The XVIII century began with the defeat of Almansa and
the Decree of New Plant (1709), by which the Valencian jurisdictions
were abolished. Javea, which impelled it demographically
and economically throughout the century, ahead of the rest
of the region, follower of the Austrian band. Together with
the honorific titles, it obtained for the port a concession
of exportation of merchandise and fruits of the country.
This united to its situation, safe from storms, and its
capacity for vessels of great tonnage, converted the port
into the activator of the local economy, first with the
importation of wheat and afterwards with the trade of raisins.
The economy of the population, eminently agricultural, was
based on the cultivation of dry lands: wheat, almonds, vineyards,
carob-trees and olive trees. The wheat was the most important,
the local as well as that imported from Sicily. Its transformation
into flour provoked the development of the mill, as in the
case of the windmills of la Plana and the water mills of
les Barranqueres. It is fitting to emphasise the growing
importance of the elaboration and marketing of raisins which
reached a peak in the XIX century.
The growth of the population was reflected in the urban
expansion of the suburbs of the Convent of Baix, of Sant
Jaume and Patraix all outside the walls. A change in the
architectonic language was produced: the houses were more
spacious, being reflected in a wider façade with
an architrave door, cart entrance and more windows toward
the exterior. Following these trends many gothic arches
were suppressed. Between 1810 and 1812 the war of the French
passed, with different raids in the vila of Javea on the
part of the troops quartered in the Castle of Denia.
From the second half of the XIX century, the production,
elaboration and exportation of raisins was converted into
the motor of modernisation thanks to a strong increase in
the demand of the North European and American markets, which
resulted in the appearance of a local middle-class mercantile.
These families also chose the surroundings of the church
to build the most ostentatious buildings, as the Senyoreta
Josefina´s house, the Bolufer´s house and the
Primicies house. The agrarian owners also built larger houses
as those which can be admired in the Street en Grenyó
in the street major and in the tossal de Dalt.
In 1873 the walls were desomolished and the execution of
l´Eixample was carried out with avenues which favoured
the transit of merchandise toward the port, joining it with
favoured the transit of merchandise toward the port, joining
it with the Placeta del Convent, where the principal roads
of the region reached. In its surroundings and in the current
Princep d´Asturies Avenue , the farmers enriched thanks
to the raisins, were situated.
In the Avenue d´alacant part of the commercial middle
– class was installed. In this period the eclectic
style, which was profoundly established in the society of
Javea of the XIX century, triumphed. We can basically differentiate
three models. One of them follows the standards of symmetry
and austerity of the Bolufer´s house with flat sandstone
mouldings which marked the division between the different
floors, emphasising the horizontal position of the building,
framing windows and doors as well as in the base. The gratings
and balconies are forged and the wood is imported from mobila.
Another model is that of the houses which follow a romantic
style, which substitute the flat sandstone mouldings for
others of plaster with vegetable motives.
Finally we find a group of houses which collect numerous
neo-classical elements as the pilasters which frame the
entrance, with a roman arch and fan mount and triglyphs
and metopes under the projection. All this economic and
urban development was accompanied by an adequate infrastructure
as the Port Customs, the ajudantía de Marina, Sanitation,
the telegraphic cable, electrical lighting and public fountains,
but also of a complete series of institutions devoted to
leisure: Theatre, Pelota Court, Bullring, Coffee Shops,
recreational societies, etc. The Physiognomy of Javea fully
enters modernity.
