Snow and blizzards
The Camino de los Pilones was an ancient itinerary that ran through mountain areas where adverse weather conditions such as snowstorms, thick fog and blizzards were common. To avoid straying and to guide hikers and horses, this bridle path was probably signposted between the middle of the 18th century and the beginning of the 19th century.
The dangers of snow
One of the events that promoted the beginning of the construction of stone pylons on the roads to mark the route and allow the orientation of the walkers took place in 1585. King Philip II was traveling with his family and his retinue along the wheeled road between Madrid and Zaragoza when they were surprised by a heavy snowfall that covered the view of the road and, seeing themselves lost in the middle of the storm, their lives were in great danger. A year after this event, the monarch dictated a pragmatic that said: “We order and command, that those of our Council provide and give order as pillars are placed in the ports to mark the roads, because of the dangers that in times of snow incur those who walk on them, for not being marked”.
The first signage
The obligation to have posts or pillars in the ports was recalled by Thomas Manuel Fernández de Mesa in his treatise on public roads and inns of 1755: “we also have determined by Law of Spain, that pillars be placed in the ports, to mark the roads, because of the dangers that in time of snow incur those who walk along them, for not being marked: which is reason to be observed in all”.
For his part, engineer Espinosa published in 1855 a treatise on road layout, construction and conservation, and proposed that “the posts or guides for sites exposed to heavy snowfalls should be solid, but at very little cost; it is enough to place rough ashlar pillars at the points where they abound, masonry prisms, wooden posts or debarked tree trunks”.
Screens for snowdrifts in the Cabrillas pass
(La Iglesuela del Cid).
Stone pylons between Teruel and Iglesuela del cid
The possible origin of the pylons of this old road can be found in the 18th century, a time when communications in Spain were rationalized and improved. With the arrival of Philip V to power, a centralist policy was initiated in which mandates of Castilian legislation were implemented in Aragonese territory.
There are more or less similar pylons on the N-623 road (Portillo del Fresno, Burgos) and on the CL-629 (La Mazorra, Burgos), which survive on the margins of the road. These pillars were placed in areas lacking large reliefs that could serve as a reference for the traveler and, sometimes, in the small changes of gradient. There were also in the high areas of some important passes.
Those of Burgos are associated with current roads, heirs of ancient roads. However, in the province of Teruel there are almost 200 masonry pillars (here called pylons) in several sections of this road, which more than a road in the strict sense, corresponded to the itinerary followed by muleteers, traders and ranchers for trade between the highlands of Cuenca and Teruel with the Mediterranean, crossing the Maestrazgo.
Currently there are series of these pylons in Corbalán (Cabigordo pass, which reaches an altitude of 1,600 m), in El Pobo, on the old road between Allepuz and Villarroya de los Pinares, in the section from Fortanete to La Iglesuela del Cid (Partida de la Nava and loma del Pinar) and in the Cabrillas pass, between La Iglesuela del Cid and Portell de Morella (Castellón).
Despite the distance between the sections of the Teruel – Morella route that have pylons (there are more than 97 km between Corbalán and Portell de Morella), their characteristics are similar. They usually have a base of 60 cm in height and 86 cm in diameter; a shaft of 1.50 m in height and 76 cm in diameter and a top of 40 cm in height and 83 cm in diameter. In total, they reach 2.50 m in height.
Pajares Pass (Burgos). Wikipedia.
Evolution of snow signaling
The stone pillars continued to be the guiding landmarks of some roads and highways until the first third of the 20th century.
The Road Instruction of 1939 established for the first time how the “posts for snow regions” should be, whose purpose is to avoid that “when there are large layers of snow on the surface of a road, the track of this one is lost”. The instruction described what they were to look like and how they were to be placed. Broadly speaking, they were truncated pyramidal poles of reinforced concrete, two to three meters high and with a square section. Today, posts of this type can be seen in some important ports of the road network, such as El Escudo and Pajares (Bugos) and San Glorio (Cantabria).
During the 1960s, simpler metallic posts began to be installed, albeit without a common design in terms of size, color or layout.
Between 2007 and 2011, a technical commission worked on the development of Recommendations for the marking of road markings, although the regulatory vacuum continues. In these Recommendations, there is a chapter dedicated to markers for winter road maintenance. The marker was defined as a cylindrical post equipped with yellow and red horizontal retro-reflective stripes.
Snow markers, on many stretches of mountain roads, are much more than a signpost. They are milestones of life, just as stone pillars were in the past.
Snowdrifts
One of the biggest problems in winter for the transit of people and vehicles on roads and highways is the formation of snowdrifts. These are formed due to the wind produced during snowfalls, causing the accumulation of snow at points on the road where it is impossible to travel.
The pylons of this road are one of the oldest landmarks that we know of in the territory to avoid, among other problems, the loss of vision of the road due to snowfall, but they did not prevent the accumulation of snow on the road. For this reason, over the years, elements have been used to combat this problem at high points, as in the case of the Cabrillas pass.
Screens have traditionally been the solution to avoid the presence of snowdrifts on roads. They are artificial obstacles, placed at a certain distance from the road, so that the inevitable snowdrift forms on them and not on the road. Probably, the first screens were placed in the first half of the 19th century.
Bibliography
CASAS NAGORE, Carlos. “Camineros, de la senda a la autovía. Roads of Teruel”. Instituto de Estudios Turolenses, 2021.
SANCHÍS ALFONSO, José Ramón. “El Camino de los Pilones: Una antigua vía de comunicación con carácter propio por tierras turolenses.” Baylías, Miscelánea del CEMAT, nº 5, Year 2008, ed. CEMAT, Teruel, 2009. Link to the article: chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://cematmaestrazgo.com/wp-content/uploads/Baylias-5.pdf
recommendations for visits
Teruel Road Museum: https://www.transportes.gob.es/ministerio/exposiciones-y-museos/museo-teruel
Links of interest
Blog “Historias de carreteras”, by Carlos Casas Nagore: https://historiasdecarreteras.com/