Teules (roof tiles) and teuleres

What it is and technique

Curved clay tile. In the teulera (rural workshop) the clay was ground, kneaded with water in a raft, molded into shape and fired in a wood oven. Mallorca also has painted teules (decorated), the subject of study at the UIB (Clara Isabel Matheu Vaquer).

Short story

• Trade present in almost every region; Arab tiles were the covering of popular Mallorcan architecture until well into the 20th century.
• Teules pintades: the oldest preserved specimens are from the 16th century; boom and consolidation in the 17th and 18th centuries, and the practice continues until the 20th (Sastre Morro and Mateu-Morro, 2015, citing Coll Conesa 1987 and Matheu Vaquer 2013).
• Reference study: Jaume Coll Conesa, Sobre teules pintades (Institut d'Estudis Baleàrics, 1987).
• Many painted teules inventoried in the late 80s no longer exist; Some are preserved in Fornalutx (museu de la teula, Can Xoroi), Museu de Muro and Sant Bonaventura de Llucmajor.
• 2015: discovery of 36 painted teules in the urban area of ​​Inca (the first within the town); deposited in the Fornalutx museum.
• Since the 1930s, industrial ovens have displaced artisanal tea brewing (general Catalan data, to be verified for Mallorca).

Process step by step

1. Extraction of clay from a quarry or nearby land (today, the bottleneck: see Status).

2. Pastat: it is mixed with water in the pastry (raft) and pressed or kneaded until it is homogeneous.

3. Emmotllat: a clay plate is placed on a frame (motlle) and curved over a wooden form; The shape of the piece is truncated cone (wider at one end).

4. Assecat: days in the sun and in the shade, turning the pieces so that they do not deform or crack.

5. Lining: the dry pieces are stacked neatly in the oven chamber, on the pot or fire chamber.

6. Cuita with firewood, slow and continuous; in Catalan pre-industrial ovens, up to 8-9 days closed (please verify duration in Mallorca).

7. Unfold and select.

• Painted teules (technique): they were painted on the work itself, not in the workshop. A third of the tile was whitened with lime; On that background it was painted with a single reddish color of mangra (red earth); sometimes charcoal black picat; very rarely a third color. Thick line, collective work, anonymous authors. The side visible from the street was painted (especially on the eaves tiles).

Forms and objects

• Teula àrab (curved, truncated conical): the base piece.
• Channel teula (face up, collects water) and cover teula (face down, covers the joint).
• Ràfec / voladís: eaves of several courses of tile; main support of the painted teules.
• Carener: row of tiles on the ridge.
• Painted Teula: documented motifs: inscriptions (dates, names, sayings, lineages, religious phrases), geometric, vegetal (branches, fruits), anthropomorphic and scenes of daily life, ships, religious (the main one: the cross), astral and heraldic.
• The teulera also used to make clay rajoles (check with the workshop).

Vocabulary

• teula: piece of baked clay to cover the roof.
• teuler: person who makes tiles.
• teulera / teuleria: workshop and oven where they are made; in Mallorca, teulera.
• teula àrab: traditional curved tile.
• teula de canal: the one that goes face up and conducts the water.
• teula cobertora: the one that goes upside down, on top of the channel ones.
• ràfec: tile eaves.
• carener: ridge of the roof.
• teulada: covered with tiles.
• pastera: raft or container for kneading mud.
• motlle: frame to shape the clay plate.
• enfornar / desenfornar: load / empty the oven.
• cuita: cooking a batch.
• olla: lower chamber of the oven where the firewood burns.
• mangra: red earth used as pigment.
• teula pintada: tile decorated with calç and mangra.

Geography

• Teulers in almost all regions; Today the live focus is Campos (Migjorn), with good clay and tradition of teulera and rajoleria.
• Teules pintades preserved in 31 municipalities; concentration in the Serra de Tramuntana, especially the Sóller valley (Sóller, Fornalutx), and secondly the Raiguer (Inca).
• Why there: the oven was placed near clay, water and firewood.

Xifres

• 31 municipalities with preserved or recovered painted teules (Sastre Morro and Mateu-Morro, 2015).
• 36 teules from the Inca discovery; Only in 11 are the reasons clear.
• Period of disappearance of the artisan tile according to Miquel Torres: less than 5 years (mallorcadiario, sf).
• Teuleres active today: few; exact number to verify (Associació de Teuleres de Mallorca).
• Without specific BIC protection for painted teules (check in municipal catalogues).

Why is it design

• Local and reversible material: mud, water, fire and firewood from the area; an old tile is reused and the broken one returns to the earth.
• Form = function: the curved and truncated conical section fits the channel and cover without nails, evacuates torrential rain and ventilates the cover.
• Modularity: a single piece resolves the entire roof, eaves and ridge.
• Communication: the painted teula converts a technical element into a message support (date, protection, celebration of the work). Collective and anonymous design.
• Proximity: the tile depends on the land in its region; If the clay runs out, the craft ends. See proximity design .

Where and who today

• Teulera Can Benito — Campos (c/ des Palmer). Owner Miquel Torres, president of the Association of Teuleres de Mallorca. teulera-can-benito
• Another "Sa Teulera" in Porreres (directory; without verifying activity).

State

At high risk. Miquel Torres warns that Majorcan tiles may disappear in less than five years: there is demand, but local quarries have stopped extracting clay because it is unprofitable. The painted teules have almost no protection.

Contemporary Updates

No verified cases.

For the project

• Possible piece: campaign / exhibition piece about "the last tile": what happens to a material when the raw material runs out; contemporary painted tile.
• Contact: Miquel Torres (Can Benito, Associació de Teuleres).
• Background question: a trade that is dying not for lack of clients but for lack of land.

Sources

• mallorcadiario.com/desaparicion-teja-mallorquina-patrimonio-peligro
• mallorca.com/en/directory/business/teulera-can-benito-campos-onxhdkfc
• ibdigital.uib.es/greenstone/sites/localsite/collect/memoriesUIB/index/assoc/Math
• decat.iec.cat/documents/VIII/472.pdf
• caib.es/siciefront/artesania/index.jsp?idioma=ct
• ibdigital.uib.es/greenstone/library/collection/jornadesEstudisLocalsInca/documen
• ibdigital.uib.es/greenstone/library/collection/jornadesEstudisLocalsInca/documen
• mallorca.com/ca/directori/empresa/teulera-can-benito-campos-onxhdkfc

Working text from the Disseny Indígena knowledge base, machine-translated from Spanish.

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