Diputación de Guipúzcoa y responsable del Plan Director de Difusión del Patrimonio Edificado.

• - Iñaki Sagarzazu, arqueólogo del departamento de cultura de la Diputación de Guipúzcoa.

• - Ramón Ayerza, arquitecto. Autor y director del proyecto arquitectónico.

• - Jesús Lascurain, aparejador.

• - Luis Ariz, aparejador.

• - Alberto Santana, historiador, responsable de la investigación histórica y arqueológica y de su interpretación.

• - M.ª José Torrecilla, arqueóloga.

• - Marta Zabala, arqueóloga.

• - Maite Ibáñez, arqueóloga.

• - Julián Elorza, contratista especialista en madera, ejecutor de la obra.

• - Jesús Epelde, contratista especialista en madera, ejecutor de la obra.

Junto a ellos trabajaron otros especialista que se encargaron de la intervención previa, el estudio geotécnico, el desarrollo estéreo-fotométrico, investigación etnográfica, conservación y producción de sidra.

The intervention

The first phase of the intervention, which was carried out between 1993 and 1994, was the selective emptying of the building, both movable and immovable material, making construction additions disappear. A study of the real situation of the complex was carried out, measuring the angles of collapse of the vertical structures and the associated deformations, the degradation of the lower parts of the wooden posts produced by the environmental situations during the life of the building (mainly due to humidity coming from capillarity and silt from the area dedicated to stables) was detected and evaluated. and an archaeological and geotechnical study was carried out.

With the information obtained in the previous intervention, the structural consolidation of the farmhouse and the comprehensive recovery of the oak wood structure, which was dismantled piece by piece, marking each one of them, documenting its disassembly, recording each piece, classifying it, stacking it, recovering it for the subsequent reconstruction of the structure, was decided.

The purpose that was going to be given to the building, musicalization for cultural dissemination, required the implementation of a series of undoubted rules and requirements in an area open to the public, such as safety and accessibility regulations, as well as the alteration of some elements for didactic dissemination.

The security systems that had to be installed, as well as the centralization of the new electricity and plumbing installations, had to be integrated into the setting but at the same time had to provide all their services. A rear exit was built and a space was buried under the access to the attic for the centralization of water connection services, electricity, alarms, video monitoring control, toilets, etc. A reinforced door with a conventional lock was also installed.

The accessibility of visitors to the new museum facility had to be adjusted to regulations, both in the associated interpretation center and in the hamlet itself. While in the interpretation center there were no problems due to it being a new construction, in the hamlet a multitude of problems had to be resolved, due to its morphological characteristics and its age. Access to the attic, where one of the key pieces of the installation is located, seemed complex without the introduction of external and distorting elements. It was decided to create access from the outside to the attic through an elevated path, of traditional typology. Then the specific obstacles were resolved with small fixes such as ramps.

For a better understanding by visitors of some construction details typical of the time in which it was decided to carry out the reconstruction, some things that were kept hidden due to the evolution of time and daily purposes, both productive and domestic, were made visible. In the kitchen space, from the 19th century, a part of the century wall was left exposed to show the smoke outlet holes opened in the wooden bulkhead. The original construction was differentiated from the 19th-century extension; for this purpose, entire rafters were placed from the ridge to the old side facades and shorter rafters between adjacent runs. On the attic floor, the construction characteristics of each era were differentiated in the width of the flooring, the joints, dimensions and parallelisms. The wooden façade of the century was rebuilt to delimit the space of the bedrooms, although it had disappeared with the extension reform of the century.

The interpretation center

Although the building was the object to be exhibited, for the understanding of the knowledge to be communicated and the explanation of its context, an interpretation center was created, separate from the farmhouse. The center had to provide, in addition to the didactic function, a series of services to visitors. A large space was built, to the south, near the farmhouse, at a lower level, using the upper part of it as a parking lot for visitors, without causing any visual or landscape impact. The Center is equipped with an exhibition area with an audiovisual space. The exhibition shows the archaeological remains within the evolutionary sequence of the hamlet and the details of the restoration, daily life, the history of the environment, customs and contractive and operating techniques of the winepress. There is a multipurpose area intended for experimental didactic activity, workshop type, for group work, as well as a meeting room, a store and a visitor reception point. Access is through a balcony corridor that allows a view of the hillside in the eastern area. Access is via stairs and an elevator, and also allows pedestrians, along a small path, to access the hamlet between apple tree plantations of different types with identification plates, and orchards.[6]​.

The heritage laboratory

In the restoration of Igartubeiti, a heritage laboratory was carried out that resulted in the creation of a more realistic work in accordance with the period that was wanted to be shown. The project itself, which included a multidisciplinary management team made up of technicians in each of the fields that affect it, was the embryo of the laboratory. A follow-up of the disassembly and assembly works, maintenance, recovery and cleaning of the wood was carried out, identifying the original methods used and the demonstration of various theories in this field, in which it was possible to learn new details about the way of working in large wooden structures, their assembly and assembly systems and the distribution of spaces and their uses.

An investigation was carried out on the history of the building and its inhabitants, being able to determine in detail the events and people involved from the origin of the construction to its passage to the Provincial Council of Guipúzcoa, as well as their way of life and customs over time. Ethnographic research, not only of Igartubeiti but of other hamlets in the area, made it possible to equip the different spaces of the hamlet with utensils and furniture. Likewise, an investigation was carried out on the beam winepress, seeking information and documentation to reconstruct it as it was in the 19th century.

A relevant difficulty was found in the way of construction of the internal and external walls, which required special experimentation in relation to the plastering and screeds, which were carried out with lime mortars mixed with different granulometries and colorations of aggregates and were applied with a "trowel tip". Two layers were given on the external walls and one on the internal ones. Wrought iron nails were made by hand to restore the floors and plank walls.

The beam winepress was studied in a special way. Each of its unique pieces was investigated, especially the beam and the stone weight. The result of the study was reflected in the choice, for the stone weight, of an ophite rock typical of the place and of great density, which was worked as determined by the similarity with other similar winepresses. The threaded shaft was also made taking data from the remains existing in other hamlets of the time. It was determined that the most suitable wood was oak and a 6 meter long threaded piece was designed and built and turned in a specialized workshop that had previously carried out similar work. The beam of the press was made of oak; the measurements resulting from the structural study of the building resulted in a piece 10 meters long and with a square section half a meter on each side. To make it, we had to find a tree that would allow us to extract a piece of that size. In the current forests of the peninsular Basque Country there are no specimens of those dimensions and it was found in a forest in Labort, the construction was carried out in an experienced sawmill and it was moved to the farmhouse with all the steps documented. The objective of the restoration of the winepress was to leave it fully functional, which made it possible to verify the effectiveness of the actions carried out and end the production of cider in the old-fashioned way of the century.[6]​.

archaeological study

As part of the restoration and musealization process of the Igartubeiti farmhouse, an archaeological investigation was carried out to find structural remains of the original building that may have disappeared. The result was negative but remains of a structure prior to the farmhouse were discovered. The archaeological work extended to the documentation of the existing structural elements and the detailed identification of all the pieces that made up the hamlet and their locations, which allowed, after its recovery, the exact assembly of the structure.

The documentation obtained formed a record in which all the relevant data of all the pieces were collected in the annotations and comments. Data such as changes in location, very recent additions, state of conservation, etc., allowed us to have a list of the elements and their status and treatment followed as well as their final destination, detailing their location in the new structure or their disposal because they were irrecoverable or irrelevant. The documentation work was completed with the elaboration of the mold of the habitation structure discovered in the farmhouse.

The archaeological intervention initially focused on two objectives of the historical-architectural study of the building, one to verify the location and characteristics of the stone that served as the weight of the winepress and determine the original design of the property and the other to find evidence that confirmed the century's extension with the addition of the two side bays. The intervention began in 1994 with the first series of surveys that had uneven and unexpected results. In the work carried out vertically from where the screw of the beam press was located, only 3 holes were found made next to a recess in the natural rock, which invited the consideration of larger drilling surfaces that took shape in an excavation process that began in 1995, after having dismantled the contemporary structures (cement floors, kitchen compartments, toilets, stables, etc.), drillings were carried out in the eastern intermediate and rear bays and an excavation in the front that spanned from the kitchen area to the entrance to the stables that confirmed the surface of the building in the century and indication of a cabin prior to its construction.

After the initial findings, the opening of the entire area that covered the original building, including the stable and the hallway, was proposed. Two small walls were found located in the second bay, near the previous structure. In 2000, a study of the field before the main entrance was carried out. It began with three divergent probes: one in extension of the axial axis of the construction and two others oblique with respect to it, which gave a negative result.

In the survey carried out in the room next to the kitchen, a hole was found attached to the south wall measuring 1.5 meters by 2.5 meters and 80 cm deep. and two series of footprints that each formed a quadrangular space that could have corresponded to a container, the second series of footprints was formed by four stone slabs to provide a seat for the supports of a large container. The hole was identified as a hiding place and it was determined that it was made more recently, probably in the century in relation to the Carlists and the Napoleonic invasion, it could even have been made in the context of the civil war of 1936-1939.

Restoration execution

After the acquisition by the Provincial Council of Guipúzcoa of the property, it remained empty and everything related to its use as a home was removed. In these operations, I observed the state of the rear wall that had to be propped up, for which an earthen ramp was built to access the attic, following the usual typology of the hamlets in the area. Only the interior wooden structure, the roof, the exterior walls, the wall that separated the kitchen from the main room, inherited from the original building, and the enclosure of the porch were left. The exterior walls, made of local slate stone masonry, were very damaged and intervened with finishes made, with various materials, over time. The wooden structure, made mainly of oak, was made up of very old and large pieces to which some more recent pieces of pine wood had been added. The old oak structure was in a good general state of conservation although it had parts that were more damaged by time and use, such as the pillars that coincided with the stable area that were damaged at their bases, there was also damage from attacks by xylophagous insects, deformations and damage from later interventions, in general it was all very dirty. The efforts that the wooden structure endured over time caused, due to traction efforts, tongues and pegs to break and loosen, causing it to open in the upper part and, in some cases, damaging some of the walls.

After verifying the structural state of the property, it was decided to dismantle the wooden structure for its comprehensive recovery and repair of the bases of those pillars that were damaged. To do this, a meticulous procedure had to be carried out that would allow the structure to be reassembled as faithfully as possible. The first step was to carry out a thorough and detailed documentation of the state in which the building was located, so the Architectural Graphic Expression Laboratory of the University of Valladolid was commissioned to take precise photogrammetric pairs that determined the shapes of the hamlet prior to the intervention and Lorenzo García García and Javier Martín Lapeyra drew up the sketches and plans of the hamlet.

Each piece was pointed out and identified, also indicating its location and orientation in the structure. Plastic labels were used that were placed on the north face of each piece (as it was located in the structure of the building) and had to maintain verticality when reading. For the vertical pieces they were placed at the lower end and on the face that faced south. The horizontal pieces parallel to the south façade will be numbered on the underside of the end closest to the south façade. In the inclined pieces, the vertical orientation of the label was maintained and if they were parallel to the south façade they followed that specific protocol. If a piece that was believed to be whole was made up of different sections or was split, asterisks were added to the code number. This identification was completed by the location plan of each of the pieces. The identification and marking was carried out by Manu Izaguirre and Iñaki Sagarzazu while the graphic part was carried out by Itziar García Larrañaga. All of this listed and reclassified with letters according to the function that each piece performed.

The building

As the final action in the reconstruction of the hamlet and its musicalization, we proceeded to set it to place it in the time that had been decided. The use of wood from different sources, the original of the building was washed due to the conservation processes used, forced to achieve a perfect integration and mimicry of these new elements until achieving a uniform but not artificial appearance of the whole. An intervention was carried out in each room of the building, adapting it to the individual needs of each room.

On the ground floor was the kitchen area that required specialized treatment. The kitchen area had to reproduce the black atmosphere given by the lack of a chimney. There were only three holes intended for the evacuation of smoke next to the windows and doors of the room. This caused smoke and soot to seep into the neighboring rooms and the upper floor. The setting was made with a paint produced by mixing aquaplast with smoke black pigment, burnt umber and white glue that was applied with a brush in a non-homogeneous way, where the fire and with it the grease and soot had the greatest impact, progressively decreasing the thickness of the layer until it simply stained the areas furthest from the fireplace and all those areas where the smoke had reached. The behavior of smoke was studied empirically by lighting a fire daily in the home and observing its movement. Fat was also burned to in turn impregnate the environment with authentic smell. The kitchen area was also impregnated with a mixture of virgin wax highly diluted in turpentine, dyed black and applied by misting with a spray gun.

In the stable area, all the new elements were aged, which in this space were quite a few. A base color was created with a mixture of

matte brown-blackish water to unify the whole by applying it with a nebulizer and then personalizing the details of each case. To achieve the different chromatic effects, water-based anilines of different colors were used, which were also applied with a nebulizer in a non-homogeneous way and retouched, while still fresh, with brushes and sponges. The beams were decorated with dust to reproduce the passage of time and in the lower parts they were given a mixture of mud, fresh grass, hay and color simulating splashes. The new pieces made with new wood were decorated by making scratches and dents that they would have had in real use.

In the rooms, the existing elements were cleaned of the remains of the modern paintings that had been used when the farmhouse was used as a home. Ranges of different colors were used and applied non-uniformly by nebulizer until the desired appearance was achieved. The room that existed in the century and was left for work use after the expansion was given the same treatment as the stable area.

The main façade of the farmhouse, which was built in the 19th century, was reassembled with all the original material after receiving the relevant conservation treatments and did not require major intervention. To the interior, which made up the porch and was from the previous century, 2 new entrances were added, one to the stable and the other to the kitchen, and it was made with old recovered wood but that diverged in the calorimetry that required an intervention to equalize it. To give it the nuance that it would have had when exposed to the elements (it must have been weathered as could be seen in the remains that had been preserved on the first floor), it was wetted and left to dry in the sun for a while, thus causing natural aging. The leaves of the entrance doors were made of new oak wood, which required a more aggressive treatment, first they were aged with a blasting of iron particles and then proceeded with water and tannin, which reacted with the remains of the iron giving a much darker color that required a subsequent lightening to match them to the rest.

The facade canvases of the century, in some places on the main façade and on one side, were completed with recovered wood that had to be brought to the chromatic nuance by weathering and decorating it, playing with chromatic effects, to achieve a vision that would result in a natural aging effect. On the side façade, where there were more remains, they were dismantled, treated and cleaned, avoiding the removal of the crust due to the smoke in the kitchen, which was consolidated with organic glue dissolved in water and finished in virgin wax. The missing boards, most of the lower part, were remade with new wood and were treated as in the case of those in the kitchen.

The set of elements that make up the beam winepress was made of new wood and had to be stained so that it was integrated into the environment of the first floor. The screw was impregnated with grease so that it could work well. The rest of the deck structure and bulkheads did not need more than a few occasional touches in those places that had been rebuilt.

The spaces and the trousseau

The temporary stage chosen for the reconstruction of the Igartubeiti hamlet was the century when the complex acquired full historical identity, specifically after the wedding of Catalina de Cortabarria with Domingo de Arregui in 1536 and the subsequent expansion reforms. The comprehensive renovation of the building was completed with a recreation of its interior, both in terms of the facility's own production tasks, with specific emphasis on cider production, and the daily life customs of its inhabitants. An interpretation of that situation was made on which a hypothetical recreation of it was based.

Two main axes of interpretation were used, one the analysis of the existing traces in the different spaces that gave clues about their functionality and the other the documentary study on historical sources that could inform about the set of furniture, furnishings and clothing commonly used in a farmhouse of the estimated economic level used at the time. The documentary source consisted mainly of lease contracts, wills, post-mortem inventories and marriage contracts. All of this gave rise to a list of material to be found, some pieces were among those already existing in the hamlet at the time of its purchase by the Guipúzcoa council.

About 140 pieces from the period were selected from the collections belonging to the Provincial Council of Guipúzcoa. Furniture and work tools were chosen from the work carried out in the farmhouse. The pieces were conditioned, cleaned, treated against the different pests that could affect them and repaired them, if necessary. On the other hand, they were sought and acquired in surrounding farmhouses, mainly in the grain barns, the corn sheller, the bee hives or part of the farm machinery of the house.

Some necessary and typical elements of the time, such as cider barrels or beds, were impossible to locate, so their construction was chosen based on documentary descriptions, local iconographic references, and references to elements of similar function existing in other geographical areas.

The recreation of the temporal historical stage was extended to the language, trying to compile the terms in Basque and Spanish used to name the different elements in the century. For this purpose, in addition to the existing archived documentation, in which there was not much abundance of them, especially the Basque terms, a linguistic study was carried out based on interviews with the oldest residents of the area.

The kitchen is the main living space of the home and its main point is the hearth where the fire is made (in Basque kitchen is said sukaldedea which literally translates as "the area around the fire"). In this space the main tasks of daily life are carried out, the preparation of food, the daily tasks of housework, eating, taking care of the children and creating a warm and pleasant atmosphere, especially in the cold season. The home lacked a chimney.