swimming pool

The term birkah, from classical Arabic, came to Hispanic Arabic as albírka. In our idiom the notion became swimming pool: a Deposit that is constructed artificially for the water storage.

It is a hydraulic work that can be developed with walls for the creation of the pond or from an excavation in the land. In general, its construction obeys the need for irrigation of certain surfaces.

In Spain, specifically in some of its most significant monuments, important pools built in previous centuries can be admired. Thus, for example, we find them in the Alcázares de los Reyes Cristianos de Córdoba. In the gardens you can discover a great variety of pools that are distributed mainly through three terraces and that are surrounded by beautiful plant species.

In the same way, it also happens in the Alhambra in Granada or in the Real Alcázar in the city of Seville, for example.

Beyond this use that was originally given to pools, over the years they began to link these plays to recreation and ornamentation. Thus the pools were integrated into the gardens.

However, to all the above, we can also add that in some corners of Spain, specifically Andalusia, the term pool is also used to refer to the pools that are built in the farmhouses. Yes, those that are created to cool off with a bath during the summer season, when temperatures are very high.

Currently, therefore, it is possible to distinguish between various types of pools. The irrigation pool It is a small deposit, usually excavated, whose purpose is to allow the irrigation of nearby lands. The leisure pool, for its part, is intended for bathing and water games: by extension to this meaning, in various regions to the swimming pools or pools are called pools.

The ornamental poolOn the other hand, it is installed in the center of a garden or patio as a decorative element. The distribution poolFinally, it is characterized by its large dimensions since its purpose is the storage of Water so that it can be used in periods of drought.

Finally, we can mention that The Záncara Pool (Castilla la Mancha) Y Pool of the Towers (Murcia) are different territorial entities of Spain.

In the province of Salamanca there is also a municipality that responds to the name of La Alberca. It belongs to the Sierra de Francia Region, has about 1,100 inhabitants and is considered to have Visigothic origin.

Although this population is small, we cannot ignore that it has a remarkable series of places of interest for tourists. Specifically, among those are its great tower, which was paid for by the Dukes of Alba; the Hermitage of San Marcos from the 18th century; the Parish Church, also from the 18th century or the Batuecas valley, which is listed as a Site of Cultural Interest.