The curious trapdoors in the roofs of the houses on Vilar and Rúa Nova in Santiago

[Peter Fransiscus]

A nice read
https://www.elcorreogallego.es/sant...-casas-rua-vilar-nova-santiago-103321171.html

 

[Becky 59]

Cute! I'll have to look for them the next time I'm in Santiago. (Grateful that Google Translate automatically translated the article for me)

 

[Silvermomma]

I am in Santiago now. Can someone tell me the addresses? Or the businesses where these houses are? Thank you.

 

[Bert45]

There is one here: Mirilla - a spy-hole - at 66 Rúa do Vilar. Another at 44 Rúa do Vilar.
They had the same idea in Venice.

It's a poor translation. The 'trapdoors' are not in the roofs of the houses, but in the floors of the rooms above the arcades. I'd like to know where there is another in Rúa Nova.
"These peculiar 'hatches', many of which have been eliminated, were used by the tenants of the homes to observe and listen to what was happening on the street without being seen." The people looking down would not see what was happening on the street. I believe the main function of the hatch was to see who was knocking at your door. When I was looking into the feature, I found they were called 'mirillas', which is translated by Google as 'peepholes'. 'Trapdoor' seems misleading.

 

[Gringazolana]

Sounds like the old time version of peeking through the blinds to make sure whichever neighbor you are gossiping about doesn’t happen to be standing in earshot!

 

[Camino Chrissy]

Sounds like the old time version of peeking through the blinds to make sure whichever neighbor you are gossiping about doesn’t happen to be standing in earshot!

Or peeking through the blinds to see who is ringing your doorbell before deciding to open it or not...that's what I occasionally do.