History of Balsicas

Balsicas as we know it, started to form in the 15th century

Important prehistoric remains of Neantherthal Man have been found on the mountain of Cabezo Gordo very close to Balsicas, but the flat plains of the Campo de Cartagena were not attractive to early settlers, probably due to the exposed nature of the terrain.

Historical documentation shows that practically the whole municipality of Torre Pacheco was used as pasture land in the 13th century, and repopulation didn’t begin in earnest until the 15th century, far later than in the north-west of the Region of Murcia.

Again this is in large part due to the openness of the terrain and its proximity to the coast, which made it particularly vulnerable to the incursions of  pirates raiding from the north of Africa, and lack of natural rivers. Many of the major settlements within the Region of Murcia were established by the Moors who occupied this region between the 8th and 13th centuries, but they favoured ground which provided natural defence and areas with good water supplies.

The Reconquist took place in the middle of the 13th century and this area was retaken by the Christians, and by the late 1400s noble families from further north in Spain began to establish themselves in the Campo de Cartagena after being granted estates for services rendered..

The expulsion of the Moors from Spain in 1492 preceded a dangerous period for this coastline as dispossessed Moors became pirates, raiding the coastline for anything that could be stolen, so the estate owners whose houses were dotted around the countryside often built strong watch-towers with thick walls in order to afford such protection. Settlements grew up around these main houses as the local farm workers needed to be close to the watch-towers in times of emergency. These events are rather poetically depicted in the annual Berber fiests held in Torre Pacheco and neighbouring Los Alcázares every year.

As ever the central pillar of the local economy was agriculture, and the name of the town comes from the ponds, or “balsas”, which were constructed in the grounds of one of the noble houses to provide drinking water for farm animals. Nowadays, in contrast, the main activity revolves around fruit and leaf vegetables rather than cattle farming.

In the late Middle Ages and the Early Modern period the area of Balsicas was run by noble families and landlords, each of whom managed the production in their fields and often rented out land to small-scale local farmers.

The Castillo de Ros was owned by the Hacienda de Balsicas, and the first occupants were the monks of the Order of San Felipe Neri. At that time it would have been a country estate with a scattered population working in the fields, and no town as such existed until much later.

In 1771 a census documented 86 inhabitants, and the Floridablanca census published in 1787 set the number at 76, of whom 59 worked on their own plots of land, 13 were hired hands on a daily basis and four were classified as “poor”. Following the Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Mendizábal in the 1830s a lot of church property passed into the hands of the State, and this was the case of the old manor house of the Hacienda de Balsicas, which was acquired in the end by Antonio Ros de Olano y Perpiñá. Don Antonio was a general in the army who combined his military interests with forays into literature, and such was the esteem in which he was held that Queen Isabel II named him Count of Ros de Olano and Marquis of Guad-el-Yelú, and the castle soon came to be known as the Castillo de Ros.

For three years Balsicas was part of the land administered by the short-lived Town Hall of Sucina, but in 1823 it returned to the re-established municipality of Murcia. After the founding of the Town Hall of Torre Pacheco in 1836 the locality was divided into Balsicas de Arriba, which belonged to Murcia, and Balsicas itself which was part of Torre Pacheco.

The railway station came into service in 1862, and is still used on the line between Murcia and Cartagena, with journey times of 20 minutes to Cartagena and 25 minutes to the region’s capital. The only way to get the timetable is to actually go to the railway station and pick one up!)
Growth continued in the 20th century, especially in the 60s and 70s when the Region of Murcia’s agricultural exports grew spectacularly after the inauguration of the Tajo-Segura water supply channel and the consequent increased availability of water for irrigation purposes. In this period both Balsicas and Roldán contributed to the growth of Torre Pacheco through their dynamic agriculture sector.

Further growth occurred in the early 21st century as numerous golf and residential developments colonized the hinterland of the Mar Menor. This has added an international flavour to the local population and nowadays the town has most of the facilities one would expect, supplying services and businesses which in general have signally failed to establish themselves organically on the resorts themselves.

More general information about Balsicas in the dedicated Balsicas town section, accessed via the map box at the bottom of every page