Mas de Blasco.

On a hill, on the other side of the river where El Huergo is located, is the Mas de Blasco. Today, a recently built grain storage shed is the only building still standing. The rest is in ruins. The arable land is an extensive flat sown land, with some olive trees on the border and surrounded by pine trees. There are about 100 hectares of which 40 are dedicated to cereal and the rest is pine forest. The relief rises slightly to the northeast of the farmhouse.

In the photo: View of the enclave of Mas de Blasco with its lands in 2007.

There are some ten or twelve adobe buildings of two or three stories in the middle of the farmland. Of these, three were used as dwellings. The hermitage of the Virgen de los Dolores stands out, with a square floor plan and mud walls, which had its front formed by a stone arch, now disappeared.

Hermitage of the Virgen de los Dolores of the Mas de Blasco around 1980.

The Mas de Blasco was linked to the Blasco surname, being the last heir of this family, who lived in the Mas, Manuel Blasco Gasión, son of Manuel Blasco Molinos. They sold the farmhouse to buy a magnificent orange grove in Vinaroz, “El Corralé”. The father, Manuel Blasco Molinos, was the brother of Maria Rosa, que casó con el “hereu” del Güergo, Manuel Martín Giner. El padre de ambos, también Manuel, casó con Pascuala Molinos Prats, que era del Mas de los Frailes del Forcall y no la dejaban casar fuera de su tierra, porque era muy guapa. Un hermano suyo, Vicente Molinos Prats (1829-1901), que fue quien descubrió, labrando, el riquísimo yacimiento arqueológico del Forcall, la “Moleta dels Frares” en la masía familiar, casó con Miguela Giner Asensio, hermana de Bárbara Giner del Güergo.

The buyer of the farmhouse came from Morella, but soon sold it again. The current owner of the land is a farmer from Mas de las Matas, where he lives and works it.

Mas de Blasco buildings circa 1970s

In 1713, there is a deed of sale of a white field, located in the Mas de Blasco area, granted by Pedro Giner, weaver, and Ángela Abello, spouses, neighbors of Castellote, in favor of Agustín Giner, from Güergo, for the amount of 600 sueldos jaqueses.

The good neighborly relationship between the Blasco family of Mas de Blasco and the Giner family of Huergo is shown in several documents of the 18th century. Thus, in a deed of 1771 on irrigation for their orchards, which were bordering, rules are established for the good use of water that was sometimes scarce.

“On the one hand, Geronimo Blasco and Joseph Giner de Joseph, and on the other hand, Agustin Blasco and Miguel Blasco, young man, son of the widow of Joseph Blasco, all farmers and neighbors of the present town, and residents in the farmhouses of the bridge above, which Said that, in attention to that to costs and expenses of said four grantors they have constructed a new irrigation channel for the irrigation of several his foundations, located in the term of the present town, to the Ravine of Rivarroyas called of the Pots, and in order to avoid questions and dissensions in the future in the use of their irrigation, they have agreed amicably that from today onwards, of the seven days that make up the week, they will irrigate and use said irrigation ditch. Firstly, the first day, Sunday, counting from twelve o’clock at night on Saturday until twelve o’clock at night on the said Sunday, will be the irrigation of Miguel Blasco, his mother and rightful heirs, and the two days immediately following, which are Monday and Tuesday, …….”

From the wills, we can verify the trust in the neighbors of Huergo, who also sometimes had kinship relationships. In 1839, in the will of José Blasco, farmer, and Teresa Carbó, spouses, they left their grandson Manuel Blasco, in whose company they lived, as universal heir. They named their neighbors Juan Giner de Manuel and Juan Giner de Francisco, farmers, as executors. Witnesses were Mosen Manuel Rebullida, parish priest in Las Planas and Mosen Juan Antonio Giner, presbyter, beneficiary of the same. ¹.

“Finally: we name as executors of this our last will and testament, and as exonerators of our souls and consciences Juan Giner de Manuel and Juan Giner de Francisco, farmers, our neighbors, to whom together and by themselves, we give them all our power that according to privilege, law, or otherwise, we can attribute, grant and give them”.

The goods that formed the patrimony of the Blasco family of the Mas from his name, are detailed in some wills, such as that of Mª Antonia Ejarque in 1883, or the later wills of Manuel Blasco and Pascuala Molinos. In the farmhouse they had a house of 3 floors and 160 square meters valued at 600 pesetas, a barn of one floor valued at 40 pesetas and a threshing floor also valued at 40 pesetas. The cattle corral was in the ravine of the mulberry tree and its valuation was 20 pts. The furniture of the house, the clothes and the household goods (1,000 pts), the horses and the sheep and goats (6,000 pts) and the fruits and farm implements (2,000 pts), gave an idea of the strength of the Blasco family. The farms and other properties covered a wide territory. Estates in Huergo, in Perojil, in Mas de Terreros, in la Molilla, the Caves of Cañart, in Castellote el Sabinar and Mas de Anento, part of the mill in Huergo valued at 100 pts and a house in Las Planas, estates in Santolea, Luco, in Mas de Lej, etc. The total value established in the will was almost 25,000 pts.

In the mid 1800’s, in addition to the “hereu” and his family, among the neighbors who lived in the farmhouse, the deeds mention José Membrado, married to one of the Blasco’s daughters.

The school was in Las Planas and there they learned to read and write. In the last century, the sons who inherited the property learned to read and write and did some primary studies that later allowed them to keep the accounts of the family business. This is proven in the documents, in which we can see, for example, that Blas Martín Espallargas, from Huergo, signed the will of Miguel Guillén y Ejarque for the testator and for one of the witnesses, Andrés Membrado y Blasco. Most of the women, like Pascuala Molinos who came down from a Mas del Forcall, did not know how to sign either. Already in the 20th century, things would change and the interest in education was extended to all the Masoveros, including women.

The peaceful and hard-working life of the inhabitants of Mas de Blasco, based on agricultural work and animal care, was only disturbed by the civil wars that reached the farthest corners of the geography. In the last war, the “reds” destroyed the interior of the Hermitage of the Virgin and intimidated the inhabitants just because of their beliefs. In addition, in the post-war years, there was a tragic episode of the “maquis”, which will be recounted later. Apart from other reasons already mentioned, these events also contributed to the decision to abandon the farmhouse to which the Blasco family had been linked for several centuries.