"Chimneys in Spain and Northern Italy" Topic

A lot of model buildings for the Peninsular and Northern Italy don't have chimneys. Is this a correct depicction of the real things?
Regarding the time around 1800- how did those people heat their homes in colder periods?
As a modeler – should one add chimneys to models? What material – stones or bricks – should be simulated?

Thanks for any clues!

Now this is just a guess but perhaps they just have smoke holes or an internal chimney that doesn't protrude- the long chimneys found in Northern europe are at least in part to keep sparks away from the thatch – no need with a pan-tiled roof

Now I never knew that……….fascinating

Seriously! Not sure I ever even noticed the difference, but now you mention it…..

It is commonplace for Mediterranean houses to have chimneys. Not having one is just something you can get away with if you don't mind. There's an episode in the Inspector Montalbano series set in Sicily that centres around papers burnt in a fireplace with a proper chimney. The artist of this depiction of Vitoria-Gasteiz in the 17th century has been careful to give the houses chimneys in his illustration.

PP have produced a mould of chimneys to go with Spanish houses. We use these for our SCW scenery. Some scenery manufacturers omit/limit chimneys in order to make the resin casting more successful.

Even my 3mm Spanish buildings have chimneys:

link

One random thought: fires were needed year-round for cooking way back when. An indoor fire in the summer would make a house pretty uncomfortable in Southern Europe, I wonder if they cooked outside a lot?

Yes; hence summer kitchens.

In Far northern Italy, I know of at least one farmhouse that just had a hole in the roof. This was very common until chimneys became fashionable. This is based on photographic and anecdotal evidence based by a relative's visit to the ancestral homestead during the early 1970's..