The building of this estate has two floors and is topped by a construction of smaller dimensions that reduces its pyramidal direction. At present, this dwelling has been greatly modified and braced.
“In this farm the south-west facade stands out thanks to a glazed enclosed balcony that is topped by a triangular pediment that reflects the gable roof. The east facade has a porch that has been recently restored and a tower with adjacent windows with a thin mullion”.
In addition, we find elements typical of modernism such as the use of tiles, wrought iron in the balustrade and brackets under the cornices.
The restored garden, called the French-style historic garden, brings us closer to the ‘Umbrade’, a passageway covered by an immense jasmine that leads us to the Mediterranean garden and a great pinewood. In the back of the house, we find the Muslim garden originally used as an cropland and currently planted with palm trees, hedges and fruit trees that protect from the sun the cultivation of vegetables and aromatic plants, irrigated by the flood system through several canals. Here we can observe a well covered by stalactites of the Coves (Caves) de Canelobre. In this green space we can highlight the neo-Gothic chapel and the two sculptures of Vicente Bañuls, from Alacant: ‘La noche’, which can be seen from the access gate of the farm, and ‘La Marseillaise’ that bears the motto ‘Le Jour de Glorie est arrivé.’
About its owners, it is known that the Marco family sold the estate to the lawyer and businessman Juan Maissonave y Cuyatar. Later, it passed to the lawyer of Alacant Juan Poveda Garcia, with residence in Carrer Llauradors (Labradores street). He owned three mines in Mutxamel, two of iron and one of water.
Circa 1915 the estate was sold to Teófilo Renato Bardin Delille, owner of the Bardin hourse, Honorary Consul of France, who created the Versailles-style garden that has lasted with several modifications until our days.
In 1950 it was bought by the notary Julián Peñalver from the Bardin family. Later, Approximately in 1967 it was acquired by Miguel Ranz Iglesias, owner of the Babieca Hotel.
Did you Know?
Juan Maisonnave y Cuyatar (1843-1923) “is one of the three Maisonnave Cutayar brothers, who most emphatically devoted himself to making fruitful the extensive family” vineyards owned by his father, the Frenchman Jaime Maissonave, the first member of the family that arrived in Alacant in the 1780s. His father and mother Leonor Cuyatar, born in Alacant, owned large wine and horticultural properties distributed by the Alacant’s Horta (Cropland), even thought they had their residence in Paris.
Juan Maissonave’s “first marriage was to Rafaela O’Gormann and, after widowing, he married her niece Ángela O’Connor White. He had no children with either of his two wives”.
Juan Maisonnave lived in Madrid and when he came to Alacant he shared his stay between the Carrer Llauradors (Labradores Street), today the Municipal Archive of Alacant, and the Finca O’Gorman in Fabraquer that belonged to his father-in-law Guillermo O’Gorman, where the winery in which he made the wines of his vineyards of the different properties that he owned in the Orchard was located. In 1936, his wife Ángela widowed and at the beginning of the Civil War she left Alacant and went to live in the properties she had in Benicarló, Castelló.
Juan Maisonnave founded the Agricultural Chamber of Alacant. He was president and honorary president of the Spanish Vine and Enology Society, honorary president of the Alacant Cooper Society and representative of the Alacant province in the Phylloxera Congress of 1878 in Madrid.