Estivella town hall completes purchase of historic Senyoreta estate
Estivella, a village near Sagunto, has added a 19th-century house and estate known as the hort de la "Senyoreta" to its heritage, after a purchase started by the previous council.
The town council of Estivella has completed the purchase of the historic "hort de la Senyoreta" (the "Lady's orchard"), a deal started by the previous local government and now finalised by the current one. The property is a 19th-century house built on land sold in 1879 by Enrique Castellví, the last descendant of the local baron, to silk industrialist Vicente Martínez Català, who built a house there for silkworm breeding. In the early 20th century the property passed to Federico Ballester; after his death, his widow and daughters Rosario and Josefina continued living there, together with Rosario's sister Carmen, wife of General Carlos Asensio, who served as Spain's Army Minister between 1942 and 1945. Locals nicknamed the estate "la Senyoreta" ("the young lady") after Rosario. The building still has its old stables and a wide threshing floor, surrounded by farmland. Estivella, a village in the Camp de Morvedre district next to Sagunto, already has another notable heritage site, Beselga Castle. The town council plans to open the estate to the public and build a new access route linking it to the town centre. According to El Periódico de Aquí.