the town the town

Streets that breathe history

When someone intends to visit Pego, he must know that a town full of artistic, cultural and natural heritage will be found. In addition, you will be able to enjoy a valley filled with small villages heirs of the Christian colonization of the zone of mountainous interior dedicated to the agriculture of dry land.

When the visitor arrives to Pego he must go to the center of the town to breathe the medieval air that is preserved in the remains of the wall of the primitive villa of Christian creation of the late thirteenth century. There you will be able to cross the narrow streets of orthogonal layout that one day were surrounded by walls, will also observe one of the three entrances to the medieval town, the so-called Portal de Sala, the only one still standing, and will delight with the linen cloths Wall embedded in the plot of houses such as the courtyard of the Casa de la Cultura, the one on the corner of Calle Sant Lluís with Mestre Blasco and the one that remains in the Muralla toys store.

Esglesia de l'assumpció

Inside the old quarter are also the most representative architectural buildings of the pegolí heritage. You can start your visit through the Church of the Assumption, from the end of the 16th century and, by the bell tower, added later at the beginning of the XVIII. Within the building the visitor will be able to contemplate wonderful works of art such as the Gothic altarpiece of Antoni Peris dedicated to the Virgin of Hope, the icon of the Doble Verònica attributed to Jacomart, the size of Christ of the XVI century of Damià Forment and the paintings of the Altar Mayor of Rafael Cardells, among many other things. The route could continue with the visit to the Chapel of l’Ecce-Homo (1759), based on the old Hospital de Pobres. The chapel is the work of Francisco Cabezas and they say that it is an anticipation in his major work of San Francisco el Grande de Madrid. It stands out due to its architectural enchantment with an octagonal dome decorated with blue tiles.

With the visit of these two emblematic works, the visitor deserves a break, which can be used for breakfast in any of the bars or cafes found in the town.

Once we load the batteries we can follow our cultural visit. Inside the historical quarter and next to the Portal of Sala is the House of Culture. This cultural center is part of the rehabilitation of a 18th century manor house that was part of the rich family of the Sala. You can visit the Museum of Contemporary Art first, where the first prizes of the National Painting Contest of Vila de Pego are held, which has been held since 1976. The styles are embraced by the hyperrealist landscape of Mir Berenguer and Calo Carratalà; the abstract by Molinero Ayala and Maria Chana; the influence of the comic of Solbes, Juan Cuellar and Equipo Limite; to the realism of Adrià Pina. Then we will visit the Ethnological Museum dedicated mainly to the cultivation of rice, from the planting to the commercialization, a project that elaborated the Taller del Castell de Dénia School. A second part is dedicated to other traditional trades of the town like the cabinetmaking, the trajineria or the silk. Important also is the dedication to the cultivation of the orange that in a while convisqué and replaced the one of the rice.

When we go down from the museums, we do not forget to take a look at the permanent exhibition of the Entomological Collection of Juan Torres Room from the Museum of Natural History of Valencia.

Along the historical and old quarter, without leaving the town, we will know other cultural proposals such as the hermitages of Sant Miquel and Sant Josep. The first one is located in what was the second raval of the town, it was built in the 16th century and in the interior we can emphasize the size of the Puríssima of the 18th century, a canvas of the saint of the 17th century and a canvas of Sant Josep of the painter pegolí, disciple of Joaquín Sorolla, Just Almela Company of the early twentieth century.

A few minutes walk we head towards Pla de la Font where the other hermitage is located, this one dedicated to Sant Josep. It was completed in 1677, although it was restored at the beginning of the 20th century. Before arriving we will find the Font dels Quatre Xorros, which formerly supplied water through a network of irrigation ditches in the area of ​​the medieval garden. The fountain was built with stone and with bronze guns in the mid-18th century.

If you, a curious visitor, decide to see all this on Thursday, be sure to visit the market that is celebrated in this town since 1280 by royal concession.

Before lunch, you will have to visit two more hermitages that are located in the municipal district, just over 1 km, which are the vestige of the farms and Muslim mosques before and after the Christian conquest. It is the hermitage of Sant Antoni or Beniçuleima and the hermitage of San Sebastián or Benumeia, two Christian constructions, called conquest, raised on ancient Islamic mosques.

The time comes to eat, to taste the delicious rice dishes that are cooked to the population, and especially the typical dish par excellence, rice with a crust.

A mention to the band deserves a visit to the castle of Ambra, which can be done early in the morning or resting your stomach after lunch. Access to the castle is through the road that joins Pego and the Ebo Valley, at the height of the inheritance of San Juan, there is a dirt road on the right and from there on foot we will take less than ten minutes to reach the steps that will lead us to the remains of the Islamic stronghold. The remains of the Ambra castle take us to the lower Middle Ages of the Valencian lands and in the last years of the Islamic domination in this valley, the castle was the al-Azraq chief during the second Mudejar revolt (1274-1276).

After breathing the pure air from the top of the castle and seeing the immensity of the marsh and the Mediterranean, we will go down again to the plan to visit one of the most important natural heritage of the country, the Natural Park of the Marjal de Pego- Oliva, which opens at the end of the Pego valley to the Mediterranean Sea. Taking direction towards the plan.