Village
Ibi is an inland municipality of the province of Alicante, in the Alcoià comarca, the historic capital of the Spanish toy industry, with 24,500 inhabitants, which makes it the largest town in the Hoya de Castalla sub-comarca. It stands at 816 metres above sea level, one of the highest points in the province, between two hills crowned by the hermitages of Santa Lucía and San Miguel, at the north-western end of the Monnegre river basin. To the north and north-east it is closed off by a mountain arc whose highest peak, El Menejador, at 1,356 metres, lies within the Carrascal de la Fuente Roja natural park. The Rambla Gavarnera, now vanished, used to run through the municipality, as did the river de les Caixes, partly channelled where it passes through the urban centre.
Monument
The Valencian Toy Museum is a centre dedicated to preserving and promoting industrial toy-making heritage, created in 1990 in Ibi, a town known worldwide as the historic capital of the Spanish toy. In 2013 it moved to its permanent home, the buildings of the former Payá factory, the first toy maker created in the town. Its permanent gallery displays, arranged by theme and ranging from tinplate to plastic, toys made in Ibi, elsewhere in Spain and around the world, from 1903 to the 1980s, while the temporary gallery hosts periodic exhibitions with pieces from its own holdings and from private collections.
Curiosity
During the 20th century Ibi and Onil were the main hub of the Spanish toy industry, with internationally famous brands born in the comarca of L'Alcoià. The sector developed from the 1950s onward and, from the 1960s to the mid-1990s, was the town's main source of employment. Among the best-known companies founded in Ibi are Juguetes Rico and Juguetes Payá, whose legacy can be seen today in two museums housed in their former factories: the Valencian Toy Museum, in the former Payá plant, and the Arcade Vintage Video Game Museum, in the former Rico plant.
Activity
Between 13 December and 6 January Ibi celebrates the winter festivities, or those of Santa Llúcia i Nadal, with dances and companies documented since 1797. Its best-known event is Els Enfarinats, every 28 December: a group of ten to fifteen married men, with their own judge, mayor and constable, take over municipal power for a day and impose the Justícia Nova, which bans free movement through the streets and over the rooftops. Against them forms the opposició, and both sides battle with flour, eggs and gunpowder until the town centre is covered in white; the day before, Els Amantats announce their arrival. Fines levied on shops finance the festival, whose origin dates back to 1862; suspended in 1957, it was revived in 1979.
Monument
The hermitage of Santa Lucía stands on a hill next to the old town of Ibi, on the site of the old Arab castle known as the Castell Vermell, dating from the 10th century. It is one of the two hills flanking the town center and a symbolic landmark of the municipality. In December, coinciding with Les Festes d'Hivern, it hosts the traditional Bateig de Santa Llúcia: a street parade precedes the throwing of nuts and sweets to the children.
Monument
The church of the Transfiguration of the Lord is the parish temple of Ibi, in the L'Alcoià region (Alicante), and dates from the 16th century. It stands out for the towers located on its sides and for the dome of the crossing, covered in blue tile. Inside are preserved paintings by the artist Joaquín Oliet, as well as the carved images of El Salvador and the Virgen de los Desamparados.
Monument
The hermitage of San Vicente is one of the religious buildings of interest in Ibi, in the L'Alcoià region (Alicante). It dates from the 16th century and has been recently restored; it preserves inside works of art from the same period, which form part of the municipality's religious heritage.
Monument
An 18th-century hermitage in Ibi, one of the municipality's minor temples, situated on the San Miguel hill, from where views over the toy-making town and the whole valley can be seen. It is a place of pilgrimage, held on the Sunday before the feast of San Miguel, on 29 September, a day when the interior can be visited and a program of activities is organized with rocket firing and sack races.
Nature
Botanical garden and biological station in Ibi, one of the natural areas of interest in the comarca of L'Alcoià.
Curiosity
El Valle del Juguete (Toy Valley) is the name by which Ibi and Onil are known, municipalities of L'Alcoià twinned by toy manufacturing. Ibi's toy industry developed from the 1950s onward and achieved great national importance, with companies such as Juguetes Rico and Juguetes Payá, which came to employ hundreds of workers. Today the former Payá factory houses the Museo Valenciano del Juguete and the former Rico factory houses the Museo del Videojuego Arcade Vintage.
Curiosity
Ibi has Spain's only monument dedicated to the Three Wise Men, and until 1986 it was the only one in the world, in recognition of the town's toy-making tradition. A stone work by the sculptor Aurelio López Azaustre, it was inaugurated on 5 January 1975 in the square that today bears his name, fully remodelled in 2007.
Activity
Three Kings' Cavalcade of Ibi (Alicante), a town known as the cradle of the Spanish toy industry. Every year the parade ends before the Monument to the Three Wise Men, inaugurated on 5 January 1975 in the square that gives it its name and made by the Granada-born image-maker Aurelio López Azaustre; until 1986 it was the only monument in the world dedicated to the three Wise Men. The sculpture, of white marble and weighing 5,800 kilos, depicts the Kings handing out toys to children beneath a star of the East. In 2007 the square was pedestrianised and remodelled, with new lamppost lighting resembling planets.
Nature
The Barranco de los Molinos, a natural site of great environmental value located in the Sierra del Teixereta, was carved out by the erosion of the River Les Caixes in Ibi. It preserves the remains of old flour mills and paper factories, and today has a recreational and climbing area.
Curiosity
Founded in 1892 by Carlos Bornay, La Ibense Bornay is the oldest ice cream brand in Spain, heir to Ibi's 19th-century tradition of trading in snow and ice.
Curiosity
A famous festival in Ibi in which a disguised group stages a mock uprising and seizes the town hall for a day, with battles of flour, eggs and firecrackers. It is held every 28 December, the day of the Holy Innocents, when between ten and fifteen married men, known as els Enfarinats, seize power in the town against the opposition; during the day no one may walk freely through the streets or on the rooftops without their permission, and whoever does receives a fine, the proceeds of which are shared among local shops as a revolutionary tax. The first documented reference to the festival dates from 1862, with the group of els emmantats as its forerunner, although some sources trace its roots to the Roman Saturnalia and to a 1636 mention of the feast of Saint Lucy.
Activity
Els Enfarinats, the mock uprising of Ibi, is held on 28 December, the feast of the Holy Innocents, as part of the town's winter festivities, declared of Regional Tourist Interest since 2009. It consists of a pitched battle with flour, eggs and firecrackers between two satirical factions fighting for local political power: the Enharinados, fourteen married men who hold posts such as mayor, judge or constable, and those who try to seize it from them. The night before, the Enmantados proclaim decrees with humorous criticism of the year's politics. The tradition, whose roots some place in the Roman Saturnalia, stopped being held in the late 1950s and was revived in 1981; its proceeds go to a local old people's home.
Historical milestone
The tinsmith Rafael Payá and his sons turned in 1905 a workshop of metal utensils into the town's first toy factory. Payá Hermanos exported cars, trains and money boxes of lithographed tinplate and drew dozens of local workshops along behind it.