L’Horta de València has been and still is fundamentally and basically an agrarian space from the point of view of its most exclusive activity. However, from the end of the 18th century on its territory factories began to be built, in the most technical sense of the word. Work centres dedicated to a manufacturing activity organized according to a system of division of work among their workers.

The reasons for their appearance in some villages of Horta de València had to do with the economic changes at the end of 1700, with the diffusion of ideas of economic and technical progress through the thought of the Enlightenment.  But in final instance there is another reason linked deeply with l’Horta because they could access a power source for machines and save time: the current of water from the irrigation ditches, as only the mills could do until then.

The beginnings were slow and one of the best known cases is the silk fabric production factory that was installed in Vinalesa, taking advantage of the water of the Reial Séquia at Montcada to move some of the machines of the industrial centre.

With the passing of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the production in factories was spread to other towns in l'Horta, in many cases linked to textile production, such as "Molí de les Xiques" (Mill of Girls) in Silla, which was named for being an antique mill and for being a place of abundant female work around 1900 in the textile machines of the time.

Also, little by little in the early twentieth century, other important factories were built in the middle of the field, such as the Noya factory installed in Meliana and dedicated to the production of ceramics.

Obviously this is the other face of l’Horta de València, in part linked to the irrigation water, but that at the same time partially transformed the life and work of its inhabitants in passing from the field to the factory, at full time or partial time.

From a heritage point of view, some of these constructions have been protected over the years by the town halls and even they have been restored, such as the old Vinalesa factory, which has become a cultural centre. Also according to the current Heritage Law of the Valencian Government, only the smokestacks remaining from the old Valencian factories are systematically protected, but not the rest of the buildings that can be conserved.