San Sebastian, Spain

From the Basques, we found out two kinds of local architecture, on the Guipuzcoa region the Casa-torre or Tower-house in english, and for the vizcaya region the caserío or baserri on euskera.

Tower-house:

This kind of architecture was born due to a bellicose past, they were prepared as a defensive and protective constructions for their users. On the 1200 the province of Guipúzoca integrates to Castilla there were some of this buildings on the zone of Aitzorroz, Elosúa and Ataún, which were used for self defense and unfortunately they do not exist anymore. On the XIII, XIV and XV centuries, between the euskara land there were a series of disputes and fights among the lineages, starting the war of gamboínos and oñacinos. So at that time, the Tower-houses were on the apogee.
Characteristics:
Plan: Square or rectangular
Walls: Ashlar worked masonry, thickness of 1 meter or more on the base decreasing gradually as going to the top.
Details: Arcs, lintels and jambs on the cavities
Height: Inferior according to the perimeter
Roof: Hipped
Structure: Wood beams
Fire resistant: Very low
Illumination: Zenithal/overhead light