The Washhouse (Els Safareigs)
The laundry room is the place, space or construction where clothes were washed until the 20th century. The laundry building in Benifallet consists of a single ground floor volume. Its layout in plan is rectangular with longitudinal cover in two waters. The vertical structure is formed by masonry pillars and the horizontal structure by wooden horses arranged in four bays. The masonry wall closures between the pillars constitute a barrier of half height that allows the lighting and continuous ventilation of the laundry rooms. The washrooms are constituted by three adjoining washrooms connected by overflowing to facilitate the cleaning and refreshing processes of the clothes, and whose perimeter is the cleaning surface in slope towards the rafts.
The building is also unique in the horse structure of the roof, and the interlocking system and support of the tiles. Each municipality had its laundry, being an important advance, since
The slope of improving the public health of the villages, the step of cleaning the clothes on the banks of the river to do it in a specific building.
Ethnographically, it is necessary to confirm the historic function of the washers as a meeting point, exchange, communication and coexistence among the women of the people. To the extent that the term "make laundry" happens to have a double meaning, meaning in addition to the action of the laundries to chat and snoop while washing clothes. Finally, the culture of water use, which seems to be re-evaluated, is well established in these buildings in terms of the use and reuse of water. The use of water of natural origin to make communal laundry, then made it possible to use it to irrigate the nearby orchards.
The artist Amanda Corominas made a mosaic to commemorate this tradition, giving it life with the same spirit that was made at the beginning of last century, with women as protagonists washing their clothes.
The laundries are located at the confluence of the streets Dr. Sastre, Alfonso and the Parque de las Moreras, on the riverwalk.
