The Area
We live about seven kilometres outside of Matarraña’s most populated village, Valderrobres, with its approximately 2,500 inhabitants. Incidentally, Valderrobres has been declared one of Spain’s most beautiful villages, with its 7th-century intact castle and its old city’s picturesque narrow cobblestone streets. Matarraña is a local administrative region (know as a comarca) that is part of the province of Teruel, which is then part of Aragon — one of Spain’s 17 autonomous communities. Valderrobes is about a three-hour drive from either Barcelona or Valencia, and about a 4 ½-hour drive east of Madrid.
Our farmhouse is situated up a winding paved and well-laid dirt road that twists around olive and almond orchards. We like to think of ourselves as “hidden” because we really are quite far from any other property, and our farmhouse is set low and almost hidden from sight by an enormous, fantastically beautiful serpentine-like pine tree.