Hotel Tossal d'Altea en GPS
The Hotel Tossal d’Altea was created by restoring and enlarging an old Altean farmhouse that was built over 300 years ago. The farmhouse was originally dedicated to the exploitation of vineyards but it was later converted into an olive oil mill to manage a plantation of olive trees, carob trees and almond trees.
The estate and its installations were then run by the Guillem family for the production of olive oil. At that time these estates played a key role in the agricultural economy of the region.
After the olives had been harvested, they were crushed by a cylindrical stone mill which was turned by an animal linked to a beam, and then pressed by the beam. Prior to crushing the olives had been washed in hot water and placed between grass baskets. The liquid produced by the pressing ran along a drain to a tank called a separator. Here the oil and wastewater (a residual dark liquid) were separated from one another by a simple procedure. The oil was then fed into decanting vats which were either buried or semi-buried in the ground on either side of the beam, or stored in a nearby room. The vats had to be large enough to store the whole of the annual harvest until it was distributed to the buyers.
With the passage of time and lack of use the building had fallen into a sad state of repair, and needed to be completely restored. Our idea was to convert it into a hotel which would retain some of the most typical distinguishing features of an olive oil mill. For this reason the middle of the main dining room has a roller mill with its typical cylindrical stone mill and two restored presses as a symbol of the tools which were used by our ancestors. In this way tradition and modern life go hand in hand.
After over 30 months of building and renovation work, and having completed all the pre-opening preparations, the Hotel Tossal d’Altea was inaugurated on 8 June, 2007, amid great expectations.
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