Ansaldo Tower House

The Casa i Torre d'Ansaldo, constructions from the 16th and 17th centuries respectively, form an architectural ensemble located in the municipality of Sant Joan d'Alacant belonging to the comarca of l'Alacantí in the Comunidad Valenciana, which has the category of Asset of Cultural Interest.
Both properties belong to the historic estate known as "Finca Ansaldo," which extended over 12 square kilometers of the most fertile land in the Horta d'Alacant irrigated with centuries-old waters from the Gualeró irrigation ditch through a canal named 'de la Hijuela de Ansaldo,' parallel to the path of les Penyetes. The estate consisted of more buildings such as stables, an oil mill, and service dependencies, with a cistern in the center, all enclosed by a wall at the back like a patio. However, only the three-story defensive tower with arrow slits, the manor house, which features a large area in the entrance hall with its strong semicircular arches, a well, and access to different rooms on three levels, and the hermitage-chapel have been recovered. These monuments comprise the only BIC currently owned by this Alicante municipality of Sant Joan, whose town hall has carried out significant rehabilitation and restoration work with substantial support from the European Regional Development Fund from the Generalitat Valenciana to recover and highlight this construction, the ancestral home of Juan Agustín Ansaldo, a generous knight originally from Cartagena - jurisdiction of the Kingdom of Murcia - who proved his family nobility before the Valencia Auditory, jurisdiction of the Kingdom of Valencia in 1649; he was a royal visitor in these lands, and in attention to his position as the major azudil of the Holy Office of the Alicante demarcation, he was also allowed to build a chapel for his private use on the estate. His sons Henrique and J. Agustín Ansaldo held the position of juror in the Alicante municipal council in 1685, the elder, and in 1658 and 1661, the younger, and they were prominent producers of the legendary Fondillón wine cultivated and produced on the estate and aged in the cellar beneath the manor house. The property was also inhabited by Francisco Ansaldo, a councilor of the Alicante City Council in 1844 and provincial councilor, who was the secretary of the 'Irrigation Syndicate of the Horta d'Alacant.' Manuel Gómiz was born in the house, who continued with agricultural operations and export business, increasing the size of the estate; he directed the mentioned Irrigation Syndicate in 1880 and served as mayor of Alicante in 1890.

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