Montes blancos, baldíos y realengos: aproximación a tres tipologías tradicionales de montes públicos en la provincia de Zaragoza

Abstract

The article analyses the meaning of three terms for common land that are very common in Aragon and other parts of Spain and which correspond to obsolete legislation or traditional names, namely, "montes blancos", "baldíos" and "realengos". The term "montes blancos" has often been used as a synonym of communal land or deforested land ('moorlands'). Regarding the first of these identifications, the article concludes that, in Aragon, the "montes blancos" arise both from lands that were originally held communally ("montes comunes", to use the terminology of the Ancient Régime) and the wastelands ("baldíos") over which the boroughs came to hold an undisputed title vis-à-vis the State and which effectively became communal lands. However, subsequent enclosure processes led to a significant number of these "montes blancos" becoming "montes de propios" ('town council-owned lands'). Regarding the second identification, it can be inferred from the analysis of the Catalogue of Woodland of Public Utility of the province of Saragossa that, historically, many - but not all- "montes blancos" were deforested. Finally, the article analyses the origin and evolution of the "baldíos and realengos", lands which, while initially being part of common property, instead of evolving towards communal property, remained for centuries in a state of almost total non-definition as regards their ownership, as a res nullius, until the Civil Confiscation of 1855, which entailed either their sale (because they were considered "bienes de propios"), their inclusion in State-owned property or their inclusion in municipal property (theoretically as communal property or 'property of common use': "bienes de aprovechamiento común"), at which time this typology ceased to exist as a legal category.