MATAVENERO. THE TRANSITION FROM ABANDONED VILLAGE TO ECOVILLAGE
A corner of El Bierzo where the wifi is patchy, but the good vibes are unlimited
Imagine an abandoned village in the middle of the mountains of El Bierzo, back in the 60s, when one fine day in the 80s a group of people with dreadlocks, tents, and a strong desire to prove that another world is possible decided to show up. Well, that’s Matavenero. A place where the wifi is patchy, but the good vibes, apparently, are unlimited.
🏚️ From ghost town to commune with charm
Matavenero became empty in the late sixties. The last residents, like so many in other villages, fed up with the problems of village life, packed their bags and left. For almost twenty years, the village was the exclusive territory of lizards, brambles, and the occasional vulture with delusions of ownership. Today we’d call that a vulture fund.
And then, in 1989, they appeared. A group of people linked to the Rainbow movement — which would be something like the environmentalist and slightly more disheveled cousin of the hippie movement — decided that pile of ruins was the perfect place to set up an ecovillage. Because nothing says “let’s build a utopia” like moving into a village with no electricity, no running water, and access from the old days — by mule track.
The first years must have been epic. Literally. Because they didn’t invent a village, but rather rehabilitated, with the means they had, the abandoned houses. And remember that in El Bierzo in winter, damp and cold are bedfellows. But here they still are, more than three decades later.
HINT: The community now has around 60 permanent residents, a figure that multiplies in summer.
🚗 Here life is lived differently (or at least that’s the idea)
In Matavenero there are no traffic jams, no rushing, and, surprisingly, no cars driving through the village either. They’re banned. So if you were planning to drive your SUV right up to your front door, forget it. You park wherever you can and walk, because that’s why you’re in the mountains.
Energy comes from solar panels, water from streams, and decisions are made in assemblies by consensus. They operate in a certain balance between private property (family property, really) and assembly-based management of the mountain and other common goods.
🍯 Living off the land (and not dying in the attempt)
The village’s economy is based on crafts, beekeeping, organic farming, and a bakery that, by all accounts, makes bread that alone justifies the hike there. They sell honey, jams, and other delicacies at nearby fairs, which is basically the rural equivalent of online shopping, but with more mud and less Amazon.
And then there are the children. More than thirty have been born in the village, which forced them to set up a “free school” with alternative methodologies.
🥾 How to get there (warning: not for the lazy)
Matavenero has no car access to the door. In fact, on our hiking getaway to El Bierzo with Asturian Ways, we’ll include our visit to Matavenero as part of one of the routes we’ll be doing. And I’ll tell you now, there’s a fair bit of walking involved…
That said, remember that Matavenero, along with the nearby village of Poibueno, is not an Indian reservation or a zoo. They’re normal people who have decided to lead an alternative way of life. They have no problem with us visiting, but as always with Asturian Ways, we’ll visit the village with the worthy respect it deserves, and with the curiosity to learn about another model of living.
🌱 Conclusion: an experiment that turned out well (against all odds)
Matavenero is living proof that you can live outside the system, with fewer things and more time, though also with more effort and fewer comforts. It’s a place that invites you to reflect on how we live and why we’re always in such a hurry, but without sermons or lectures.
Here nobody is going to tell you how you should live. They simply show you how they do it, and you decide whether to stay and help with the vegetable garden or run back to the city for your soy latte.
I’ll tell you that Matavenero isn’t alone in the middle of the earth (do you recognize the song?). In fact, there’s a small network of Iberian ecovillages with 10 more examples.
Perhaps a small group of people swimming against the current of the way the world is going won’t change things, but demonstrating that another way of life is also possible and making us reflect on our first-world luxuries is already worthwhile…
I’ll leave you some links to the Matavenero website and the Iberian ecovillage network, in case you want to dig deeper:
Remember that the visit to Matavenero is included in our GETAWAY TO EL BIERZO. If you want to know more about our routes, take a look at our hiking routes page, where we tell you about types of routes, difficulty levels…
And if you want to see what we’re scheduling and sign up for one of our hiking routes, go to the ASTURIAN WAYS CALENDAR and don’t leave it until the last minute, because we always go in very small groups and spots fill up…
