Usually, you would put sand down first to help create a bed for the fire, but you don’t have to do this. There is the chimenea bulb where you light the fire.

The design of a chimenea is fairly straightforward. Clay is prone to cracking from the heat of the fire with extended use, unlike many of the materials used today. This type of chimenea would not last as long as today’s modern models. The chimenea would be placed near a window (for obvious reasons) and then used in this manner.Īlso, back when they were used as indoor cooking and heating fires, they were exclusively made from clay. The different words come from the Spanish for ‘chimney.’ The design can be traced back at least 400 years, but it likely goes back even further than this.īack then, it wasn’t commonly used as an outdoor fire to create an atmosphere, but for heating and cooking indoors. See, I wasn’t even kidding about the hot dinner thing!īecause this outdoor fireplace has been used in many different regions for hundreds of years, it developed a great variety of different (but similar) names. Ok, so how do you spell or say the thing in the picture!?Ĭhimenea is the most used spelling, but there is also chiminea, chiminaya, chiminera, chimania, chimnia, chiminaia, chimea, ciminea, chimera, chininea, chiminaire, chimena, chimenia, chimneia, chiminae, chimalaya, chiminia, chimminea, chinenea, chimanea, chiminiea, chimneria, chimera, and Spanish fire pit – among others!

Chiminea fire pit