Alquerias and barracas are the most traditional type of house of l’Horta of Valencia. It represents the most typical type of agricultural house of the region. It is characterised by joining in a single space the rooms of the family and others for cultivate the land, preserve and stockpile the crops, and space for the animals and agriculture tools. In this sense, they normally represent a house of a wealthy family and opposite people who could only live and work in a barraca. We should also take into account that an alquería is a type of disperse population in the middle of cultivated land in opposition to concentrated population in towns.
When we talk about alquerias in l’Horta, we must take into account that they have not always been used as living houses nor have they remained the same through the centuries. The word alqueria comes from old Arabic and origins of l’Horta under Muslim rule: a group of houses (from 4 or 5 to 50 or 70 at the most).
After the conquest and partition of Valencia by the King James I of Aragon in the 13th century, the new Christian settlers of l’Horta started to inhabit in great numbers a few of them. As a result, larger towns were formed and most of them correspond to current towns and municipalities of l’Horta of Valencia.
Nonetheless, disperse houses did not disappear because some of them and their surrounding fields were kept as private properties of wealthy nobles, bourgeoisies and priests living in Valencia. These properties (big houses with wine cellars, granary and other rooms) were described as alquerías during the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period, whereas farmer’s simple houses were called casas or barracas. Prove of this can be found in documents of the period.
Recently, in the 19th and 20th centuries, the term alquería changed its meaning and started to describe any inhabited and isolated house built in l’Horta. This is due to the fact that most people started to live in small houses in the 1800s.
Similarly, the notorious demographical growth in the last two centuries has also contributed to the proliferation of alquerías in l’Horta. For that reason, nowadays we link any house in l’Horta to the term alquería and a certain density that was not always present. In the Middle Ages and the Modern Period, the number of alquerías was limited and l’Horta was not so populated as in the last century. This is the reason underlying the interest in knowing which are the oldest buildings and the different types of constructions and their evolution through time in order to assess those that represent a higher heritage value in our society.
