Snowdrift

This névé, which can also be called icehouse or snowdrift, is located in Ricla (Zaragoza) in ‘El Pinoso’ street. It seems to have been built between the years 1888 and 1890, replacing a previous one for which we have information thanks to a lease contract in 1695 to a man from Ricla, called Pedro Gil.

It is a circular well dug into the northern slope of the ‘Cabezo de Buenavista’ with an interior diameter of six metres, lined with stone and closed with a false dome. It also has a small wooden door for filling and emptying.

The people used to put a layer of snow and straw, but if they did not have straw they used dry grass. They put snow, straw, snow, straw, and in the middle the food to cool it, keep it, and prevent it from going bad. It was also done to keep the food away from hungry animals.

Another use was for medical purposes, for example: plague fevers, to keep medicines and to cure sprains or fractures.

The last owner of the icehouse was Leoncio Carabantes who bought it in 1940 for 400 pesetas and used it as a haystack. In 2003, it was sold to the town council and since then no restoration has been carried out.