Introduction to the pedanía of Roche

Roche is a pedanía of the La Unión municipality

Roche is a small village in the north-west of the municipality of La Unión, approximately four kilometres from the main town, and is usually divided into two areas known as Roche Alto and Roche Bajo. It lies on a flat plain, part of the Campo de Cartagena, where vegetables are grown (especially carrots, broccoli and celery), and the neighbouring hamlets of Los Topares and Los Paredes which lie on the RM-F41 road to La Unión have been absorbed into the village.

The history of Roche is, to say the least, poorly documented, but it has been established that the Romans settled here during the period when the mineral reserves of the Sierra Minera were being exploited. A couple of Roman villas have been found, one of them in Los Caperuchos, very close to the hill known as Cabezo Otahonero, where little remains apart from the remnants of a couple of walls.

Not far away are the remains of a Roman road, and on the upper slopes of Cabezo Otahonero are the remnants of another villa. Both of these villas are believed to have subsisted as independent farming concerns, supplying food to the workforce in the mines.

Following the disappearance of the Romans in the fifth century AD, Roche also vanishes from the records, apart from a fleeting reference in a 16th-century document, until the 18th century. At this time the area was the property of José Antonio López de Oliver, a nobleman from Aragón who was the holder of the title Conde de Roche, and whose father was Antonio López de Oliver, the owner of the Coto de Alquerías.

However, despite the obvious coincidence, it has not been possible to definitively prove any connection between the name of the village and the title held by its owner, which was awarded by Carlos IV in 1789.

When the mining boom of the 19th century began the population of Roche suddenly increased, and in 1860 the village separated from Cartagena to form part of La Unión. This was a process fraught with disagreement, and in the end the intervention of President Juan Prim was needed in order to oversee the incorporation of Roche, Portmán, Herrerías, El Garbanzal and Llano del Beal into La Unión as dormitory towns for those working in the mines.

In 1874 all of these villages were brought back a little closer to Cartagena by the opening of the railway line and the introduction of steam-powered trams, and the current church of Roche was started in 1900 and completed in 1908. The previous place of worship at the same location had also been founded by the same noble family in the 18th century, and is known to have been used as a shelter by shepherds and cattle farmers who took advantage of its being located on an established transhumance path which was officially recognized by the Crown in 1729: it is still possible to see the small well which was located outside the church, and which was used by those stopping off here on their way to and from the pasture land in Escombreras.

Among the religious images now housed in the side chapels of the church are figures representing Santa Rita, a Nazarene, San José and Christ, and around the altar are the Purísima Concepción, a Sagrado Corazón, the Virgen del Carmen and La Milagrosa. On the exterior of the simple building the most noteworthy aspect is the coat of arms of the Condes de Roche.

As the village has grown in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, so it has been endowed with more facilities, and it is now home to a social centre with a library (opened in 2000), a sports centre and the Ethnological Museum, where visitors can see a collection of items related to the agricultural and mining past of La Unión. The building, which stands on Avenida Cano Vicedo, also includes a meeting hall, a photographic laboratory, a reading room and a cafeteria, and on Sundays activities for youngsters are held here.

During late July and early August the building is at the centre of the local fiestas, among the highlights of which are the game of living “Parchís” (also known as ludo). The fiestas now include a variety of activities such as petanque, billards, treasure hunts and mountain bike races, and of course there is no lack of food, including paella, vegetables from the surrounding fields and barbecued fish.

Alongside these traditional dishes visitors can try a couple of strong local beverages which became popular among miners a century ago, including “láguena” (aniseed liquor and sweet wine) and “reparo” (brandy and sweet wine).

Another building of historical interest in Roche is a modest single-floor construction on the main road next to the bus stop. In 1906, when it was built, it was used by mine workers belonging to the “El Porvenir Obrero” organization as a social centre and theatre as they strove to create a cultural life for themselves to lighten up their grim working days.

During the 1920s the society went bankrupt, and the building was subsequently used to provide support for workers until it became known as “La Humanitaria” after the Civil War in 1941. This social support organization continued in operation until the early 1970s.