Masia Can Batlle: a family history four centuries in the making
The history of the Masia Can Batlle stretches back through a family lineage of nearly 4 centuries. We know that Joan Batlle, who died in 1643, had 2 sons: Juan and Antoni Bartomeu Batlle. Although we lose track of the latter, we know that Juan Bartomeu married Orosia Oller on 17 February 1645 at the Parish Church of Sant Cugat, where Pere Pagès was rector. Orosia had been widowed by her first husband, Francisco Oller, who died on 26 July 1635.
Orosia and Juan Bartomeu had a son, Joseph Batlle Oller, who was baptised at the Parish Church of Our Lady of Pi in Barcelona on a day in March 1638. Young Joseph grew to adulthood and married Brígida Marrugat, who gave him a son named Joseph Batlle Marrugat, who died in 1745. We know that in January 1740, his estate was struck by a rainstorm that lasted 3 consecutive days. As a result of this downpour, the ceiling of one of the rooms in the family home collapsed onto the cellar and damaged 6 barrels of wine. The Batlle family still holds the invoice for the repairs carried out. 36 pine trees were purchased to make new beams, and Francisco Ratecas was paid for 3 days of work repairing the rain damage. The total bill came to more than 104 coins of the time.
A few years earlier, in November 1730, Joseph Batlle Marrugat’s son, Joan Batlle Mallol, leased a plot of land of 2 jornals to plant vineyards. The jornal is a unit of area used in the Catalan Countries to measure farmland and fields, equivalent to approximately 4,358 m². It would be another 10 years before the land was finally purchased. On 22 August 1801, Pere Batlle Mestre, great-grandson of Joseph Batlle Marrugat, passed away. We still hold the invoice for his burial, which records the wages of the carpenter and the rector, as well as the bread purchased from a bakery in Vilafranca del Penedès for the wake. Pere Batlle was buried 3 days after his death in an adorned wooden coffin.
3 generations later, we pick up the thread of this family again with Jaume Batlle, great-grandson of the above. He was born on 25 July 1816 and married Antonia Isach Galofre on 7 May 1833, daughter of Jaume Isach and Francisca Galofre. These last 2 marriages of the Isach family (father and daughter) would join the Batlle family branch, bringing with them a property called “Cal Isac”. This property would remain within successive family generations until 1923, when a peasant revolt and the failing health of the owner at the time, Casimir Batlle Marcer, made its sale necessary. By 1923, winemakers had spent 3 years being forced to sell their wine at prices equal to or below production costs, and tensions were running high.
From the marriage of Antonia Isach and Jaume Batlle, a single son was born on 28 May 1840, named Josep Batlle Isach. Josep was orphaned of his mother very early — on 3 August of that same year — and his father would follow his wife 7 years later, on 7 September 1847. Young Josep grew up and married Josepa Marcer i Marcer in July 1866, who gave him 5 children: Agustí, Casimir, Josepa, Teresa, and Josep.
All 5 children married, and the story has come down to us that the eldest, Agustí, on a fateful 7 June 1902, at the age of 32, went to the market in Vilafranca del Penedès accompanied by his mother. They were going to buy a scythe, a tool used for harvesting wheat that they needed for the harvest season. While Agustí was leaving his horse in the stable, he encountered a bad-tempered donkey that kicked him in the forehead. The first doctor to treat him closed the wound without realising that the skull was fractured in 5 different places. A week later, Agustí began to show the first symptoms of tetanus: spasms, muscle stiffness, difficulty swallowing… At that time the tetanus vaccine was not yet known (it was not first used until 1930), and for fear that the wound would become gangrenous, on 15 June the surgeon from Vilafranca del Penedès, Manuel Sala, assisted by his son Carles Sala and the village doctor Francesc Massana, operated on his head wounds. Agustí Batlle Marcer died 3 days later, on 18 June 1902, leaving no descendants.
His widow, Dolors Roig Roquè, married his brother-in-law Casimir Batlle Marcer on 7 December 1904. From this union 4 children were born: Josep Maria, Ramona, Júlia, and Nativitat. The first child, Josep Maria, was born on 20 November 1905; within 24 hours of his birth, the entire family believed he would die and the last rites were even administered. It turned out to be a typical ailment of a newborn. Of all those children, the only one to have descendants was Ramona Batlle Roig, paternal grandmother of the current owner, Ignasi Romeu Solé.
