Meaning and Definition of Cortijo

Definition of Cortijo

Cortijo is the name given to those large farms with buildings aimed at housing and agricultural exploitation that surrounds the place, which are own and features of the regions of Andalucia and Extremadura in Spain. The great peak observed by this type of buildings in the middle of the field occurred during the 18th century. Meanwhile, those who live and work in the farmhouses are called cortijeros.
The motivation of the cortijo has been the respond to the needs of a large holding, i.e., that on the one hand combines a system of crop rotation, which dedicates a special main attention, with an additional livestock production which brings animals to the tasks that are carried out, allows the estiercolado of soils and of course which gets an extra income that will be used.
With the creation of the cortijo gave solution to a problem of years, as it was that of worker absenteeism, because from the cortijo already it was not necessary that the worker retires and returns each day, but it could reside there for so make more dynamic and productive work of the farm.
The main units of the farm include: kitchen, meanwhile, landlords and considered more qualified workers had a private room, obviously built from quite austere criteria. On the other hand, austerity was not part of the dwelling of the owner, in the event that any, it had greater comfort and quality with respect to other dependencies, was located in an independent manner, although somewhere there was a connection with the rest of the House. At the base of the farmhouse was the courtyard, closed in front and around this were all livestock buildings, storage areas and barns. Other very common units in farmhouses were the woodwork and the workshops.