The Mas de Liborio.

On a cold day in May 2007, about fifty family members celebrated the re-encounter between our families from Spain and Chile in Forcall. After the nice lunch we visited the ancestral farm or masía of 113 hectares where Liborio Molinos Escruela (Escorihuela), was born in 1791. In the hearth of the now abandoned farmhouse, illuminated with a single hanging light bulb, I finally understood the emigration of my grandfather, Antonio Molinos Giner, to Madrid, and then to Chile.

With my life partner, we walked up from the ancestral house to the plateau of the old Roman city. The enormous flat stones of the road showed the traces, engraved over centuries, of Roman chariots. The trees were pushing to emerge between the stones of the access walls to the old Roman city.

Above, on the lonely plateau, a nest of partridge chicks and remains of excavated Roman tiles were silent witnesses of my emotional upheaval.

My newfound Spanish relatives had prepared me well for my first trip to Forcall.
The last owner of the Mas, Consuelo Molinos Martín (1917-2009)and her niece Marisa OP, had sent me copies of dozens of family letters for my grandfather in Chile and her father in Forcall.

Angelines Gil Molinos had given me the magnificent book mentioned below. In his letters from Chile, my grandfather longed for partridge hunting and the famous paellas cooked by his father in Forcall. ….. This grandson had inherited both hobbies.

The Village of Forcall

With great gratitude we cite our main source. It is the book by, José Eixarch Frasno, ¨ Forcall y pueblos de la comarca ¨dels Ports¨. Trabajos Históricos 1966-1993″, Ayuntamiento de Forcall, 1994, 562 pags. (copied extracts, in italics).

In 1246, Forcall was founded as one of the ten villages taxed by the city of Morella. In 1691, after centuries of efforts to gain independence, the mayors of Forcall and the neighbouring villages succeeded in having King Charles II designate them as Independent Royal Villages. By the mid-16th century, Forcall had 146 families, of which 33 lived in the outskirts.

The inhabitants of Forcall have long been cultivating their ability to cooperate in tasks for the common good. For example, until the 16th century, the farmhouses and orchards of Forcall produced significant quantities of saffron. They held annual meetings of buyers and sellers to agree on prices for the different qualities. In 1397, an Italian buyer from Florence sought it out and praised the unparalleled quality of their saffron.

From the 16th century to the beginning of the 20th century, Forcall became a major producer of espadrilles using hemp (esparto grass) from the region. The village developed a collaborative system where most of the families of the town participated and where each artisan and their family apprentices specialized in a certain phase of production.

Forcallanos with global impact.

Despite its modest size, Forcall has been the birthplace of ambitious entrepreneurs and citizens with a global impact. In 1609, Blay Berga founded the Dominican Convent in Forcall, designed to house a seminary college of Grammar, Philosophy and Theology.

In 1611, Father Baltasar Fort became Provincial Vicar of the Dominican Order in Japan and the Philippines and founded the University of Santo Tomas in Manila.

In 1943, Father Javier Obón Molinos was born in Forcall to a family of small merchants. In 1993, following his vocation as a missionary priest, he travelled to Ayacucho, Peru. Until his death in 2016, he served the less fortunate in sixty rural communities neighboring his parish of Santa Rosa de Ayacucho that had been devastated by rural terrorism

He promoted the creation of two soup kitchens for 600 children and founded two vocational training schools for adults. A summary of his life and work can be found here.

More about Forcall and its people.

For a complete bibliography on the characters and history of Forcall, visit the web site of the Colonia Forcallano-Catalana.

A beautiful and informative pictorial account of the Forcall Farmhouses was published by the Forcall Town Council and can be seen here here.

Our Molinos in Forcall.

In 1637 the Dominican Convent bought, for 2,053 pounds, the ¨Mas d’en Johan Maçaner¨ which was rented on the outskirts of Forcall from the descendants of Johan Maçaner (father and son were former mayors of Forcall).

This property became known as Mas dels Frares (Friars’ Farm). “In 1697 the convent gave it in perpetual emphyteusis to the married couple of farmers, Juan Escruela (or Escorihuela) and Josefa Sabater. The useful domain of the Friars’ farm was enjoyed by Liborio Escruela, married to Francisca Traver, residents of Villarluengo. Upon his death it was assigned, with equal rights, in 1788, to his three children: Lorenzo, María Escruela Traver (1770-), married to Vicente Molinos Moliner (1760-1840) and Carmela Escruela Traver married to Francisco Sorolla, from Tronchón.” (The dates are ours).

Carmela renounces her inheritance and the original property is divided in two.
Lorenzo is left with the half that includes the houses (Mas de Llorens) and gives an indemnity of 200 pounds for Maria to build her house in the part that includes the Moleta dels Frares.
The road to the ravine of the Cantavieja river that separates them and the water source that it includes remain as a condominium.

Liborio Molinos Escruela or Escorihuela (1791-1877) married to Felipa Prats Borrás (1803-1883) operates an inn on the property, which will be known to this day as the Mas de Liborio. In 1876, his son, Vicente Molinos Prats (1820-1901), enlisted the help of the ophthalmologist and amateur archaeologist, Don Nicolás Ferrer i Julve, Dean at the University of Valencia, who made public the Roman artifacts found during farming activities at the Masía.

We would appreciate information on José Molinos PratsJuan Escruela (or Escorihuela), Josefa Sabater, María Escruela Traver (or Traber), Vicente Molinos Moliner (1760-1840). It is worth noting that among the occupants of Mas Xorrador the Municipal Archive of Forcall lists as landlord in 1721 a Juan Molinos with descendants with the surnames Sabater and Traber.

Lesera, the Roman city in Forcall.

Lesera is the last of nine Roman cities established in the Valencian region. It is located near the confluence of the Cantavieja, Bergantes and Caldés rivers, on a rocky plateau of about 8 ha. Its strategic location offers good natural defences and control of the land trade route between the coast, the plains of Castellón and the populated centres of the interior of the peninsula. The abundant forests at the time, stone building materials and water attracted human settlements there since the Bronze Age.

A spectacular recent aerial view of the Roman city of Lesera can be seen here. here. The ancestral estate house, Mas de Liborio, can be seen on the right side of the moleta, next to a road that runs along its base and parallel to its longitudinal axis.

Among the visible remains are the entrance gate to the enclosure and three sections of wall on the east side, various construction walls in the north area and numerous spaces corresponding to rooms and cisterns.

To Visit Lesera:

Since 2008, in order to promote the Roman past of Forcall, the Forcall Town Council has been holding the Iberoroman Fair in mid-June to promote and inform about the Roman site of Lesera. The enclosure of the Roman city of Lesera is fenced: to visit it you need a key that you can find at the Town Hall of Forcall and at the Tourist Office.

Further Reading

A good summary of the excavations carried out in Lesera is the presentation made by its main archaeologist, Ferran Arasa, at the Conference of 3-4 December 2013 of the Archaeological Museum of Alicante on Valencian Roman Cities entitled:

Arasa, F., 2013, Lesera: Balance de las excavaciones realizadas 2001_2009. (Arasa, F., 2013, Lesera: Summary of the excavations carried out 2001-2009. The text is here.

An extraordinary and very beautiful collection of multidisciplinary studies on the Valencian region in Roman times, very well presented and with indexed contents (Index on pp 16/17), is: Romanos y Visigodos en Tierras Valencianas; Bonet, Helena et al., coords, Valencia, 2002 is here.

The Past: A window into the future?

Forcall’s historical leadership, the strength of its people and the talents, contacts and commitment of its diaspora (e.g. Colonia Forcallano-Catalana, and other descendants), are important resources. They open good possibilities to promote history and nature tourism circuits, together with other attractions of the region.

VMU, April 30, 2023.