Photo of El Huergo Farmhouse

Bridge over the Bordón river in the vicinity of El Huergo

The Valoscuro ravine meets the Bordón river next to the farmhouse, at a point where the terrain begins to scarp, which is flat in the valley that forms the riverbank up to the Santolea reservoir. Nearby, there are peaks of just over 1000 m in altitude and a mountainous territory, where the Sierra of Bordón dominates. There are Las Planas, Los Alagones, Bordón and Luco de Bordón, the farmhouses of Blasco, Ricol, Perojil, Ollé, Soler, Asensio tower, the houses of Alconzal and Torremocha, surrounding the farmhouse. It has also been recently erected, next to the bridge of Perojil, a hostel for nature study camps. The Morrón, with its 1020 m. of altitude, is a magnificent example of a rock cut by erosion, which resembles an anthropomorphic sculpture. Someone has said that it resembles a child with a pigeon in his hand. It can be seen majestically from numerous points of the great extension of land and mountain that surrounds the Santolea reservoir. The lands next to the river are rich for cultivation and belong to the alluvial Quaternary period. They are soils formed by sand and clay. The rest are tertiary with conglomerates, clays and sandstones from the Miocene and there is an older outcrop of limestone from the Lower Cretaceous forming the magnificent gorge formed by the river before reaching the farmhouse. The erosion is very strong and can be seen, in the Valoscuro ravine, the hanging rocks emerging from a substrate of clays and sandstones, and lots of detached rocks, modeling a very picturesque relief. The climate is extreme, typical of the Maestrazgo region, to which it belongs. Temperatures range from 6° in winter to 25° in summer, with an annual average of 14°, and annual rainfall between 400 and 500 l/m2, distributed mainly between spring and autumn. Frosts and hail sometimes punish the crops, and in winter precipitation in the form of snow is frequent. Up to seven or eight days of snowfall have been observed in some winters.

The Huergo is a mas or masada. The term mas – from the Latin mansus – means an agricultural establishment that arose as an entity during the XII and XIII century, if not before, as a form of agricultural exploitation. But its diffusion occurs with the demographic and agricultural evolution of the sixteenth century and mainly in the nineteenth century, cereals, vines, olives, vegetables and fruit trees are cultivated. Numerous holm oaks and pines are also grown. The wines, currently produced by the Borraz winery in Las Planas, are of great quality and in great demand by consumers. There they have installed a processing and bottling plant that distributes the production to many parts of Spain, especially Catalonia. In recent years, new vines have been planted and the old ones have been revitalized. In some of the houses of Las Planas, the tools for the elaboration and storage of wine are still preserved: presses, vats, barrels. With them, in the old style, they extract the grapes and conserve magnificent wines for family consumption. Some olive groves are also green in the area of the village. The old oil mill of Güergo, which was very active in the first half of the 20th century, is no longer in use. In it the milling was done “in cold”. The oil produced in Las Planas and El Huego has always been highly appreciated. The mulberry tree, to feed the silkworm, was of great importance in the past, having been the production of silk one of the pillars of the economy, along with agriculture and sheep farming. ¹ There is an old legend told by the elders of the family about the location of an undetermined amount of ounces of gold that “grandfather” Blas hid in the farmhouse or surrounding area, and that had been obtained from the sale of silk in a year of excellent harvest. Domestic animals were of great importance in the past, especially those dedicated to farm work. The slaughter of the bull and the pig was a family celebration. All the members of the family gathered and participated in the work of elaborating the sausages and derivatives of the slaughtered animal, from the elders to the children. For the “matatoro” (bullfighter) and “matacerdo” (pig slaughterer), a big meal was held in those days. From Calanda they would bring milk jugs, white with ornaments, and an exquisite “cuajada” (curd) was made for dessert to accompany the meatballs and homemade pastas (sweet pastries), which were the other basic dishes of the succulent meal. Some years there were as many as 21 women in the kitchen. The treatment of horses was a frequent activity in other times and they were highly valued. There were always good specimens in the Mas and our ancestors had great knowledge of the qualities of the animals for work, loading or transport. The Huergo farm had about 20 horses. At the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, the best pairs of horses in the country were paid about 300 duros, but for a pair belonging to grandfather Blas, 500 duros were paid. Bulls and cows were also looked after. In the festivities, one of the bulls was bullfighting tied to a rope for the enjoyment of the small farmhand community. In addition to the agricultural and livestock economy, an important commercial activity was developed with all the surrounding villages and farmhouses. The products of the fields and livestock were lent or sold to other farmers or traders. There is an old account book that Carmen Martín has, which details the transactions throughout the 19th century and part of the 20th century that Blas Martín Espallargas and his son Manuel Martín carried out. Money was lent (duros, reales de vellón, pesetas), barcillas ²or quarts of wheat, bread or oats, half arrobas of oil, bushels of beans, jugs or reals of wine, breeding sows, livestock in general, seeds, etc. Even work, for example: days of tilling or threshing. People from all over the region came to the house in the years of scarcity to arrange loans in money or in kind. The good economic organization and the large estate that supported him allowed him to meet his needs and those of his neighbors, family and friends. The construction of the Castellote tunnel, drilled on August 4, 1899 and inaugurated on October 15, 1899, and the Santolea Reservoir, which was inaugurated on October 10, 1926 and completed seven and a half years later, were the two most important milestones in the economic life of the whole region. The tunnel opened up a convenient means of communication with the rich lands of Lower Aragon, which favored the emigration of its inhabitants years later. The works of the dam of the reservoir brought abundance in the years of its construction, but the wealth of the water benefited other towns of the basin and with it a part of the old inhabitants of that land left. Years later, from 1961 to 1967, the bridge of Perojil was built over the river Regatillo under the auspices of Mr. Agustín Plana Sancho. This important improvement in the road from Alcañiz to Cantavieja, favored not to lose the link with these places of their emigrated people. Temporarily, on weekends or vacations, they return not only to spend a few days of rest, but also to work the fields and build rich homes.