LA CASA DE LAS GENTES: TOURIST OFFICE & CULTURAL CENTRE
SUMMER OPENING HOURS: EVERYDAY
from 11.30h to 14h
& 16h to 20.30h
from 11.30h to 14h
& 16h to 20.30h
AUTUMN OPENING HOURS: WED to SUN
from 11,30 h to 14h
& 16h to 20h
WINTER OPENING HOURS: WED to SUN
from 11,30 h to 14h
& 16h to 19h
SPRING OPENING HOURS: WED to SUN
from 11,30 h to 14h
& 16h to 20h
EXHIBITIONS:
ADULTS............2€
RETIRED PEOPLE or GROUPS OF + 10 PEOPLE.......... 1€
ADULTS............2€
RETIRED PEOPLE or GROUPS OF + 10 PEOPLE.......... 1€
CHILDREN DO NOT PAY
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TOURIST INFO
BALBOA, the dreamy village
Balboa Township is the head of the area villages and it is also the capital of the namesake valley. It is located in the Northwest face of the region called “Bierzo” and it has the same location in the province of León.
Due to its border with the Galician province of Lugo, Balboa is a mixed area where the main language is the local variant of Galician. As it is located in the South of the Sierra de Ancares, Balboa shares with those villages an ancestral culture that has remained thanks to the isolation suffered due to orographic and weather conditions.
Balboa is a village that we must visit in the region. On it we can find three pre-roman roundhouses, an auditorium together with the 13th century castle ruins, a windmill, a 600-year-old chestnut, a 16th century church, La Casa de las Gentes, a multicultural space, and much more.
Click on the link to check or download a map of the main places of interest:
DOMINGO
The prolific constructive and sculptural work of Domingo de Canteixeira spreads in its living environment, a place that invites us to travel around old valleys and mountains with rich and mixed vegetation. This work comes from the traditional culture, the old tools and materials. This craft talks about human condition in a land where we have to work hard every day to survive. His particular way of creating and recreating traditional noteworthy spaces such as Celtic roundhouses, taverns and mills and the ambiance created by his sculptures take us backwards and makes us think about other possibilities of our role in life.
He dignifies all the things related to the rural life by giving new uses to the tools that have importantly helped to the survival of the man in this land. Recycling and tradition are the most essential parts in Domingo's work. The fact of recycling elements -such as relief window shutters, chest covers changed into tables...- which is deeply rooted in traditional culture, has a new meaning in Domingo's work. He gives wood pieces a new life.
Thanks to the new spaces built or decorated by Domingo or his work, the valley is getting more and more visitors and agritourism is being boosted.
The attractiveness of those places does not only come from its beauty but also because of the new social functions that they offer -bar, restaurant, performance... Even just been there, sat under a straw-roof is a great experience.
Apart from it there is another reason and value to visit it, that is a beautiful agritourism route among valleys and groves.
LA CASA DE LAS GENTES
Depopulation emptied villages and so it did with Balboa's sports center. The recycling task was not easy for an artist who bases his work on primary and basic materials such as wood, iron and stone and uses organic natural lines and forms.
In short, the challenge was to recycle and make art of a huge structure of steel and concrete which demolition was impossible because of the high cost involved.
In this incredible transformation of a sports center into a cultural space we must talk about the important and invaluable labor of a group of workers of the area. They are also seasoned in wood and stone works and they have developed their particular way of working apart from Domingo.
The result of all this work is a new space of 2800m2 in the countryside. It aims to be an alternative to the rural cultural impoverishment of the society as well as a place of thinking about the traditional culture contribution and its new role nowadays.
If you want to see some photos of this space, click on the link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/108554737292074898457/LaCASADeLasGENTES
If you want to see some photos of this space, click on the link:
https://picasaweb.google.com/108554737292074898457/LaCASADeLasGENTES
