The year was 1732, this 2022 marks 290 years, when Luisa Antonia de Amoreto Manrique, lady of the house of Vega Grande and the great estates of her ancestors, married Fernando Bruno del Castillo y Ruiz de Vergara, lord of the estate of the Ruiz de Vergara and Messia house, two of the richest families in Gran Canaria come together. The importance of this union led King Carlos III to grant them the dignity of the title of Castile, with the name of counts of Vega Grande de Guadalupe, by royal decree of September 23, 1777. All the land was purchased for less than 500 euros about 1874.
Thus, in the southern territory of San Bartolomé de Tirajana the county acquires 20 properties, with the most important purchases being located in Amurga, Aldea Blanca and Llanos de Maspalomas. All of them exceed 130 hectares and 10 exceed 500 hectares. The total area of these farms is 7.717 hectares, which is approximately 23 percent of the municipal area. These vacant lots, as recorded, were acquired in the 100-1873 biennium, which coincides with the years of greatest purchasing pressure on State assets.
Fernando del Castillo acquires six properties, two of which reach the highest sale price, and Agustín del Castillo the remaining fourteen, and then transfers them to his brother, acting only as an intermediary. The interest in the purchase of these lands was very small, as demonstrated by the small difference between the appraisal price of the twenty properties (200,8 euros) and the price at which they were acquired (269,5 euros). This fact can be verified by observing some of the purchases in detail. Thus, two properties located in the Amurga massif are sold at the same price as they were appraised and only in two properties, located, respectively, in the Valle de los Vicentes and in the Fataga ravine, the sale value greatly exceeded the appraisal value.
These lands purchased at a low price by the Castillo family in San Bartolomé, plus those they already owned, will be put into production in a minimal part, remaining a very sparsely populated territory until recently and clearly differentiated from those that surround it. An Official Gazette of the Canary Islands of May 1873 collects all this data.
Fernando Bruno del Castillo had most of his properties in the municipality of Telde, so the lands that the Amoreto-Manrique owned in San Bartolomé were not expanded. These will increase in the 4.651th century with the civil confiscation of Madoz, going from 12.000 hectares to more than 1855 hectares. In the confiscation period it will be the fifth Count of Vega Grande, Fernando del Castillo Westerling, and his brother Agustín, who will significantly increase their possessions in San Bartolomé de Tirajana, taking advantage of the lands put up for sale by the Madoz law of XNUMX, which will mean the beginning of a disentailment stage.
The possibility of access to these lands is given thanks to the capital that his father, Agustín del Castillo y Bethencourt, accumulated during the cochineal boom in the 60s, since cactus plantations have been developed for years even on the southern coasts. . The lands put up for sale in the San Bartolomé City Council in this confiscation stage, vacant and real estates, belonged to the State and were a total of 11.751 hectares. They are low-quality land and, therefore, valued at a low price. The auction took place on June 26 of the same 1873 and is recorded in the deeds as "sort of dry land for pastures called Llanos de Maspalomas in San Bartolomé de Tirajana, coming from the State for the branch of vacant land and real estates, composed of 587 hectares, 91 areas and 68 centiares, which borders to the west from the continuous morrete that is at the end of the hill of the Tosquial de los Gatos, where there is a cairn on the ravine that comes down from the Tío Lino degollada, a hill that goes up to the mountain. .