Tronchón, as far as washing places are concerned, is an exceptional case, and it has two washing places in the town center, the Collado and the Fuente Nueva, and two others outside it, the Zafarech and the Fuente del Gallo.
Those in the town center are associated with the fountains in the village: the Collado fountain, in front of the Portal de San Migueland the Fuente Nueva, in the exit towards the hermitage of Tremedal. These two are still used by local women because they are clean and accessible.
The washing places that are outside the urban area are those of the Fuente del Zafarech and the Fuente del Gallo. The first, the Zafarech, must be a fairly old source, because its name, derived from Arabic, means pond. It is in the lower part, touching the river, so it is not visible from the village. It was restored a couple of years ago quite faithfully, preserving the hangers on which the women hung their clothes to be rinsed.
This washhouse was used to wash the clothes of the sick and deceased. With this they wanted to avoid epidemics and contagions in the population and to maintain maximum healthiness. It was quite common for this distinction to be made. If a separate laundry could not be built, the women who washed these clothes did not intermingle with the others. For this reason, they occupied the last places, so that the dirt from the clothes would not run all the way through the water, or they washed in different shifts.
The Fuente del Gallo washhouse is on the river, a little further from the village, at the confluence of three roads leading to Las Suertes de la Matilla, Las Suertes Viejas and Los Quiñones, and the corresponding farmhouses. This fountain was used as a washing place, because of the pleasant temperature of the water, since it comes out cold in summer and warm in winter, it is what in Tronchón is called an ojal, a spring of the geyser type, flowing from the ground in the form of a spout, that is why it is known as the fountain of the “rooster”. It is currently in a rather poor state of conservation, as it has a sunken roof. Its construction must date from the 19th or early 20th century.
