Aragón region wants its ice houses preserved as Spanish cultural assets

Some of north-eastern area's 500 structures are remarkable for their architecture and cooling abilities

No two are alike: some look like stone igloos, others more like deep pits. Now a regional government in Spain wants some of its network of 500 ice houses officially declared as assets of cultural interest.

During Europe's mini ice age" that lasted from about 1600 to 1850, snow often fell in places that had never seen it before. The prolonged cold snap led to the widespread construction of ice houses, nowhere more so than in Aragon, which produced some extraordinary arquitectura del hielo (ice architecture) in the form of vast, stone refrigerators.