Our heritage
of our past and a part of our present.
The stones here speak, because they are a part
of our past and a part of our present.
La Vall de Gallinera
Despoblats moriscos
Of the 21 villages or hamlets that La Vall de Gallinera came to have in mediaeval times, only eight remain inhabited today. The passage of time has erased the location of many of these hamlets, whose inhabitants were the ones who began to terrace the area, laid out roads and conditioned cultivated areas irrigated with the diversion of water from the main sources.
According to Josep Torró (2004), the appearance of so many hamlets can be explained by “the lordly pressure on the Muslims of La Vall de Gallinera, which caused the need to cultivate marginal land and produce more income".
Following the Moorish expulsion, those hamlets with the most consolidated agricultural areas were repopulated with people from Majorca.
From this Muslim and Moorish stage of La Vall de Gallinera, one can visit the remains of three of these hamlets: L’Alcúdia, Benimarsoc and La Solana de Benissili.
Despoblat de L’Alcúdia (Abandoned village of L’Alcúdia)
It appears for the first time in the census of 1369. The toponym means hillock (in Arabic, al-kúdya) and sometimes appears documented as L’Alcúdia de Gallinera. In 1535, at the time of the dismemberment of the Gallinera parish, it had 14 Moorish houses and its own church. It was depopulated after the expulsion of the Moors in 1609 and was repopulated with Majorcans by the Duke of Gandia. Finally, it was abandoned in the middle of the 19th century.
Despoblat de Benimarsoc (Abandoned village of Benimarsoc)
It appears documented for the first time in 1286. In 1535, at the time of the dismemberment of the parish of Gallinera, it had nine Moorish houses. According to Cavanilles, it was depopulated after the expulsion in 1609 and was repopulated with Majorcans by the Duke of Gandia. Finally, it was deserted in the middle of the 19th century. The opening and widening of the castle road swept away the yard and homes that remained on the other side of the road.
Despoblat de La Solana de Benissili (Abandoned village of La Solana de Benissili)
No document has been located that indicates the original name of this Muslim farmstead, so it was decided to call it La Solana de Benissili, just like the toponym of the area.
Around it, one can see several dry stone walls that make up a rainfed agricultural landscape. A well-marked path with dry stone walls, that descends from above the remains like a ramp, stands out between the terraced fields, and a blurrier secondary one that leads to a marl runoff to the west of the remains can also be seen.
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La Vall de Gallinera
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