The ancestral home and the domain

In spite of its decline as an agricultural centre, the caserío (ancestral home) continued to be a social institution and, aside from its architectural characteristics or the amount of land associated with it, continued to be an expression of the family’s identity and for centuries exited as a legal unit. One peculiarity of Basque caseríos is that each had an official name. The name of the house and the domain has been maintained for centuries, regardless of changes to the house or the way the land was used. It is possible to trace the vast majority of Basque surnames to the caserío.

In the economic sense, and as a family business, the caserío appears to have come into being between the 12th and 13th centuries. The agricultural society that grew up on the lower slopes consisted of three groups: the most privileged were the freeholders who owned the land they worked and didn’t have to pay taxes to the King or to a lord; the largest group were known as pecheros, or vassals of the King. They too were freeholders but they couldn’t leave because they had to pay a series of taxes. The lowest ranking group were the farm hands who were dependent on a feudal lord for their livelihood. The stable mediaeval settlements weren’t homogenous. There were isolated caseríos, of which there were probably few and which were probably associated with livestock routes. Then there were the single family caseríos, dispersed by not far from each other, which had existed since the 11th century. There were hamlets of various houses grouped around a nucleus but not as a coherent urban group, with a church and a cemetery nearby. These already existed in the Alto Deba in the 9th century. The houses at this time were wooden shacks, much smaller than today’s caseríos.

The caseríos that we see today are much more recent, and were built in the 15th and 16th centuries. It was a successful formula linked to the emancipation of the tenant farmer who had acquired the status of hidalgo (lower nobility). The caserío in this era is a house but with relatively little living space as much was taken up by livestock and the harvest. There were also various working spaces related to farm work or crafts. Every house had a cider press on the first floor that was built into and helped support the building.
 
The slump in trade and iron working in 17th-century Gipuzkoa coincided with the widespread cultivation of maize. In the 18th century they began growing haricot beans and turnips (as animal feed) and then at the start of the 19th, potatoes. This process of ruralisation reflected the concentration of property in fewer hands, while money made in America or through trade was invested in caseríos so that they could be rented out. As a result, two families often shared one rented caserío.

No new caseríos were built in the 20th century. However, many of the old ones have been refurbished and modernised. Those that still function as farmhouses usually have outbuildings for the farm work with the original house converted entirely into living space.   

Further information here: "The Basqeu farme house in Gipuzkoa" (Bertan Collection) and Igartubeiti Museum