Mas del Labrador: a visit to an abandoned village

Mas del Labrador (Mas del Llaurador in Catalan) is the uninhabited village of the Matarraña region. It lies within the municipality of Valjunquera, along the N-420 road a couple of kilometres from Valdeltormo towards Alcaniz, and is currently in ruins.

The earliest known documentary reference to Mas del Labrador dates from 1585. It was an independent municipality until the mid-19th century, when it was merged with the neighbouring town of Valjunquera. From the 17th century until the early 20th century, when emigration began, its population hovered around a hundred inhabitants, with some fluctuations. After the fierce fighting in the area during the Spanish Civil War, the village was left practically destroyed and only two or three families continued to live here.

By the 1960s it was completely uninhabited, although Sunday mass continued to be held for some time afterwards. Today the houses cluster around the parish church of San Juan Bautista, and some still preserve ashlar stone facades and arched doorways.

Besides the Civil War, this settlement had previously suffered the consequences of other conflicts that affected the region. In 1834, during the First Carlist War, the mayor and a councillor of Mas del Labrador were arrested by Carlist troops for failing to meet a demand for 500 reales.

In the late 1990s a brotherhood pilgrimage between the nearby towns of Valdeltormo and Valjunquera was held here, and was repeated in the following years every August.

In 1996 this hamlet, depopulated as a result of the Civil War, served as the set for the film Libertarias, directed by Vicente Aranda, starring Ana Belen, Victoria Abril, Pepe Sancho, Ariadna Gil, Miguel Bose and Jorge Sanz, among other renowned actors. Walking through the remains of this once-inhabited settlement takes us back to the devastation of war and lets us experience the silence of an abandoned place.

Walking route from Valjunquera to Mas del Labrador and Valdeltormo: see full route.