|
XATIVA
Xátiva is the capital of the region of La Costera.
Declared to be a Historic-Artistic Site, the Neanderthal skull found in Cova
Negra dates from 30,000 years BC.
Birthplace of the painter José Rivera “el españoleto” and of Pope
Borgia Alexander VI, it suffered a dark moment in its history at the hands of
Felipe V, who, after victory in the battle of Almansa in the War of Spanish
Succession, ordered the city to be burned, changing its name to San Felipe. In
memory of the insult, the portrait of the monarch hangs upside down in the local
museum of L’Almodí.
The city preserves a wealth of artistic heritage to be discovered: the
Renaissance collegiate church; the hermitage of San Félix, the oldest in the
city (it is said to have been a Mozarab temple and that Jaime I rebuilt it); the
church of Sant Pere, where Alexander VI was baptized, the Royal Hospital, which
still preserves its original Renaissance façade intact; the palaces of the
Marquis de Montortal and the Marquis of Alarcó. And the fountains: San
Francisco, which is baroque; Trinidad, which is Gothic; and the Neoclassic
fountain with 25 jets. Most outstanding, with 30 towers and four fortified
gates, is its enormous castle, the result of the fusion of an Iberian-Roman
fortress and a later Arab one. Running down from the castle are the walls which
until the 10th century enclosed the Roman city. A second wall was added later
which took in what today is the historic quarter
XATIVA and DISTRICT
PROPERTY
Please press picture
for more information
Want more information, just send us
an EMAIL
|