| In our continuing project to present the history and heritage of San Miguel de Salinas we are delighted to publish this article on The Gran Casas of San Miguel de Salinas – researched and written by Pedro the Fisherman with the invaluable assistance from our Municipal Librarian Graciela Conesa. Lago Jardin, Los Balcones | Lo Meca | Las Zahurdas | El Carmen | La Marquesa | Lo Balaguer | Lo Quesada | San Gines |
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something particular TRY 'Ctrl F' as there may be several references. Pedro writes: The fact is that none of these eight great Casas and Fincas are in the village of San Miguel de Salinas; they are all on the outskirts of the pueblo. The great earthquake of 1829 destroyed most of the pueblo’s old buildings with the exception of the church. But, as you will read, these places all have a great story to tell; one is on the canal road towards Villamartin; another was once on the road towards Campoamor; two are towards Rebate; two more are on the road towards Bigastro, one is towards Los Montesinos and the first is on the road to Torrevieja at Los Balcones. This is an old picture of The Gran Casa Dehesa de Campoamor, courtesy of Corrina. Its estate and lands play a significant role within the history of San Miguel de Salinas and we will be featuring more information soon. |
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La Casa Antigua at Lago Jardin, Los Balcones. This beautiful house, now shamefully neglected and covered in graffiti, isn’t strictly in San Miguel, but you must have driven past it many times on your way through Los Balcones to Torrevieja. The old house was built in the mid-19th century, while the tower was added later. The wealthy Linares family who owned the estate built the mansion to use only as a summer residence, but the farm was a working one, with many workers and animals. The Linares were strict Christians, so always brought a priest with them on holiday to celebrate mass. They built a house for the priest and the very pretty chapel with a palm and pine pathway leading from it to the house. The chapel had marble floors and a marvellous altar piece made from fine wood. Behind the altar was a vestry where the priest changed into his robes. Several members of the Linares family, and their workforce, were married and had their first communion there. |
| La Casa Antigua had many rooms. In one of the drawing rooms, the rules of the house were written and framed as in a picture, including one which said 'everyone can do as he likes in this house as long as he does not upset others' (meant specifically for the children). The ground floor had a drawing room, four bedrooms, a bathroom, a library and even a dark room to develop photographs. Upstairs, there was a dining room for up to 30 people, two more drawing rooms (one with a billiard table and a gramophone), two bedrooms and a kitchen. Behind the wood panelling of the billiard room, a secret spiral staircase led to the Tower - La Torreta. The tower had a glazed-in room from which the owners could oversee the channelling of rain water, observe wild animals to be hunted, or just enjoy the of wonderful views of the sea and countryside. The house had four terraces, marvellous gardens and many balconies, from which Los Balcones gets its name. There was a marble staircase joining the two floors, and a garage big enough for five carriages. The house didn’t have electricity but all the rooms were equipped with carbide lamps, and all the bedrooms had battery operated bells. Water came from a large well which had a capacity of 70,000 cantaras (jugfulls or pitchers). The house also had a large wine cellar and an oil press. Here wine and oil were also made from the harvest of many other local estates such as La Rambla, Cuera Lara and La Coronelita which the Linares also owned. There was once a brilliant idea of turning the Casa Antigua into a health centre for rheumatic and cardio-vascular conditions, but the Harley Street doctor behind the idea fell out with the builder over delays in renovating the house. In 1991, it was decided to open the chapel for the use of Lago Jardin residents, and after complete renovation and refurnishing by volunteers on Lago Jardin it once again became a place of worship. Today there are regular services and it is available to all religions. Alas this Gran Casa, despite being declared a 'Monumento Artistico y Patrimonio de la Provincia' (a protected building) is now in ruins. It is thought to be owned by the developer of Urbanisation Lago Sol. Acknowledgements - We would like to thank Peter Knott and John Felix. It was Peter who compiled the original information about La Casa Antigua in 1991. He was one of the first residents at Lago Jardin 1 and now lives in the UK. The artist's impression of how La Casa Antigua at Lago Jardin, Los Balcones looked in its hay day was painted by John Felix and elderly Spanish living in the neighbourhood remark on its accuracy. Thanks also to Roger Clark, resident of San Miguel de Salinas, for helping us to include this worthy addition to Pedro the Fisherman's Gran Casas. | |
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Lo Meca If you drive along the Orihuela road, 3 kms out of San Miguel, past the petrol station and the Torremendo turn, on your left you will see a huge old house high amongst the orange groves. It’s not known how it came by its name, but Lo Meca, one of the biggest houses in the district, has its origins in the 13th century. A great central patio is surrounded by a bodega, an oil mill and stables for the animals. There are two floors to the house, a lower one for the servants, and a much more luxurious and highly decorated one for the gentry who owned the house. It has been painted to preserve the original colours. The oil mill has three presses to crush the olives, the biggest and most important mill in the area. Five vats collect the oil, each two and a half metres high and two metres wide. In the past, carobs, almonds, wheat and other cereals were also harvested to fill the family coffers. |
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When the price of wheat was low at auction, it was stored in a large loft at the top of the house, reached by a narrow staircase. The dozens of beams that support the tiled roof are still in perfect condition. Little semi-circular windows in the loft allowed the wheat to breathe and stay cool. Horses and cattle were kept in the stables, in the upper part of which there was a pigeon loft. A third part of the house made money for the family in a different way. It was let out to travelling shepherds to stay. In times of war, Lo Meca has been used as a makeshift hospital. It makes a perfect fortified building. It has plenty of holes in its high walls from which to shoot under cover. And its plentiful supplies of food and drink make it ideal for a long siege. It has great wooden doors which were hidden behind branches and firewood, a high terrace from which to survey the surrounding countryside, even a bell to warn farm workers when they were in danger. There is still an ingenious peephole in the first floor from which the owners could see who was calling at the front door. Even though Lo Meca has plenty of hiding holes in its walls to secrete money, the house has been robbed and plundered many times in it long history, particularly for its antique furniture. The most recent raid was in 1996 when a crane was driven up to the house to take an enormously heavy antique stone sink away! The present owner, Senora Donna Ines keeps this beautiful house in a perfect state – as a delightful architectural and historical jewel for future generations of San Migueleros to treasure. |
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Las Zahurdas This old finca, owned by the Ortuño Saez Family, is just to the south of San Miguel, the first farm on your right on the canal road going towards Villamartin, below the Balcon de la Costa Blanca urbanisation. Las Zahurdas takes its name from the Arab word for a piggery. The present finca is some 200 years old, but both Roman coins and cooking vessels dating from the 11th century, discovered while farming, suggest a much earlier settlement. It has, apart from living rooms and stables, a well, and the remains of a kiln for making bricks and tiles. Until 1960 or so, the finca had full-time farm workers, with temporary ones hired for harvest times. Since then, they’ve just used temporary workers when needed and farm machinery. |
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In olden times, they grew and harvested carobs, almonds, olives, grapes, cereals and beans. Now the land has largely dried up, as has an old local industry - the extraction and manufacture of yeso or gypsum for plaster. In the 19th century and the first half of the 20th, gypsum was quarried in many places around San Miguel including Las Zahurdas. The gypsum was crushed and heated in the now ruined oven to 150 degrees C to dry it out for bagging. Builders would mix it with water later to make plaster. The industry employed many ‘yeseros’ from San Miguel and the surrounding area. It was unhealthy work, due to the fumes the men breathed in during the processs. As an industry it has died out because builders everywhere in Spain now largely use cement instead of plaster.Another industry carried on at the finca was the manufacture of bowls, baskets, shoes and rope from esparto grass. Esparto grass grew in abundance around the village. In fact, many of the caves in the village housed migrant esparto harvesters. If you call in at the workshop of Francisco Navarrete in Calle Sorollo, San Miguel (near the market just up from the perfumería) you’ll meet a delightful old man who once worked at Las Zahurdas, and still plaits all manner of articles from esparto grass for sale. In the old days, the rope from esparto was used to tie up wheat sheaves, bundles of firewood and the reeds and canes that formed ceilings. In the second half of the 19th century, the finca also produced bricks and tiles in the oven that was built by D. Joaquin Ortuno Lorente who lived at Las Zahurdas from 1845-1924. They must have been very busy during the years after the 1829 earthquake rebuilding San Miguel and other villages such as Torremendo where the owners had many relatives. Old rounded clay tiles and bricks have been found there in the remains of the oven. There is no bodega at Las Zahurdas – the grapes are sold before they’re ripe to the big wineries. Likewise there is no oil-press because there are no longer any olives. There is a legend attached to Las Zahurdas that the Moors buried treasure somewhere on the finca, but as yet, not for want of trying, nobody has found any! |
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El Carmen This beautiful hacienda and hermitage was once amongst the orange groves on your right as you drive along the Orihuela road towards Bigastro. (You need to turn right for Los Montesinos, and take a back road through the oranges to find it.) The Carmelite nuns of Orihuela had the original hermitage built in 1731 (from whom the finca took its name). A hacienda or farmhouse was later built alongside it in 1750. Two or three families lived in the farmhouse. They did all the farmwork, supplying the hermitage with food whilst the nuns went about their religious duties. The farm grew wheat, oats, beans and bred cattle,sheep and chickens. There were oil presses to press the olives, a granary for the wheat and a bodega to make wine. Gradually the vines and olive trees have gone leaving almond and carob trees and cereal crops. Today, the land, as elsewhere around San Miguel, has been irrigated to grow oranges and lemons, and in winter, peppers. The original hermitage had a beautiful high choir and three chapels with altar-pieces. It also had a transept, a pulpit, a confessional and a niche in which was worshipped the image of Our Lady of Carmen who was a solace for all the workers on the estate. The farm at El Carmen served the nuns until 1768. All we know about the intervening years is that the well-off owner in 1832-33, Luis Huertas, had a number of fights with the Orihuela diocese. They wanted to impose taxes on him. Eventually he was attacked by disguised government agents who, we’re told, robbed and killed him. The old hermitage has now been abandoned and is in ruins, but a new one has been built using the foundations and stones from the old one. Today, there are lovely gardens around the hermitage, and the old bodega has been carefully restored. |
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La Marquesa The hacienda of La Marquesa, in the village of that name, just outside San Miguel towards Los Montesinos, is one of the oldest in the area. It dates from the first decades of the 17th century, although it has a mention in a document of the 16th. We know for sure that it was one of the fincas that the Marquesa de Rafal., Dona Manuela de Valenzuela left to the Jesuits of Orihuela in 1695, amongst various other properties in the area. An expert historian of the district, Adolfo Claravana, says the Jesuits were the landlords of La Marquesa until 1766, when the order was dissolved, and the property put up for sale. There were then two houses, one for living in, the other for farm work, as well as a guest-house and various offices, all well looked after, as was the land and its cultivation. The Jesuits couldn’t get the price they wanted for the estate, so it was put up for public auction in 1769. The property comprised 1376 tahullas of land (of which 650 were in Almoradi, and 526 in Orihuela), planted with olive trees, vines and other trees, with a large stretch of land sown with cereal crops. There was a large house, a guest-house, stables, a store, a church and five small houses. |
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In the first half of the 19th century, ‘La Marquesa’ belonged to D.Carlos Melo de Portugal, Marquis of Vellisca. He died in 1858, but prior to his death, he had sold the property to D. Mariano Iborra Martinez and his wife, Josefina Juevi Sevisque, both of
Valencia. Several years after, the couple sold ‘La Marquesa’ to D. Bias Reig Gonzalez de Villaventin and his wife of Orihuela for the sum of 340,000 reales. In 1867, Blas Reig mortgaged part of the finca in favour of Lorenzo Fernandes de la
Lomera and sold 74 tahullas to Juan Jose Roca de Togores y Perpinan and his wife, a
native of Orihuela but living in Madrid, for the sum of 2990 escudos.
The lands of La Marquesa were much greater in the 16th and 17th centuries than in the 19th, stretching almost to Rojalas, and including all of present-day Los Montesinos. For reasons we don’t know, the very same day Roca de Togores bought the 74 tahullas, he sold them back to Reig for the same price!
Blas Reig died in 1874, leaving money in his will to his servants and ‘La Marquesa’ to his wife Dolores Perez Cabrero Pastor. She died at the start of the 20th century leaving no children, and no heirs, but she did appoint her brother Juan Luis Perez Cabrero Pastor, a retired military man in Orihuela, as her executor.
In 1909, ‘La Marquesa’ passed into the ownership of her nephew, Jose Perez Cabrero Castillo. He died in 1947, leaving as heirs his only son, Juan Luis Perez Cabrero Brotons , married to Filomena Murcia Galvez. In 1992, he in turn died, a widower, leaving four sons to whom ‘La Marquesa’ belongs today. Ownership is shared between the Perez Cabreros and the Ballesteros. In the principle house of the finca there is preserved an old olive press that could still be used today. If you visited the house today, you would find an ancient ruined bodega and a small stone altar featuring the Virgin of Lourdes. You can also see the house of the famous Mona de la Marquesa who sadly died from indigestion after eating potatoes. Around the house, you will find beautiful gardens with large palm and pine trees. At the back of the finca is the Plaza del Generalisimo, pictured, where you will see the hermitage. |
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Lo Balaguer Out towards Torremendo lies another great finca, Lo Balaguer. The best way to reach it is to take the canal road from the Market Street roundabout until you reach the Old Torremendo road. Follow it between two brick pump houses, and turn up left at the next T junction. A track will take you to the archway of the finca. Today the finca has 67 hectares of land, but in the beginning in the 17th century, it had 165, devoted to vines and olives for olive oil. These days, it grows almonds, oranges and lemons, but in the first half of the last century olive trees were the main crop, along with grain and carob beans for animal feed. photos of Lo Balaguer & its Chapel of San Cristobal are courtesy of Jack - SMdS - Forum Member |
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Lo Balaguer contains within its boundaries the chain of hills called Los Alcores (after an Arab word for ‘High Mountain’). There you can see the most beautiful woods in the area, with a rich flora and native fauna, including such species as badgers, genets (a kind of elongated wild cat), royal eagles, squirrels, and kestrels amongst others. Go inside the finca grounds, and on your right you meet a well, recently restored, one of several that would have existed in the past for watering the animals. Eventually you come across the farmhouse, which, according to studies carried out on the vaults, dates from the 17th century. The house has two floors, the upper one where the owner lived, which comprises a kitchen, bedrooms, a living room and a grand sitting room. Off this sitting room are two rooms once used as larders for grain which the owners stored from the harvest. From the sitting room, an internal staircase connected with the lower floor.At the front of house, there is an avenue of pines, eucalyptus trees and a great lentisco tree which, according to legend, is over 100 years old. In the avenue were two water tanks which supplied the house, the water coming from Los Alcores when it rained. A little canal brought the water from the hills. In addition there were two more water tanks away from the house that were used to water the animals. The avenue ends at the beautiful and peaceful sight of the chapel of San Cristobal, whose construction dates from around 1719. Its façade has a bell tower on each side, an entrance in Moorish style, and a rose-window built high up. Inside, the outstanding feature is an altarpiece of San Cristobal carved in wood, dating from the middle of the 17th century. On the right of it there is a canvas dedicated to San Bartolome, and on the left another depicting San Jeronimo. Both the chapel and the house are in good condition considering that they are four centuries old. Lo Balaguer has had many owners. In the beginning, it belonged to the Balaguer family (from whom the finca took its name) who were residents of Orihuela, though with Catalan roots. After them, nobody knows when, it passed into the hands of a captain in the merchant navy. At the end of the 19th century, it was bought by another citizen of Orihuela called ‘El Fundas’. He owned it until the beginning of the 20th century when it passed to its present owner D Francisco Torregrosa Tevar. The story goes that the finca was sold for 300 thousand pesetas, and was purchased for a third person (a worker on the finca) and then sold back to the present owner afterwards because there were differences between the parties during the transaction. It is said that the farm worker, when asked by his new boss what he wanted for his help in the purchase of the finca, requested a new water tank for the finca (one of those in the avenue of pines at the front of the house), something the new owner gladly provided as a present, along with a new long jacket! The finca is still owned by the same family, who until a few years ago spent every summer there. Now, the house is empty all the year, but kept in good condition in case the owners decide to live there. |
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Lo Quesada - The history of this Gran Casa de San Miguel de Salinas is currently under investigation. It is situated about 2 kilometres up the road to Rebate on the right and on a slightly raised position within the shelter of a valley. As with many of our Gran Casas it is a great disappointment to find that it is now abandoned and disintegrating whilst the owners live in a modern villa complex a few hundred yards away. One great find, however, is the carved stone family crest set in the front elevation. This will undoubtedly be of interest in our ongoing research. You might notice that there are red paint marks on the wall each side and, on the basis that all family heraldry was banned during the Franco Regime, we suggest it likely that the crest was covered and concealed. Don't we all love a mystery...well that is one of the reasons we all have an innate interest in local history, wherever we live. We are making enquiries with the owners of Lo Quesada in the hope that they will be willing to provide the answers to the history of this Gran Casa. |
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San Gines The site of the now sadly demolished Casa San Gines is on the Campoamor road on the left just before the dried-up river bed of the Rio Nacimiento. It is part of the Dehesa of Campoamor. This casa started out, because of its elevated position and two good water sources, as a watchtower for defending the coastal towns and villages from frequent sea attacks from ferocious marauding Moroccan pirates. It is thought it could even be on the site of an ancient Roman fortress. Later it enjoyed a double life as a religious house too. The hermitage of San Gines was founded around 800AD after it is said Saint Gines himself sheltered at the castle after landing at Cabo de Palos fleeing bad weather at sea.. Thereafter he became the patron of a fortified monastery and convent. It has been home in turn to Augustine Friars and Carmelite nuns. It was built in a field called Matamoros which means ‘Moor killing-field’, so called because of the many massacres of the Moors that have happened there. |
In 1407 the hermitage was sacked and in 1419, the local landowners founded the Brotherhood of San Gines, a band of knights on horseback to defend it against the frequent attacks from Moors and pirates
From 1688, the Mercedarios owned the house until the middle of the 19th century when unfortunately it was repossessed for non-payment of a mortgage! |
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| An interesting story about the casa is that in 1930 the then owner of San Gines, Don Pascual del Bano, had ordered some excavations in the grounds. To his horror, some skeletons of small children were found. Local wags said they were the result of the illicit liaisons of the monks. But they could just as easily have been the skeletons of destitute children who had been taken to the refuge of the monastery or convent and, in those days of widespread infant mortality, had died and been buried there, being the normal practice.
(picture courtesy of Corrina - Joaquín Martínez Albaladejo) |