It was the gateway to paradise. Fresh, crystalline water, all shades of green, and fruit trees of every kind. It was, and is, right next to the Estella canal and the Company road. They called it Ca na Beatriu. The young couple spent their summers there, too hot in the city and in sa Pobla. In the summer house, one could hear the waves of the sea, of that immense, blue bay. The first tree they planted there was a cherry tree, as a symbol of purity –for its white blossom– and of love and fertility –for its intense red fruit. They had recently married in London, after meeting at the theatre owned by Mr. Aubyn, at 15 Bedford Row. In the fertile, black lands of l'Albufera, a cherry tree suggested the longed-for paradise or the desired reward. At Ca na Beatriu, the lady –as the Company laborers called her– commanded the ancient rhythm of the sleeping water.

We humans are the sum of the stories we have inherited and those we have lived. We are also the stories of others. Today we want to share a special, different story: that of people who lived and died in the agricultural colony of Gatamoix at the end of the 19th century. We also want to tell you the odyssey of the La Trobe-Bateman family, English people who came from Northern Europe, who built, furnished, and maintained the colony until, in December 1893, they had to return to London and leave the houses and land they had built in the hands of others. So much life and death have been given to us throughout time.