The Coves and the Vila Vella
Cave house locksmith in Crevillente, for doors set into the hillside
Crevillent has a kind of house almost no other town has: rooms dug into the slopes of its ravines behind a single built front. Their doors, and the old doors of the Vila Vella below them, are what this page is about.
Open 24 hours · 7 days
- Old locks kept where possible
- Walked in where the van cannot go
- Price agreed before work starts
In one line: the front of a cave house is a built wall with an ordinary door in it, so the door opens the way any door does; what differs is the lock you may find in it, the street that leads to it, and the choices when a cave is being restored.
Local knowledge
How Crevillent came to live inside its hills
After 1609 the town lost more than half its people; through the 18th century it grew again, to about 8,100 by 1794, and the small old core could not hold them. So people dug homes into the slopes of the ravines round the town. There were about 500 caves at the end of that century, 1,056 in 1887, and still some 900 in the 1960s and 70s, close to a third of every home in Crevillent. They form the town’s edge on the north and much of the east and west.
An architectural study of them names two features that set them apart from caves elsewhere: skylights cut up through the hill, and weaving rooms, a trace of the carpet trade that made the town. The cave district had its own special plan in 1986, and its street works have gone on in phases ever since, still unfinished because of the size of the area.
The work
Lock work on a front set into the hillside
Opening the door
Done as on any house: through the latch or the cylinder first, and the drill only with your agreement. If you are shut out right now, that is the emergency call-out; the methods are on the door opening page.
Old locks
Whatever is in the door is looked at before anything is suggested: an old mortice lock with a big key, a rim lock screwed to the inside face, a cylinder fitted later. Old locks are repaired where they can be, or a modern lock is added alongside so the old one can stay. Cylinder, mortice and multipoint work is described in full on its own page.
Restorations
The town itself is restoring a cave beside the Parc Nou house-museum. When a cave is restored as a home, the new front door and its frame decide which locks will fit, so it is worth talking about locks before the door is ordered.
A safe inside a cave
Fixing a safe into an excavated wall is not the same as bolting it to brick. What to weigh up before fixing a safe in a cave, and safe opening and fitting.
Getting there
The Vila Vella, the Calvari and streets the van cannot climb
The Vila Vella is laid out on the plan of the Islamic town, with narrow, winding streets; the Calvari slope above it is the route of the Good Friday procession. In the cave district some streets are steep and some are still being finished. The van stops where it can and the last part is on foot.
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Say the street and the nearest square
Or the point where a car can still get through.
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Send a pin from the door
In the Coves it is quicker than any description.
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Add a photo of the lock
It tells us which tools to carry up the hill.
Not in the old town? The settlements and the neighbouring towns are on the page of places we reach. Planning a restoration and want to talk locks first? Write or ring, and read what sits behind the front door of a cave house.
Questions
Asked by people who live in the Coves
Is a cave house door any harder to open than a flat door?
The door itself, no: it hangs in a built front wall like any other. What takes thought is the lock that happens to be in it, sometimes an old mortice lock, and reaching the house on a steep street.
We are restoring a cave. When should the locks be thought about?
Before the new door is ordered. The thickness of the door and how it is framed into the front wall decide which locks will fit, and changing that afterwards costs more than planning it.
Can the old lock on our door be kept for its looks?
Often. An old mortice lock can usually be cleaned and repaired, and if it is no longer secure enough on its own, a modern lock can be added beside it rather than in its place.
The van cannot get up our street. Is that a problem?
No. It stops as close as it can and the locksmith walks up with the tools. Say the nearest point a car can reach, or send a pin from the door.
Next, often
Other work on old houses
Guides that send readers here
Send a photo of your door
The door, the lock and the street in front of it. We will tell you what can be done and how we will get there.