127 728
ediciones
Cambios
m
Texto reemplazado: «<sup>th</sup> century» por «th century»
In the past, the fireplace was a hearth or stove that had many uses and was very important. It provided the household with warmth, it was used to cook and heat up the food for the family and the domesticated animals, and water was boiled there for people to wash or for the laundry. The kitchen considered to be the house’s most important room is a common denominator of the surveys. Strictly speaking, hearth was used to refer the place in the kitchen where the fire was laid and the cooking was done.
The kitchen, ''sukaldea'', ''ezkaratza'', has occupied and continues to occupy a key place in both the rural and urban home, and the hearth or fireplace has been a main feature in it. The hearth was at the centre of the home to such an extent that a saying from the end of the 16<sup>th</sup> 16th century went: ''Subako etxea, gorputz odol bagea ''(A house without a hearth is like a body without blood).
A highly important aspect of the home hearth was the draught, in other words, the entry of air to kindle the fire and extract the smoke. It was hard to get the balance right between keeping heat in and the air needed for the draught. A seat with a high back, ''zizailu'', was placed in front of or beside the hearth or the fire was protected with a low wall in order to keep the heat in.
The fact that wheat stopped being planted in the mid 20th century and corn shortly afterwards, at least to make corn bread, meant that domestic ovens fell into disuse or disappeared due to the aforementioned crisis, and because people stopped buying wheat and rather began to buy their bread from bakeries.
In many of the towns surveyed, it was seen that until some decades ago (mid 20<sup>th</sup> 20th century), nearly all the houses had domestic or bread ovens to make bread. It was also noted that many have disappeared or are only used occasionally. This was due to the importance of bread as a staple in the diet and the lack of bakeries or bread delivery service in remote places.
== House lighting. Etxeko argia ==
