In 1973, the Peña Guara club acquired a dilapidated house in Nocito to build a mountain refuge in the mountains. Almost 50 years have passed and he has finally seen that dream come true, after changing the location and opting for the rehabilitation of a historic Aragonese building, Casa Lardiés. This month of August the accommodation has opened (in July it opened the hotel and restaurant services), after an investment of more than one million euros.
Casa Lardiés is the latest mountain refuge to open in the Autonomous Community. Peña Guara will manage it, although it will be incorporated into the reservation center of the Aragonese Federation of Mountaineering. Its uniqueness lies in the traditional elements of the construction: the façade, the tiled roof, the windows framed in stone, the stairs… A bread oven and a kitchen with a typical Serrablo fireplace and a cadiera have also been rehabilitated. Also the cellar with its barrels and jars.
On July 8, the partial opening of the bar and the restaurant was carried out and at the beginning of August, the accommodation, 45 beds in multiple rooms with between four and ten beds. “The entire exterior structure and many traditional elements of the interior have been maintained,” explains José Andrés Pintado, guard of the refuge, in which a team of five people trained in the Riglos shelter works.
The house, with two floors, each of 200 square meters, has also been able to take advantage of the false ones. It also has an attached corral that has been covered to build a large assembly hall that could function as a dining room for 150 people. This space will be shared by the hostel and the City Council, since it is intended to also serve for the celebration of activities in the town and the region, town festivals, neighborhood meetings or as a meeting point for sporting events.
“When customers enter they are surprised, the house catches their attention”Pintado points out. The same as the great pavilion, the new construction emerged by covering the corrals, where there was also a herb garden and a tool shed, as well as the panoramic terrace with views of the Guara peak.
The hostel, 47 kilometers from Huesca, in the peripheral area of the Guara Natural Park, will be operational 365 days a year, like those of the Aragonese Federation, with bar, restaurant and accommodation services. Located at the entrance of Nocito, this way There are hiking routes such as the GR-1, the historic path that runs through the outer mountains, the Nature Trail of La Hoya, San Úrbez or Yebra de Basa to Nocito.
The work, promoted by Peña Guara, represents an investment of 1,181,916 euros. The rehabilitation of the house as a shelter amounts to 795,055.65, paid for by the club with help from the Association for Regional Rural Development of La Hoya de Huesca (Adesho). It was possible to finish with extraordinary contributions from some 3,000 members of Peña Guara.
The multipurpose space for holding events that can be used by the City Council and by the club has involved another 386,860 euros, financed for the most part by the Diputación, and by the municipality, and has had a subsidy from the Huesca City Council.