Having explored the basically insolvable question of when Balàfia was built, we will now turn our attention to the hamlet’s uncommon grouping of houses and towers. 

To review our findings so far, we have established that, although the name Balàfia does indeed date back to the Moorish occupation of Ibiza (902-1235), the architectural ensemble we now associate with this toponym did not come into existence until well after the Catalan conquest of 1235. All of Balàfia’s buildings, therefore, are irrefutably products of the succeeding Christian period. Now, having clarified that point, the insistence with which local lore attributes to Balàfia a Moorish heritage is not altogether misguided. But, as we shall see, it is a heritage based on agriculture rather than architecture.

Ibicenco historians concur that, prior to 1235, a pre-existing domain called Balàfia covered an extension of land, undetermined in size, but roughly analogous to a medieval manor with multiple houses and points of residence, variously clustered around tracts of irrigated tillage and/or grazing lands. Materially, these houses no longer exist. Their walls have long since been reclaimed by the wilderness and their occupants sold into slavery. Also gone are the social concepts around which Moorish farmsteads were organized. While we do not know the exact conditions of their tenancy, we do know that their contracts were considerably less harsh that those established by the incoming feudal landlords.  “Moorish agrarian economy in that day and age was much more horizontal than Christian feudal economy, which operated on a vertical system of steep hierarchies,” explains Juan José Serra Rodríguez, architect and author of the award-winning book Fortificacions rurals a l’illa d’Eivissa: Les torres de refugi predials. Serra observes that wealth and resources tended to circulate with relative fluidity among the various rungs of Islamic society in Spain – thus resembling capitalism in effect if not in premise –, whereas feudalism imposed a regime of inflexible class divisions in which nobles exacted heavy dues from a disadvantaged peasantry. Moreover, the feudal system functioned in such a way that all of society’s wealth was pulled up, as if by capillary action, into the noble warrior class, while virtually none of it trickled back down into common hands. As will become apparent, these economic disparities created significant differences in the way each culture farmed the land. 

 

The Fair Fields of Balàfia       

Antonio Ferrer Abárzuza, a leader in medieval research, gives us our first key in understanding the high level of agrarian productivity historically attached to Balàfia: the existence of two natural springs located on either side of the present-day settlement, one at the foot of the tower Can Pere de na Bet, and the other near the present-day Restaurante Balàfia. Ferrer informs us that, in the 10th century, the Moors were already exploiting this natural water supply by using hydraulic technology gleaned and upgraded from the Romans. A skilful channelling of these two aquifers resulted in ample irrigation of the surrounding fields, thus enabling the cultivation of crops requiring moist growing conditions, notably vegetables and fruit. Most of this irrigated produce was highly perishable and thus intended either for immediate consumption or local sale. On the other hand, dry crops, such as almonds, carobs, olives, wine, etc. could be stored and consumed over time, or used as a medium of exchange. 

According to Serra, herein lies the difference between Moorish and European farming. “The Moors,” he affirms, “were not subject to such exacting levies – customarily paid in kind in both societies – and could therefore allow themselves the luxury of cultivating fruits and vegetables that had no monetary value, serving only as seasonal food. Feudal tenants, however, were chronically in arrears and could not afford to expend energy on plantations of perishable foodstuffs. The bulk of their harvest had to last for many months so that it could be stored for the day of reckoning when the landlord’s agent came knocking. 

Serra shares his professional insights, “From an architectural point of view, feudal serfs lived no better than animals. Their houses were mere huts with one room in which they cooked, ate and slept, with a possible second room, used as a store for the sacks of grain and vats of oil and wine they laboriously accumulated throughout the year. This is why the houses and towers which today stand at Balàfia cannot possibly date back to the medieval period. They are too complex. They have many rooms and many levels. They are, in fact, very fine homes and the towers are quite impressive. Some of the houses have undoubtedly been added onto from simpler original structures, but, probably, none predates the late 15th century. The towers date back to the 16th century, of that we are reasonably sure, based on similarities in structure and building technique present in other towers of the same period. Without the aid of archaeology, of course, we cannot draw any definitive conclusions.” 

 

Interim

The recourse to archaeology, at this stage, seems a remote option, insofar as all of Balàfia’s properties are privately owned, and several permanently inhabited. Returning, then, to our habitual realm of conjecture, what are we to make of the 200-year interim between the end of Moorish occupation (1235) and our first documented proof of Catalan habitation (the property register of 1433-1437)? 

The evidence of Islamic irrigation systems indicates that Balàfia was being exploited right up until the Conquest of 1235. The mention of Balàfia in a parchment dated September 10th, 1235 assures us that the area delivered a rich yield and that Pere of Portugal, its new landlord, was eager to cash in on those harvests. To this end, he drafted a generous grant of tenancy to “our seven Saracens” in hopes that these experienced farmers would work the land to its full potential. “And yet,” comments Ferrer Abárzuza, “we never hear of those seven Saracens ever again. They are not present in any of the posterior property registers compiled by the scribes of the day. Nor did the early Catalonian settlers who came to take their place endure. After a first mention, most of the settlers’ names disappear from the records. The majority of families simply faded out of existence. Their offspring didn’t survive and the family name died out. It was always a hard job to get people to come to Ibiza to work the land. The lords had to promise all types of advantages. In Ibiza, for example, taxes and levies weren’t nearly as extortionate as they were on the mainland. Still, life did not prosper in the early years after the Conquest.”

 

It seems that whatever abundance there may have been at Balàfia during Moorish times withered away under the pall of feudalism. Eventually, though, as feudal bonds were severed and freeholders began to establish themselves in the countryside, we see a rise in productivity. The renewed agrarian output, however, was a mixed blessing: to the same degree that it increased Balàfia’s wealth, it also attracted pirates, thus creating the need for refuge towers. To find out more, please keep reading.