Singularidades geográficas, históricas y jurídicas del Riego Mayor de Alfaz del Pí y Benidorm

Resum

Following the banishment of the Moors, the baronies of Polop and Benidorm were, in the latter half of the XVII century, scarcely populated. The shortage and irregular nature of water resources and the constant threat of Barbary pirates, meant that any increases in the population were rendered impossible. Consequently, expanding irrigation by channelling water from sources at the aquifer in Polop was of utmost importance. This led, in 1666, to the noble Murcian, Beatriz Fajardo y Mendoza, owner of both Lordships, offering to cover the total cost of constructing the so-called New Irrigation system (Nuevo Riego), later Reg Major de l'Alfàs i Benidorm, and commonly known as Séquia Mare, resulting in the expansion of the irrigation system as well as provision of urban water supplies for Benidorm and Alfaz. The establishment, for that purpose, of ground rents, the repercussions of the War of Spanish Succession and the disappearance of the Lordship régime, a formal mutation of the emphyteusis ground rent, water and land ownership dissociation and the consolidation of power, are chapters in the geographical history of Valencia which merit special attention.