Land Boundaries

My eldest daughter, Nikki, came out to Spain for a visit to clarify the boundaries of some land that the family owns. Recently the local authorities have taken aerial photos of the whole province, and drawn in an approximation of owners boundaries! So it is necessary for everyone to check their survey maps, and agree boundaries with their neighbours. We found that our registered documents were expressed not only in Hectares but also in archaic measurement forms! Instead of square meters, we have Fanegas, Celemin, Aranzada, Areas and Centiareas. We had no idea what their equivilances were. Thanks Goodness for Google!

The Fanega was originally an Arabic measure. It was both a dry measure of grain, like a Bushell, and also meant the area of land that can be sown with grain in a day. A Fanega of land can be about 644o square meters. I say CAN be as each province of Spain had a different amount called a Fanega ! The table we found defined an Arranzada as 4472 square meters. A Celemin as 5 Areas, 36 centiareas, 66 Decimeters. Confused enough? No wonder everyone is struggling to work out exactly what land they have!

Fire often sweep over the country. When our land was burned some years ago, the timbers of the cottage were burned and the roof fell in; leaving it a romantic ruin. Fruit trees and vineyards disappeared. Now it is all overgrown and gone back to wild nature!