Gloria (meaning ''glory'' in

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

) is a

central heating A central heating system provides warmth to a number of spaces within a building from one main source of heat. A central heating system has a Furnace (central heating), furnace that converts fuel or electricity to heat through processes. The he ...

system used in Castile, beginning in the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

. It is a direct descendant of the

Roman Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

hypocaust A hypocaust () is a system of central heating in a building that produces and circulates hot air below the floor of a room, and may also warm the walls with a series of pipes through which the hot air passes. This air can warm the upper floors a ...

, and its feature of regulating the rate of

combustion Combustion, or burning, is a high-temperature exothermic redox chemical reaction between a fuel (the reductant) and an oxidant, usually atmospheric oxygen, that produces oxidized, often gaseous products, in a mixture termed as smoke. Combustion ...

allows people to use smaller, cheaper materials for

fuel A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work (physics), work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chem ...

, such as

leaves A leaf (: leaves) is a principal appendage of the stem of a vascular plant, usually borne laterally above ground and specialized for photosynthesis. Leaves are collectively called foliage, as in "autumn foliage", while the leaves, stem, ...

hay Hay is grass, legumes, or other herbaceous plants that have been cut and dried to be stored for use as animal fodder, either for large grazing animals raised as livestock, such as cattle, horses, goats, and sheep, or for smaller domesticate ...

, or

twig A twig is a thin, often short, branch of a tree or Bush (plant), bush. The buds on the twig are an important diagnostic characteristic, as are the abscission scars where the leaves have fallen away. The color, texture, and patterning of the t ...

s, instead of

wood Wood is a structural tissue/material found as xylem in the stems and roots of trees and other woody plants. It is an organic materiala natural composite of cellulosic fibers that are strong in tension and embedded in a matrix of lignin t ...

Description

The gloria consists of a firebox, generally located outside (in a

courtyard A courtyard or court is a circumscribed area, often surrounded by a building or complex, that is open to the sky. Courtyards are common elements in both Western and Eastern building patterns and have been used by both ancient and contemporary a ...

, for example), which burns the fuel, and one or more ducts which run under the floors of the rooms to be heated. The warm exhaust gases from the combustion pass through these ducts and then are released outside through a vertical flue. Historically, glorias used pine needles for fuel and pine cones for kindling, in both cases using what would otherwise be waste material, saving firewood for cooking and

smithing A metalsmith or simply smith is a craftsperson fashioning useful items (for example, tools, kitchenware, tableware, jewelry, armor and weapons) out of various metals. Smithing is one of the oldest metalworking occupations. Shaping metal with a ...

, as well as hay and

silage Silage is fodder made from green foliage crops which have been preserved by fermentation (food), fermentation to the point of souring. It is fed to cattle, sheep and other ruminants. The fermentation and storage process is called ''ensilage'', ' ...

for animal fodder. The rate of combustion (and therefore the heat output) can be regulated by restricting the airflow into the firebox. Moreover, the air required for combustion does not have to pass through the interior of the building, which reduces cold drafts. Finally, because the firebox is not open to the interior, there is no risk of filling the interior with smoke. An additional benefit lies in the ability to cool the building by opening the structure without firing it. The gloria continues to be used in the

Meseta Central The ''Meseta Central'' (, sometimes referred to in English as Inner Plateau) is one of the basic geographical units of the Iberian Peninsula. It consists of a plateau covering a large part of the latter's interior. Developed during the 19th cent ...

, especially in

Castile and León Castile and León is an Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community in northwestern Spain. Castile and León is the largest autonomous community in Spain by area, covering 94,222 km2. It is, however, sparsely populated, with a pop ...

.{{Cite web , last=Agencia Atlas , date=29 January 2017 , title=Una alternativa para ahorrar luz que aún se utiliza en muchos lugares de Castilla y Leon son las glorias , trans-title=An Alternative to Save Electricity Which Is Still Used in Many Places in Castile and Leon Is the Gloria , url=https://www.publico.es/videos/600028/una-alternativa-para-ahorrar-luz-que-aun-se-utiliza-en-muchos-lugares-de-castilla-y-leon-son-las-glorias , url-status=live , archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240330231653/https://www.publico.es/videos/600028/una-alternativa-para-ahorrar-luz-que-aun-se-utiliza-en-muchos-lugares-de-castilla-y-leon-son-las-gloriashttps://web.archive.org/web/20240330231653/https://www.publico.es/videos/600028/una-alternativa-para-ahorrar-luz-que-aun-se-utiliza-en-muchos-lugares-de-castilla-y-leon-son-las-glorias , archive-date=30 March 2024 , website=Público , language=es The modern equivalent of the gloria would be

underfloor heating Underfloor heating and cooling is a form of Heating, ventilation, and air conditioning, central heating and cooling that achieves indoor climate control for thermal comfort using hydronics, hydronic or electrical heating elements embedded in a fl ...

using piped hot water under the floor to heat rooms.

References

Heating

Description

See also

References