Les torres: large agricultural properties with origins in the allods and territories of early medieval villas (Vallès Occidental, 11th-19th centuries)

Abstract

The study describes the historical and chronological development of large agricultural properties, such as in the region of Vallès Occidental, which are called torres — towers — according to the two meanings of the word: a vertical defensive structure, and a second home; the term in the Modern era is also accepted to mean a large estate with a house, owned by foreigners. These date back to the medieval domus and allods of the 11th century, and coincide territorially with elements of some 10th and 11th-century villas. Despite the transfor mations and disintegration of the allodiums, a significant number of these estates remained largely unaltered, in terms of the boundaries of their lands, until the 19th century, set among the landscape of farmhouses, parishes, and castles.