Heritage-And-Museums-Cullera.Pdf
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
The town of Cullera is located on the shore of the Mediterranean and occupies a central position in the Region of Valencia. Bathed by the waters of the Gulf of Valencia, with its vast plains of rice fields and citrus groves irrigated by the Júcar river and sheltered by the ubiquitous mountain Raboses, Cullera offers visitors a privileged environment full of contrasts and a microclimate that ensures mild winters and pleasant summers. Cullera, the mythical Roman Sucro and later the Colla-Aeria (High Summit) of the Muslims, has developed today into a leisure town with a stable population of 24,121 inhabitants, which expands significantly with the arrival of tourists during the summer. In short, a holiday destination with wide experience at the service of tourists and which has managed to reinvent itself every day to offer endless possibilities. Extensive award-winning beaches renowned worldwide for their quality, splendid monuments and cultural heritage, spectacular cuisine based on rice and seafood, a wide and diverse range of accommodation and the best entertainment and fun for all the family. Do you need any more reasons? Discover the real Mediterranean, discover Cullera! HISTORY The history of Cullera is linked, without doubt, to But what led to King Jaime I to conquer Hisn Qulayra was its its mountain the “Muntanya de les Raboses”, the strategic position. The control of the goods transported by the Mountain of Gold, the Magic Mountain ... river Júcar to its mouth at Qulayra, was the deciding factor of his conquest in 1239. After the Christian conquest the Barri de la Vila The first signs of settlement were Upper Paleolithic was created “ex novo”. This district was expanded during the 14th remains found at Cueva del Volcan del Faro. On and 15th centuries, as the town grew in importance, thanks in the opposite side is the “Abric Lambert”, declared large part to its tradition of trade, agriculture and fishing. a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, a cave where Neolithic populations left clear examples of their In the 16th century, Cullera saw many violent episodes with the art: Schematic Art. Along with the aforementioned attacks of the dreaded Barbary pirates. Like many other coastal shelter, the Bronze Age town of “Les Oliveretes” tells communities, it developed an entire military architecture based us of the first open air human settlements with a on the defence and control of the coastal strip: a chain of coastal defined social organization. towers was created, such as the “Marenyet”, and the Castle was fortified with bastions and ravelins and, of course, the town was Right in the centre of the old town, particularly in the walled for the protection of its people. Rápita neighbourhood, remains have been found ranging from Roman Republican times to the late Roman period. During the 17th and 18th centuries Cullera enjoyed a period A salting factory dates from this period. It is located on c/ of splendour associated, again, with its agricultural activity. Augustine Olivert and used to part of the port infrastructure. This was a period in which many of the town’s landmarks were This finding highlights the importance that Portum Sucrone built – the Sangre and Santos Juanes churches, the Casa de la had acquired by this period of late antiquity. Enseñanza, the Guildhall and a large number of chapels and manors of undeniable artistic interest. It was during the period of Islamic rule that Qulayra, the name used by the Arabs, developed an urban structure at the In the 19th and 20th centuries, with the expansion of rice foot of its castle. The Arabs built the castle with its towers, cultivation, Cullera grew gradually with more characteristic walls and fortifications. They extended the town along the buildings and infrastructure of great interest such as the southern slopes of the mountains surrounding and protected Sanctuary of the Mare de Deu del Castell, the Iron Bridge, the it with a wall that runs below calle del Mar. An example of this Municipal Market, the Lighthouse, the Maritime University and the is the Barri del Pou, which with its steep, narrow alleyways Casa del Pueblo and many private buildings that give a distinctive reminds us of the arrangement of Islamic medinas. appearance to the city. LA CASA DE LA ENSEÑANZA As we move into the Barrio de la Vila we find floor on both fronts, the windows were traced as one of the first public schools in Spain: The rectangular shapes framed in stone, topped with Casa de la Enseñanza, designed in 1788 by a small ledge and on the bottom panel or ledge Vicente Gascó Maso (1734-1802), director of formed by a slab flanked by two small pillars (this the architecture section of the Academy of San type has now been replaced, although a similar Carlos, Valencia, with one of the walls of the opening has been retained). building erected directly on top of the sixteenth century wall that surrounded the village. The Casa de la Enseñanza was designed to house a school for children and rooms for their respective The main facade on the calle Rio follows the teachers, and on the ground floor it also had a wood neoclassical canons that Vicente Gascó himself store and a wheat store with an area for a poor established with his ideas within the academic family who served the teachers, with two bedrooms framework, and which were rediscovered and kitchen. Access areas were in calle San Sebastian by the architectural ideals of the last quarter and there were separate entrances for boys and male of the eighteenth century in Valencia. With teachers on one side, and girls and female teachers a fully symmetrical order the arrangement on the other, with separate stairs too. The main floor of the openings marks the tone of the facade, consists of a vestibule, school and rooms for the since the absence of decorative elements most advanced students, both boys and girls, with means that the formal characteristics of doors, their own toilets and independent entrances. The windows and balconies, of extreme simplicity, second floor houses the separate accommodation together with the fascias, are the elements that for the two male and two female teachers. present a simplified neoclassical ideal, whose greatest exponent is the broad pediment which presides over the whole. The facade now on The Casa can be visited by appointment. Calle San Sebastian was constructed with the C/ del Río, 38 same compositional criteria as the main facade, Historical Centre although adapted for length. These are the only erections that Vicente Gascó produced for the Casa de la Enseñanza. It should be noted that on the first THE WALLS Cullera castle cannot be understood without sections of walls which surrounded the Castle: the defensive ring of walls and towers in which The Torre de la Reina Mora or Santa Ana, the Torre it sits. The Castle consists of the fortress, the Miranda, the Torre del Racó de San Antonio, the Tower upper enclosure or “Albacar Vell” located on the Desmochada and the Tower Octagonal. Within the esplanade where the shrine is located, and the enclosure are the remains of the “velles revoltes” and lower enclosure or “Albacar Nou” which is situated old Islamic track that led to the Castle, now replaced on the southern slope of the mountain. by the current Camino del Calvario. Both were used to shelter troops, horses, cattle and Today the walls can be visited starting from the Torre the population of Qulayra itself in times of siege. de la Reina Mora or Santa Anna, and following a trail Moreover, a group of towers linked the different that runs along the old walled perimeter. PARISH CHURCH OF LOS SANTOS JUANES In the old town, or more precisely in the plaza John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, Patio de la Iglesia is the Santos Juanes Church. who preside over the altar. Inside, interesting The present church dedicated to the Saints Johns features include the altarpiece and the mural was built in 1692 on the foundations or remains painting of the Baptistery, which are works of of an earlier church dating from between the Rafael Cardells, the rich imagery of the side thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Recent chapels and, above all, the Baroque ceramic archaeological excavations have shown that the plinth in the Communion chapel, dated between bell-tower, despite its medieval appearance, 1740 and 1760 and recently restored, with an was built in the sixteenth century – the same average height of 1.70 meters, an surface area period to which the shield of the Crown of of 40 square metres and about 700 pieces. A Aragon which stands above the entrance to representative set of Valencian tiles that is well the tower also belongs - over a 14th century worth a visit. parish churchyard. In the centre of the plaza is a replica of one of the tombstones decorated with Until 1950 this was the only parish in Cullera. the Cross of Malta which was found in these excavations. Calle Patio de la Iglesia (Can be visited by appointment with the parish). The church, which was the headquarters of the only parish in the town from 1248 to 1953, has Historical Centre a single nave and is named after the two saints, CASA CONSISTORIAL (GUILDHALL) The building has a single floor, with three balconies Consell or Presó de la Vila, represents a time and three identical rectangular windows that match of splendour associated with agriculture and the three lower entrances which are decorated with which is highlighted in the original furnishings arches - half point on the two sides and three- of the 18th century, in the ornamentation of centred in the middle.