Village
Villena is the capital of L'Alt Vinalopó, in the northwest of Alicante, next to the border with Murcia. It sits at 526 metres above sea level and has 34,712 inhabitants. Settlement is attested since the Middle Palaeolithic, and the town already existed in the 11th century under Muslim rule; after the Christian conquest it was a lordship and later a marquisate, until Charles V granted it the title of city in 1525, its period of greatest prosperity. In 1833 it passed from the Kingdom of Murcia to that of Valencia. Its economy, agricultural until the rural exodus of the 1960s, is now based on services and the footwear industry. The historic quarter is dominated by the Atalaya Castle, alongside a second castle, churches and the José María Soler archaeological museum; its Moors and Christians festivities stand out.
Monument
The Atalaya Castle, or Castle of Villena, rises on a spur of Mount San Cristóbal, overlooking the old border between Castile and Aragon; declared a Historic-Artistic Monument in 1931, it was built by the Arabs no later than the 12th century, since Arabic sources from 1172 already mention it. It was a Muslim stronghold that the troops of James I besieged three times before taking it, in 1240, with a Calatrava army and almogavars commanded by Ruy Pérez Ponce de León. It later passed to Infante Manuel of Castile and to his son, the writer Don Juan Manuel, who married Infanta Constanza of Aragon. The second Marquis of Villena, Juan Pacheco, added a second curtain wall and new storeys to the tower, and so the fortress became a castle-palace.
Curiosity
The castles of the Atalaya of Villena and of Biar share ribbed Almohad vaults from the late 12th century, among the oldest of their kind in Spain and the Maghreb in military construction. The keep of the Atalaya, the most characteristic feature of the Villena castle, was raised in its first two levels using the Almohad rammed-earth (tapial) technique and was completed in the 15th century by order of Juan Pacheco. Its first-floor vault measures about seven by seven metres and forms an eight-pointed star with horseshoe arches; the second-floor vault has eleven similar ribs. The castle is already documented in 1172; both fortresses suffered damage during the Peninsular War, at the hands of Marshal Suchet, and the Atalaya was restored in 1958 and in 2000.
Activity
The Moors and Christians festival of Villena is celebrated from 5 to 9 September in honour of the Virgen de las Virtudes, patroness of the city, and is declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional (Spain's national tourist-interest festival designation); around fifteen thousand festeros take part, divided into fourteen comparsas, seven on the Moorish side and seven on the Christian side. Its origins go back to 1474, when the Virgen was proclaimed patroness, and to 1490, the year the sanctuary where she is venerated was built, five kilometres from the city. The military element, with the Entrada parade, was added in the 17th century, and the historical re-enactment of Moors and Christians, with embassies written between 1810 and 1815, was not added until the first third of the 19th century. A local peculiarity is that the figure of Mahoma is kept during the embassies.
Monument
Museum in Villena founded in 1967, home to the Treasure of Villena, one of the most important collections of prehistoric goldwork in Europe, offering a journey through the comarca's history from the Palaeolithic to the 20th century.
Monument
Archpriestal church located on the plaza de Santiago in Villena (Alicante), one of the most important Gothic-Renaissance complexes in the Valencian Community and a model of the Valencian Gothic school. Construction began in the 14th century over an earlier, smaller temple, but its present appearance corresponds to the extension begun around 1492 under the patronage of the Medina family and completed around 1510, and to the 16th-century Renaissance renovations, with the sacristy door and the baptismal font attributed to Jacobo Florentino and Jerónimo Quijano. Its three naves with twisted columns, inspired by the lonjas of Valencia and Mallorca, in turn served as a model for the cathedral of Orihuela. Between 1576 and 1581 the composer Ambrosio Cotes was choirmaster of the temple.
Curiosity
The Villena treasure is one of the most important gold finds of the European Bronze Age: 59 objects of gold, silver, iron and amber weighing almost ten kilos, the most important collection of gold tableware in Spain and the second in Europe after that of the Royal Tombs of Mycenae. Its iron pieces, then considered a precious metal, are among the oldest found in Spain. It was discovered in 1963 by the Villena-born archaeologist José María Soler García, and has been kept ever since at the Archaeological Museum of Villena. In the early hours of 27 August 2026 it suffered a robbery in which most of the gold pieces were stolen, while the silver and other items remained in the museum.
Monument
The sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de las Virtudes, declared a Conjunto Histórico-Artístico (a historic-artistic heritage protection category) in 1976, stands next to a former lagoon, now drained, near the Fuente del Chopo, about five kilometres from Villena. It originated as a hermitage from the late 14th century, of which remains survive in the crypt; tradition holds that the townspeople fled there from the plague and proclaimed the Virgen de las Virtudes their new patroness, although the earliest surviving document dates from 1490. It was later occupied by Augustinian monks, although the building remained municipal property. It is entered through a two-tiered Renaissance portal, with a semicircular arch between columns and a shell-shaped niche holding the image of the Virgin, in stone with garlands and medallions. The church, with three naves, preserves an 18th-century Baroque camarín (a chapel behind the altar housing the venerated image) next to the altar, and ribbed vaults on pillars.
Nature
Greenway of 15 kilometres linking the Sanctuary of Las Virtudes in Villena with Biar, along the route of an old line that connected Muro de Alcoy with Cieza.
Monument
Museum housed in the Casa del Festero, a 19th-century mansion belonging to the Selva family, devoted to the history of Villena's Moros y Cristianos festivities since the 19th century.
Monument
Church in Villena situated next to the castle, on the site where a mosque probably stood during the Muslim period. The present-day building, also known as the church of the Rabal, was erected in the 16th century in Valencian Gothic style, with a single nave that appears to become three where the interior buttresses are pierced, and a polygonal apse without an ambulatory. Its tower, freestanding along two thirds of its perimeter, is comparable to that of the neighbouring church of Santiago, and one of its bells, known as the Campanica de la Virgen, came from the former Torre del Orejón. In 1575 it was still under construction and stood outside the town walls. Burned during the Spanish Civil War, its presbytery was rebuilt in 1948 imitating a ribbed vault.
Monument
The Villena Municipal Palace is a Renaissance building situated next to the Plaza de Santiago. It was built by Pedro de Medina in the early 16th century as the residence of the magistral beneficiaries of the church of Santiago, with a design attributed to the sculptor Jacobo Florentino, a collaborator of Miguel Ángel in Florence. In 1576 the ecclesiastical chapter sold it to the town council, which turned it into municipal offices; in 1707 the architect Cosme Carreras added Baroque elements to a window, and in 1963 the upper façade was extended with a third floor. Declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico (a former Spanish heritage protection category for historic-artistic monuments) in 1968, it retains an interior courtyard with a double gallery of basket arches on Tuscan columns. It now houses municipal offices; until 2019 it held the Archaeological Museum, later moved to the MUVI.
Monument
The Chapí Theatre is located on Calle Luciano López Ferrer in Villena (Alicante) and is dedicated to the Villena-born composer Ruperto Chapí; it opened in 1925 and is one of the most active theatres in the Comunitat Valenciana. Its origins go back to the chapel of the former Hospital de la Concepción, adapted as a theatre from 1838, and to the Chapí Theatre-Circus, built of wood and opened in 1885, which operated until its demolition in 1908. The project for the current building began in 1914 with the architect José María Manuel Cortina, who abandoned it in 1919 due to financial difficulties; the final façade is eclectic in character, close to classicism, while the side façades preserve the Valencian Art Nouveau with neo-Mudéjar leanings of the original project.
Nature
The Paraje de Las Cruces lies on the foothills of the sierra de la Villa, in Villena (Alicante), at about 550 metres above sea level. It takes its name from the three crosses still preserved from an old hermitage, documented since 1780 under various names -de Las Cruces, del Santo Sepulcro and de San Crispín- and demolished in the 1970s owing to its ruinous state; it once housed the Holy Week floats, and its titular image of San Crispín, patron saint of shoemakers, was moved to the Santuario de Las Virtudes. In front of the hermitage ended the Vía Crucis that climbed up from the calle del Calvario. Covered with Aleppo pine and junipers, the site offers from its viewpoint a panoramic view of the city, dominated by the Castillo de la Atalaya.
Curiosity
Villena was the birthplace of the composer Ruperto Chapí, born on 27 March 1851, in whose honour a music competition for young performers is held and after whom the municipal theatre is named. At only nine years old he joined the Música Nueva band, today Villena's municipal band, of which he became conductor at barely fifteen; he was much sought after to compose music for the Moors and Christians festivities of Villena and neighbouring towns. Among his best-known works are the zarzuelas La tempestad (1882), La bruja (1887), El rey que rabió (1891), El tambor de granaderos (1896), La Revoltosa (1897) and La patria chica (1907). Since 2003 his remains have rested in the Pantheon of the Illustrious in Villena's municipal cemetery, where there is also a monument dedicated to him.
Activity
The Fiesta del Medievo de Villena is a cultural and festive celebration with a medieval theme in the L'Alt Vinalopó district, held on the second weekend of March in the historic centre of the city, declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), mainly in the El Rabal quarter and around the Castillo de la Atalaya, with craft markets, historical re-enactments and performances set in the Middle Ages. The present-day format began in 2002 with the first Medieval Market, promoted by residents of El Rabal to revitalise this quarter of medieval and Andalusi origin. Over the years its programme expanded until it became the Fiestas del Medievo, recognised as a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Provincial in 2014 (an official tourism title at provincial level) and Autonómico (at regional level) by the Generalitat Valenciana in 2020.
Monument
Church in Villena that anchors the city's northward expansion, next to a Salesian school.
Monument
A Qur'anic school that operated in Villena around the year 1200, a refuge for prominent teachers of rhetoric fleeing Almoravid persecution, among them the Jaén-born Mohamad ben Ahmad ben Hassan, who was one of its teachers.
Nature
Three flora micro-reserves protect rare plant species in the municipality of Villena: Cabecicos de Villena (1994), Cueva del Lagrimal (1994) and Miramontes (2002). The one at Cabecicos de Villena, near Cabezo Redondo, covers 2.39 hectares of gypsophilous scrubland, the only vegetation able to withstand the stressful gypsum environment, with high summer temperatures and severe winter frosts; it protects priority plants such as jabonera (soapwort), acelga de salobral, zamarrilla and gypsum herniary, as well as a steppe vegetation area with wormwoods of Irano-Turanian origin that blooms with gypsophilous annuals in spring.
Nature
The highest point of the Sierra de Salinas, a Lower Cretaceous limestone formation that stretches about 15 kilometres as an anticline of the Prebetic system and forms the border between the north of the Region of Murcia and the comarques of Alto and Medio Vinalopó. The Pico de la Capilla, at 1,238 metres and a second-order geodetic vertex, marks the point where the municipalities of Villena, Pinoso and Yecla converge. On the north slope, the one belonging to Villena, a road runs into the sierra among endemic plants, grottoes and caves such as the Lagrimal, alongside viewpoints and old settlers' houses; on the south side, footpaths and drover's tracks climb to the summit, from where, on clear days, the Mediterranean Sea can be seen.
Curiosity
The huerta of Villena preserves wetlands where the fartet (Aphanius iberus) lives, a very scarce fish which, according to the municipality's entry, is found only in Morocco and south-eastern Spain. It is a small-bodied fish that rarely exceeds five centimetres in length, listed as endangered and considered one of the highest-risk Iberian vertebrate species. It tolerates shallow, slow-flowing waters with wide variations in salinity, temperature and acidity, a quality that allows it to survive in the ponds and irrigation channels of the huerta.
Curiosity
On 17 January 1957 a temperature of -24.0°C was recorded in Villena, the lowest ever officially recorded in the Comunitat Valenciana.
Curiosity
On 13 August 1172 the Almohad caliph Yusuf I camped beside Villena castle on his way to Murcia. The chronicle specifically places the episode on a Sunday, when the caliph was travelling from Huete to the city of Murcia and halted his march in the vicinity of the Villena fortress.
Activity
Villena hosted the Muestra Internacional de Cine y Derechos Humanos (International Film and Human Rights Festival) in 2009; it has not been possible to confirm whether the festival continues on an annual basis.
Activity
Our Lady of the Virtues has been the patroness of Villena since 1474, according to tradition, when the townspeople fled to the Fuente del Chopo during a plague epidemic and proclaimed her there “advocate against the plague,” replacing the former patroness, Our Lady of the Snows, linked to the hated marquises of Villena. Although the exact date is disputed, it is recorded that the townspeople took refuge in the same place again during another outbreak of plague around 1490. In her honour the sanctuary of Las Virtudes was built, about 5 kilometres from the city, whose current image dates from 1581. The feast is celebrated on 8 September, within the main festival that runs from 4 to 9 September with Moors and Christians.
Historical milestone
Cabezo Redondo is a Bronze Age site located on a hill two kilometres from Villena. Far from being a simple village, it was a genuine regional centre inhabited between 1500 and 1100 BC, probably belonging to the Argaric culture. The archaeologist José María Soler studied it systematically from 1959, following the discovery of gold, silver and copper pieces; in 1963 the Tesorillo del Cabezo Redondo appeared, today kept in the Archaeological Museum of Villena. Its stone and adobe houses, its kilns and the remains of goldwork link it with the great gold hoard found that same year a few kilometres away. A large part of the site was lost to the gypsum quarries of the area; in 2020 it was declared an independent Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection).
Historical milestone
Around 1252 Alfonso X handed the lordship of Villena to his brother Manuel de Castilla, and it was inherited from him by his son don Juan Manuel (Escalona, 1282-Cordoba, 1348), grandson of Ferdinand III and one of the leading medieval prose writers in Castilian, author of El conde Lucanor. He was simultaneously lord, duke and prince of Villena, as well as lord of Escalona, Peñafiel, Cuéllar, Elche, Cartagena, Lorca and other towns, and owner of Molina de Segura for 37 years; he was also chief steward to Kings Ferdinand IV and Alfonso XI, adelantado mayor of Andalusia and Murcia, and tutor to his nephew Alfonso XI during the final stage of his minority, alongside other nobles. From Villena he thus governed an extensive territory on the frontier between Castile and the Crown of Aragon.
Historical milestone
Carlos V granted Villena the title of city in 1525, when it was already the head of the former marquisate and a Castilian stronghold. The privilege recognised its military and commercial weight in the corridor that linked the meseta with the port of Alicante.
Historical milestone
The lagoon that occupied the bottom of the corridor was drained in 1803 by means of a network of canals and drainage ditches, gaining 1,704 hectares of cultivable land. The operation put an end to the malarial fevers and to a wetland of which only springs and salt flats remain.
Food and drink
A dough of flour, water, oil and plenty of garlic worked in the frying pan until it comes away and turns compact. It is eaten straight from the pan, in a circle and with a spoon, accompanied by sausage, cured sardine or grapes, and is a dish shared by work crews in the fields. It is made in large long-handled pans called gachamigueras, stirring with a flat paddle: first the garlic is fried, then the flour is added until it absorbs the oil, and then the water, which gradually evaporates while the dough comes away from the bottom, a process that can take up to two hours. At the end the gacha is flipped in the air, whole or in halves, until both sides are golden, with an appearance similar to a potato tortilla.
Food and drink
The vineyards of the corridor, planted on calcareous soils above five hundred metres, are covered by the DOP Alicante. Monastrell dominates, giving structured reds, alongside garnacha tintorera and some white varieties; several wineries open a tasting room.