Perhaps one of the most typical images associated by most people to l’Horta of Valencia is the huts. As is well known, they are simple buildings, often self-constructed, used by peasant families as living space and also to store part of their agricultural production, and were also often built on the same fields they cultivated.
Obviously, they were not the only living space that existed. Their presence alternated with the farmhouses, in some cases simple peasant houses, but sometimes real noble houses with attached agricultural and livestock buildings as well as warehouses. It is in this hierarchy that the case of the huts can best be situated, the simplest and poorest of this range and, logically, also the residence of the poorest families.
It should also be borne in mind that these have not always existed and have increased in number over the centuries. In fact, references in medieval documents are not very common. Occasionally there is mention of huts in Grau of Valencia in the 14th and 15th centuries, and also in some places in l’Horta, but clearly, they appear on fewer occasions than the reference in farmhouses or houses. Their proliferation began in the 18th  century and especially in the 19th century and first third of the 20th century, closely linked to the population growth of these two hundred years and to the change in land ownership in the 19th century. Within the framework of the Disentailment of the Church property and the sale of stately land, many small farmers could opt to buy some “fanecades” (a Valencian agrarian measurement, 1 fanecada=831,1 m2), making them not only their workspace but also their living space. The same thing happened to those who became tenants of an urban landowner. And many of them were only able to build themselves a hut as their own home.
As for its territorial location, this has not been homogeneous either over the entire Horta of Valencia and the towns that comprise it. Similarly, to the location of the farmhouses of peasant families, it is in the surroundings of the city of Valencia where they were mostly concentrated, in a circle of approximately three- or four-kilometres radius. But as the Carraixet gullies passed by in the north and the Catarroja gully in the south, their presence diminished very markedly. Not all of l’Horta of Valencia was full of huts or farmhouses.
The decline in the area of l’Horta for urban expansion has obviously affected the huts that exist today, but probably the economic improvement of their inhabitants over time, especially from the middle of the 20th century, was much more decisive. This improvement allowed them to replace the hut for a house or farmhouse made of brick and tiles, obviously much safer, more comfortable and with more space. Therefore, the decline of the huts has various causes, and among them we should also consider their greater constructive fragility. For this reason, it is not usual to mention huts that are centuries old; these buildings have been rebuilt periodically and those that have been built for us, especially the reed roof, cannot be traced back beyond the end of the 19th century. In fact, this "fragility" has also been in its inhabitants and, consequently, in the name with which a hut is known. Almost generally, they have had changing names over time, almost always using the name, surname or nickname of the family that lived there, so it is also difficult to trace them in the historical archives.