The town in revolt

Not today of course, Bigastro is mostly a sleepy place but 250 years ago things were very different.

In those days there were less than a thousand people living here and the land belonged to the Cabildo of the Cathedral in Orihuela. In return for the use of the land, the people had to pay taxes including a tax for using the village oven to bake bread.

Due to a poor harvest in 1766, the people found it difficult to pay the taxes and so, on the 16th April, they staged a revolt including closing the village shop. If they did not hear by the next day, the villagers threatened to burn the houses.

Faced by such a rebellion, the Cabildo of the Cathedral in Orihuela agreed to cut the taxes and thus reduce the burden on the bigastrense.

Many thanks to Pascual Seguro who conducted the research and wrote an article about this revolt on his blog, Recuerdos de Bigastro.