It is located on the outskirts of the town 3.5 km away. Located northeast of the Campo de Salinas, in an area of improved rainfed that used to irrigate the rainwater coming from nearby elevations. Its population goes back to Roman times and it is attested by the existence of archaeological remains and uillae rusticae in the vicinity, as well as by the passage through the hacienda of Via Augusta. Similarly, the so – called “Tesorillo de la Marquesa”, a set of Arab coins from the 10th and 11th centuries, found in 1974.
The property was part of the immense territorial heritage that in the district owned the noble house of Rafal. In 1695, by the testamentary disposition of Mrs. Mª Manuela Valenzuela and Vázquez Fajardo, Marquess of Rafal, this property and another contiguous one was donated to the company of Jesus established in Orihuela, that increased the number of settlers by means of establishments emphitéuticos in 1723.
This settlement that, with the passage of time, was the origin of the hamlet of Los Montesinos, became one of the most dynamic of the area during the seven hundred. At the end of this century the agricultural town was formed by a main house, fifteen small houses, hermitage and other dependencies of agricultural use like well, cistern, oil mill, hayloft and cellar. Among its traditional uses are those of cereal, vine, olive, moreral and pasture.
On the day of Our Lady of the Rosary, the municipality of Los Montesinos goes to La Marquesa in pilgrimage, to spend the day there.
The Departure of the Marquesa, the composes:
- His Church at the end of the seventeenth century.
- The Aljibes of La Marquesa, from the middle of the eighteenth century.
See on the map
