In the Archive of the Diputación de Alicante I have found documents that show the Xàbia of 1863 and aspects of the region of 1875 in which Jávea has a presence. We are going to discover these documents as they show the paths that researchers have to get to know the collections and their documentary richness.
The first of these files shows the construction of the road from Gata to the Jávea pier and its history begins on March 3, 1863. On March 17, the owners of the farms where the road was going to pass were summoned in Jávea and the expert and surveyor was appointed, who was going to measure and appraise the land, and the surveyor Juan Bautista Bernabeu Diego was chosen. On behalf of Gata, Nicolás Mª González was also appointed.
In the following days they swore to fulfill their duty as experts. For this work the road was divided into three sections. One from Gata to the border with the term of Jávea; the second runs from the edge of Gata with Jávea to Jávea and the third from Puerta del Mar to the Jávea pier.
The land to be expropriated to build such a road was valued according to its quality in three groups. The first quality ones were going to be expropriated paying a price of 392,39 reales, the 2nd ones at 285,37 reales and the 3rd ones at 111,17 reales since these amounts accommodated the disposals made in the term during the last five years. The expropriated lands were sometimes an entire farm and in others a piece of it, which sometimes included a building, which in the case of Jávea were almost non-existent while in Gata they did have some, although they were small, possibly small sheds for leave some tool or to put the cavalry in the shade.
Another interesting fact is that while in Jávea the land, in general, is indicated as 3rd quality and some of 2nd; In Gata, it happens that most of the land is classified as 1st quality. The land located in Gata, according to information that has come to me, is usually white soil that accumulates more moisture, which is why they are classified as 1st, while those in Jávea are usually mostly dry land. It also happened that the type of cultivation in
Jávea was mainly: vineyards, trees, sown, but in Gata a new concept appears, such as 'bread to take', which we assimilate to sown, since in the report he makes on this assignment he speaks of 'seeding', but with this denomination seems to allude to the fact that everything that was necessary for the house was grown on the land, from cereals to vegetables and some fruit-tree for family use; of bread to take home.
The number of owners who had expropriations for this construction were: From Gata to the border with Jávea 94; from the border with Gata to the town of Jávea 101; and from Jávea to the pier, 24 owners. As an example of how damages are compensated, we indicate that farm No. 16 that belongs to Miguel Bañuls Sapena and that goes from Jávea to Gata has a "sequero" (sic) of raisins that has been rendered useless by what is calculated damages at 2.173,40 reais.
Well, all this documentation is published in my Anales de Xàbia-Jávea 1850-1873, but to compare the data, it turns out that the expropriation documents are sewn and having the data sheets on the front and on the back, it turns out that the data that appear in the last column on the back of the sheets, sometimes in the digitization carried out they were not well appreciated, so I made a visit to the Provincial Archives with my wife to complete the last column; I read the aforementioned column handling the specifications and she completed the data in the tables that I had built for that purpose. That day in June 2019, after working on the archive, we went to eat at a restaurant on the beach and in the afternoon to see the exhibition "Iran, Cradle of Civilizations" at the MARC in Alicante.
Isber Swamp
The other investigation that I saw fit to carry out was to consult the report made by D. Toribio Iscar Sáez in 1875 on the Project for a swamp in the Strait of Isber to irrigate the plains of the marquisate of Denia. Antonio Catalá had written on February 2 of that year: “The country, as a dry land, needs water to improve its agriculture and the Isber reservoir can meet this need. The intelligent people who have seen that
basin consider it as a work of nature made on purpose for a large water reservoir. In my opinion and that of the public, it is highly convenient to carry out the aforementioned swamp project.” This Reservoir was designed to supply, due to its location, the towns that are in the territory of the Girona River, but it could also benefit those on the other side of the Sagaria, such as Denia, Jávea, Gata, Pedreguer...
The arguments that the engineer Toribio indicates to justify these constructions are curious, such as the following that causes a certain smile: "Even culture is greater in irrigated countries than in dry land: more honest customs, more sociable and intelligent man, the most virtuous woman, the most humane instincts, entertainment without any character of cruelty, civilization, in short, a century ahead. That not in vain the source and the tree; the constant and lush vegetables of an exuberant vegetation, the abundance of healthy cattle, constitute for the farmer and his family a flattering and laborious life as well as comfortable and comfortable... Spain, moderately cultivated, without so much wealth going to the sea, could maintain sixty million inhabitants, four times as many as today, in general, barely eat meat and only vegetables, they are not of the best digestive quality.”
He continued “Alicante is reputed to be the province most in need of water in Spain, because the rains are so scarce…”
Well, there are a series of facts that contradict each other, such as the presence of the first attacks of phylloxera from 1890, "Phylloxera vastatrix (Planchon)", or also known under the name of Daktulosphaira vitifoliae (Fitch), a plague that caused that the plantations dedicated to the vine were infected, which forced and stimulated the farmers to look for another alternative to the majority monoculture of the vine, causing a progressive change to other crops, some of them being dependent on irrigation, highlighting the cultivation of the orange. And on the other hand in 1895 the writer, Julio de Vargas, expresses the little interest that Dénia has in this project saying: “Dénia has not shown the same interest until now, on the contrary; It has not considered irrigation necessary for its land dedicated to the cultivation of vines, and has not wanted to commit any capital to the business, nor even subscribe to the reception of the waters, in the event that the channeling of those from the Pantano reaches be a reality.”
This work was published in Anales de Xàbia-Jávea 1873 to 1885. I believe that these two investigations can be consulted in the Archive and worked on by those who study Architecture or Public Engineering, because they can be, I believe, a model of a way of working from which some lessons can always be obtained. Both contain blueprints that will delight investigators, but for this you have to sit down and take lots of notes.
This latest investigation led my wife and me to take a short tour of the Rectory area and visit Carlos Cardona Doménech in Sagra, who has documented the work carried out in the Pantano and written interesting studies on the Rectory and on Sagra. It was a visit with an exchange of publications and research in which we got to know him personally and we were happy about it, setting an example that he does more what he wants than what he can.
We are grateful for the effort and work carried out by Juan B. Codina and his enthusiasm for contributing his truly curious and interesting findings.
As always, Mr. Codina's article is very interesting. We must thank these scholars "bookworms" for their dedication and patience, since the time and effort they put in is used to bring to light many data that are unknown to us. Especially in these times, when History and Culture in general are so poorly valued.