Village
La Vall de Laguar is a municipality in the comarca of La Marina Alta, in the province of Alicante, made up of the settlements of Benimaurell, Campell, Fleix —where the town hall is— and Fontilles, situated at an average altitude of 500 metres between two sierras. On one side, the Barranco del Infierno, formed by the Girona river, separates the Sierra de la Carrasca or d'Ebo, about 1,000 metres high, from the Sierra del Migdia; on the other rises the Sierra del Cavall Verd or del Penyó, 800 metres high. Its name comes from the Arabic Al-Agwar, 'the caves'. In the 13th century the leader Al-Azraq resisted the conquest of James I of Aragon here, until he died in 1276 defending an uprising before Alcoy.
Monument
The Castle of Vall de Laguar, also known as Castell de les Atzahares, is a small fortification of Muslim origin with two rectangular-plan enclosures, situated on a crag near Fontilles, in the Marina Alta (Alicante). Its walls, made of rammed earth, are partly cut into the rock. It was conquered in 1609 by Sanç de Lluna and was abandoned after the expulsion of the Moriscos. Today only remains of the walls on the crag survive. It has been declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) since 30 May 2000.
Monument
The tower of la Casota, near the town of Campell, in the Vall de Laguar, is a defensive tower with a rectangular plan, about 10 by 7 metres and with more than 3.5 metres of height preserved, today partly ruined and incorporated into later agricultural buildings. Its rammed-earth walls, 1.19 metres wide, correspond to a military-type construction that combined guard and defence functions from a strategic point. The documented remains date from between the late 11th century and the mid-13th century, in the Almohad period, coinciding with a time of fortification of Andalusi territory in the face of the advance of the Christian kingdoms. It was an isolated building, raised at the end of a hill from which it commands a broad view of the landscape as far as the coast.
Monument
Sanatorium founded in 1909 in Fontilles, a settlement in the municipality of Vall de Laguar (Marina Alta, Alicante), by the lawyer Joaquín Ballester Lloret and the Jesuit Carlos Ferris Vila. For more than a hundred years it has been a benchmark in the treatment and eradication of leprosy in Spain, caring for patients arriving from all over the country, assisted by volunteers, Franciscan nuns, Jesuit fathers and medical staff. It also has a laboratory where research projects are carried out in collaboration with Spanish and foreign universities and institutions. The sanatorium remains in operation today, caring for around thirty residents and more than a hundred and fifty patients in outpatient treatment.
Monument
18th-century church with a rectangular nave and barrel vault, in Campell, one of the four settlements of the Vall de Laguar. Built in 1704, it has a rectangular plan with a gabled roof, side aisles with chapels, and stands in the Plaza de Santa Anna, the town's social centre. Its construction came several decades after the 1611 repopulation, following the 1609 expulsion of the Moriscos, in a period of reorganisation and settlement of the area.
Nature
The Barranco del Infierno, carved by the Girona river between the Carrasca and Cavall Verd mountain ranges, separates the districts of Vall d'Ebo and Vall de Laguar along some 3 kilometres of steep, spectacular route, with countless small rappels and linked pothole traps. It is considered the most important canyoning gorge in the Comunidad Valenciana. Its first documented descent was made, on 19 May 1968, by a roped party of six mountaineers from the Centre Excursionista d'Alcoi, in twelve uninterrupted hours.
Curiosity
The Vall de Laguar consists of Benimaurell (Poble de Dalt), Fleix (Poble d'Enmig) and Campell (Poble de Baix); it was the last Morisco stronghold before the expulsion of 1609 and was resettled on 14 June 1611 with colonists from Mallorca.
Curiosity
In the Vall de Laguar, in the Marina Alta comarca, farming is carried out on terraces where almond, carob, fig and olive trees grow, but above all cherry trees, whose fruit is protected by the Protected Designation of Origin "Cerezas de la Montaña de Alicante". In spring, the blossoming of the cherry trees tinges the landscape with a delicate colour that later gives way to the green speckled with red of the ripe cherries. Income from the sale of cherries and almonds has been declining year after year due to competition from imported fruit.
Activity
Patronal festivities of Benimaurell, a settlement of the Vall de Laguar, in honour of Saints Cosmas and Damian. They are held in mid-August, a patronage shared with the settlement's parish church, dedicated to the same saints and built in the 16th century with a single nave and side chapels.
Activity
Festivities of Santa Teresa de Fleix, a settlement known as Poble d'Enmig, where the seat of the Vall de Laguar town council is located (Alicante, Marina Alta). They are held in early September in honour of Saint Teresa, whose local parish is dedicated to Saint Teresa and Saint Paschal.
Monument
Parish church of Fleix, the Poble d'Enmig of the Vall de Laguar, erected in 1730 and dedicated to Saint Teresa and Saint Pascal. It is a simple building with a single nave on a rectangular plan, with a two-sided roof and side chapels.
Monument
Church of the Poble de Dalt of la Vall de Laguar, with origins going back to the 16th century, presiding over the highest of the three villages that make up the municipality.
Nature
A spectacular ravine in the Marina Alta, between the municipalities of Vall d'Ebo and Vall de Laguar, followed by the Girona river. It is the main ravine for canyoning in the Valencian Country and has great geological and archaeological interest, with rock shelters that preserve cave paintings of Levantine, schematic and macroschematic art. In its upper stretch are els Tolls, natural pools where people bathe in summer, and further down stand out the polished walls of white limestone, with abseils and potholes. It also has four avencs (sinkholes) of speleological interest -one 130 metres deep- and several caves, among them the Cova del Tio Rull, discovered in 1919 and opened to the public in 1995. It is reached by the PR-CV 147 trail, called Les Escales dels Moros, which passes by the Font de Reinós.
Historical milestone
Thousands of Moriscos who refused to embark took refuge in November 1609 in the crags of the valley, under the leadership of the so-called king Mellini. The army's siege and the lack of water put an end to the last focus of armed resistance in the kingdom of Valencia.