Guadalest

Guadalest municipality
Guadalest from the south. Right: Alcozaiba Castle, to the left the bell tower, next to it a little deeper the tunnel entrance, to the left above it the Castle San José, below it the El Arrabal district
coat of arms	Map of Spain
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Valencia
Province :	Alicante
Comarca :	Marina Baixa
Coordinates	38 ° 41 ′  N , 0 ° 12 ′  W Coordinates: 38 ° 41 ′  N , 0 ° 12 ′  W
Height :	586  msnm
Area :	15.97 km²
Residents :	217 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	13.59 inhabitants / km²
Founding:	before 1200
Postal code :	E-03517
Municipality number  ( INE ):	03075
administration
Mayor :	Trinidad Amorós Fillol ( PSOE )
Website :	www.guadalest.es
Location of the municipality

Guadalest ( Valencian : El Castell de Guadalest ) is a small town in the province of Alicante in Spain , in the administrative area of Marina Baixa .

geography

The place is about 15 kilometers (as the crow flies) north of Benidorm and can be reached on the one hand from the road CV 70, but also from the CV 755, which both connect Benidorm and Altea with Alcoi . Guadalest lies on a hill above the valley of the Rio Guadalest, which is dammed here to form a lake. The location is framed by the hills and mountains Sierra d 'Aixorta (1125 m above sea level) and Sierra de Serella (1361 m above sea level) in the north and the Sierra de Aitana (1557 m above sea level) in the south.

flora

Pine trees grow in the vicinity of the village ; Citrus plants , olives , Japanese medlars , carob trees and almonds are cultivated on the terrace .

history

The village was built by the Moors under Tāriq ibn Ziyād and Al-Azraq, who, as ruler of the area, supported agriculture and promoted its settlement with an extensive irrigation system . After the conquest by Jaime I in the middle of the 13th century, this ceded his rights to Vidal de Sarrià. King Carlos I created the county of Guadalest with the nearby villages of Benimantell, Beniardá and Benifato in the middle of the 16th century and transferred the responsibility of the county to the House of Folch de Cardona . Another family, the Orduñas, exercised significant influence in Guadalest and the region through the early 20th century, often serving as mayors and holding important offices in county government. The members of the family made use of their relationships with the Spanish royal family. This family had its origin in the Galician town of the same name and came to Valencia with the Infante Fortuna de Navarra . She entered the service of the family of the Admirals Cardona in the 16th century, whose member Sancho de Cardona was appointed Marquis of Guadalest in 1542. At the beginning of the 17th century (from 1609) the conflicts between the Moors and Christians reached with the expulsion of the Moors under King Felipe III. its climax, which resulted in the neglect of many villages due to the departure of their residents. Earthquakes in 1644 and 1748 ( Terremoto de Montesa - Montesa earthquake) caused severe damage to the village of Guadalest and its surroundings. During the War of the Spanish Succession , the fortifications of the castle were blown up. In 1756, Don Pedro Antonio Buenaventura de Ordufia y Garcia was raised to the nobility by joining the Military Order of Santiago.

place

The place has 217 inhabitants (January 1, 2019) and is a magnet for tourists. The town, declared an art-historical monument in 1974 , is divided into a castle district and the El Arrabal district, which was created when the old village could no longer cope with the growing population. There are many small shops selling handicrafts and numerous museums.

Worth seeing

Old town

It is reached from El Arrabal through a tunnel cut into the rock. On the way here you can see the bell tower on the top of the rock on the right, surrounded by La Alcozaiba , the remains of the old fortification used to defend the city. One of the gate wings of the tunnel is still preserved. In the passageway there is access to other higher rooms and a small brick balcony. Next to the archway is the stone coat of arms of the place.

San Jose Castle

The castle, which has retained its medieval character high on the castle rock and is surrounded by the remains of the old castle wall, was conquered by Jaime I and reinforced under Pedro IV . After the destruction caused by the War of Succession (1701–1714), only the cistern and tower ( Torre de homenaje ) and remains of the castle wall remained. Access is via the town house.

Orduñas town house

The four-story town house with a wine cellar is directly opposite the tunnel opening on the old town side. It houses the city museum with goods and documents from the Orduñas family. The “archery hall” contains the paintings that are created in the annual painting competition on the Guadalest theme. The painting Transito o Dormicion de la Virgen by the Spanish painter Meister von Alcira from the years 1527 to 1550 is in the Mariensaal. The dining room contains two valuable ceramic collections with parts from Valencia (16th century), two vases from the end of the 19th century as well as French, German and Valencian ceramics from the 18th and 19th centuries. On the "aristocratic floor" above, three maps that were printed in Paris in 1706 are shown in the map room. The "aristocratic rooms" contain the furnishings and ornaments typical of the time, wall paintings, photographs, valuable furniture with inlays , a firearms collection and the family library with 1565 volumes, 589 of which are from the years 1500 to 1800 three collection epochs: In the first phase, in the last third of the 18th century, the lawyer Don Francisco de Paula Ordufia mainly collected books on legal subjects and those relating to the political relations between Spain and the rest of Europe at the time of the convocation of the States General by Louis XVI. (1788) until the Riego uprising (1820). The second phase of the collection includes books from the dissolution of the nearby Capuchin monastery of Callosa d'En Sarriá with religious, philosophical and classical Latin content. In the third phase from 1850 to 1890 the collection was expanded to include legal literature, ordinances, laws, etc. In a room adjacent to the library hangs a painting about the battle of Almansa , in which Don Juan de Ordufia y Andres participated on the side of the Bourbons . There is a water basin in a small garden behind the house. The house gives access to the castle, the neighboring parish church and the La Alcozaiba bell tower . The building was erected after the 1644 earthquake. In 1708 it was looted and set on fire during the War of Succession. The house is supported on its northeast side on a rock, over which it still protrudes, in the southwest it is partially on rooms of the neighboring church.

Parish Church of the Assumption ( La Asunción de la Virgen )

The church has access from the Orduñas townhouse, but also from the village street, Calle La Iglesia . An inscription carved in stone next to the Gothic entrance gate indicates the year of completion 1753. It was built from 1734 to 1753 on the foundations of a 13th century church and redesigned in 1962. It was shortened, the cross arch and dome were removed. It has a rectangular floor plan and three small side chapels.

town hall

The city hall is in the Plaza San Gregorio . The building was erected on top of a rainwater collection basin that drained from the roofs of the house. The former dungeon from the 12th century was the first to be built. The duty rooms are on the first floor. Local tourism started here in the 1960s with the opening of the first tourist shop.

Ethnological Museum

The museum is in the reconstruction of an 18th century house. Tools and household items and agricultural implements typical of the era are shown here. It is opposite the church. A weapons collection is also housed here.

Miniature museums

There are two miniature museums to visit, one in El Arrabal and another near the church. The visitor will find original exhibitions of true-to-scale replicas, such as B. a tiny Bible, Eiffel Tower in the eye of a needle, Picasso's Guernica on a seed, all objects that the untrained eye can only see and look at with a strong magnifying glass.

Antonio Marco Museum in El Arrabal

The museum shows nativity scenes and a model of the city of Bethlehem, as well as many other house models

Other museums

• Toy Museum in El Arrabal
• History and Torture Museum in El Arrabal
• Historic automobile and motorcycle museum Vall de Guadalest (6 km below the village in the direction of Altea )
• Ribera Girona Museum: Contemporary art with a special focus on Ribera Girona in El Arrabal, Calle de la Peña

The reservoir with boat tours

The Presa de Guadalest reservoir was put into operation in 1963. It absorbs the water of the Guadalest brook, which drains the surrounding mountain ranges. It holds 13 million cubic meters of water. The dam has a height of 77.17 m above the foundation, the drivable dam crest is 285.15 m long. The adjustable (raised) weir can pass up to 407.82 cubic meters / s, while the drainage pipes hold 2 × 3.25 cubic meters / s. The catchment area is 65 km². There is an excursion boat mooring near the dam.

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  Way to the tunnel entrance (top left), right in white a beggar woman

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  Tunnel between El Arrabal and the old village, view towards El Arrabal

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  Town house with Orduñas coat of arms

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  Parish church

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  town hall

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  Entrance to the dungeon in the town hall

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  Calle de la Església

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  View of the Presa de Guadalest dam

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  Reservoir, view from the Castell de Guadalest

Festivals

• August 14th to 17th: In honor of the Virgen de la Asunción (Assumption) with flower offerings, processions, vespers and various performances and fireworks
• 1st week of June: Feast in honor of St. Gregory

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).

swell

• Tourist Info Castell de Guadalest: German leaflet about the place in the edition of 2001
• Information boards (Spanish, Catalan, English)
• Leaflet about the town house (German)

Web links

Commons : Guadalest  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Official website