Jul 2, 2025
Introduction
📜 The heat in 17th and 18th centurySpain was a great challenge, with no air conditioning or modern technology.
Yet society responded with surprising inventiveness: from royal palaces to humble homes, people adapted as best they could. This is the story of survival strategies that became a cultural heritage.
Monarchs and power
❄️Philip V and the "royal air conditioning
Philip V implemented a snow storage system: mules transported up to 300 kg per day from the Sierra Nevada. It was stored in cork pits up to 4 metres deep, where the temperature was kept at -2 °C for three months. According to the chronicles of the Marquis of Villena, the king suffered from sinusitis, but he preferred a stuffy nose to sweating.
🚽 Isabella of Farnese and aristocratic baths
The queen spent up to four hours a day in baths of Carrara marble. The water was changed every 30 minutes and scented with orange blossom petals and fresh mint for a refreshing effect.
🥊 Diplomacy with water
The Duke of Saint-Simon described a scene where Philip V was receiving foreign ambassadors
while floating in a translucent linen robe. This type of reception surprised the guests and reflected regal eccentricity.
Architecture and palace innovations
🏩 Inner courtyards, ventilated galleries, fountains and waterfalls helped to create cool environments. The palaces managed the flow of natural air and combined it with water systems to cope with the hottest days.
Aristocratic fashion and accessories
Lightweight dresses and fine fabrics 👗: ladies preferred Chinese silks 0.3 mm thick, dyed with indigo.
Cooling bodices: with hidden compartments filled with damp moss, they cooled for two hours.
Carriages with wet velvet: used by nobles such as the Duke of Alba, although with a peculiar smell.
Windows with lemon peel: Mrs. Agnes used to decorate her windows like this to cool and keep flies away..
Rural and urban solutions
🌾 Earthenware vessels and natural cooling
The peasants placed wet ceramic jars at the windows to cool the air by evaporation.
⛺ Mobile tarpaulins
Street vendors used tarpaulins to protect themselves from the sun, working early or late at night.
"Watermelon" battles
Rich children played with watermelon chunks in the courtyards, a playful way to cool off..
👒 Straw hats
Used by workers and peasants to protect themselves from direct sunlight.
🧵 Espadrilles
Open footwear allowed ventilation of the foot during work..
Gastronomic solutions
🍼 Drinks
🍇Sangría made with Priorat wine cooled in snow for 6 hours.
Valencian Horchata with crushed ice.
Cold starters
Gazpacho served in silver cups on ice.
Salmorejo with quail eggs.
Homemade almond ice cream.
Personal
At banquets of up to 200 people, 30 servants were employed to manually operate large fans..
Historical conclusion
🔍 Even without modern technology, Spanish society in the 17th and 18th centuries was able to develop effective methods to combat the heat.
Many of these strategies are now part of the Mediterranean lifestyle. They are testimony to human creativity in the face of climate.