Logbook · 7 places

What to see and do in Onda

What to see and do in Onda (La Plana Baixa, Castellón): 7 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Monuments · 1 Activities · 1 Curiosities · 1 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

How far each place is from the centre of Onda

Castle of Onda 550 m

Towns near Onda

What to see in Tales 3.9 km · 1 place
What to see in Suera 5.8 km · 1 place
What to see in Ribesalbes 6.6 km · 2 places
What to see in Betxí 6.9 km · 5 places
What to see in Fanzara 7.6 km · 10 places
What to see in Artana 8 km · 9 places
What to see in Alcudia de Veo 9.3 km · 9 places
What to see in Aín 9.5 km · 7 places

Spain › Valencian Community › Castellón › La Plana Baixa › Onda

What to see and do in Onda

Onda
Village
Onda is a municipality in the comarca of La Plana Baixa, in the province of Castellón, with a well-known tile-making tradition and a historic centre of Muslim layout. Its municipal area, covering 108.84 km², lies inland, about 20 kilometres from the coast, between the Sierra de Espadán and the Plana plain, which made Onda a strategic entry point to the sierra and explains the importance of its castle, on a 284-metre hillock. It is crossed by the Mijares river to the north and the Sonella to the south. There were already stable settlements in Iberian times, under the Greek name Sepelacon, and in Roman times, as Sepelaci, from which inscriptions and the remains of a bridge survive. The Muslim settlement, from the early 11th century, walled the town, an important centre in the 12th and 13th centuries.
Castle of Onda
Monument
Onda Castle, one of the most extensive in the Valencian Community, overlooks the historic quarter of Muslim layout in this town in Castellón. The original structure was built by the Muslims in the 10th century over an earlier Roman settlement, and was buried beneath the reconstructions of later centuries. Owing to its great size it came to be known as the castle of the 300 towers, as it was said to have as many towers as the year has days. It is currently undergoing restoration and houses a museum whose highlight is an exhibition of Muslim plasterwork from a palatial house of the early 13th century.
Museum of el Azulejo de Onda
Monument
The Manolo Safont Tile Museum in Onda is dedicated to ceramics for architectural use and holds more than 20,000 pieces, from Gothic tilework to contemporary pieces, documenting the town's centuries-old ceramic and tile-making tradition; the town is known as the ciutat del taulell (the city of tiles). Particularly notable are the collections from Onda's 19th- and 20th-century ceramic workshops and industries, both for their quality and their quantity, together with machinery, tools and documentary archives -drawings, catalogues and photographs- on the manufacture, design and marketing of tiles.
Ceramic tradition of Onda and Ribesalbes
Curiosity
Onda and Ribesalbes form part, together with L'Alcora, of the historic hub of the tile and ceramics industry in the province of Castellón. The manufacture of tiles and flooring, exported worldwide, is today the main driver of Onda's economy, whose history is preserved in the Manolo Safont Tile Museum: more than 20,000 pieces ranging from Gothic tilework to the present day, with ceramics from Onda's workshops and industries of the 19th and 20th centuries, as well as machinery, tools and documentary archives.
Festivities of Onda
Activity
Onda celebrates its patronal festival in the last week of October, in honour of the Santísimo Salvador, the Virgen de la Esperanza and San Roque, with bulls, bull runs and the collective singing of the anthem to the Santísimo Salvador in the Plaza del Raval.
The settlement charter of Onda
Historical milestone
James I granted a settlement charter to the town that had changed hands several times between Muslims and Christians; it afterwards passed to the Order of the Hospital and to that of Montesa, until the residents bought back the jurisdiction in 1393.
The coca malfeta
Food and drink
A spongy sponge cake of irregular appearance, from which it takes its name, baked in the households for afternoon snacks and festivities; the Onda table is completed with the rice with meatballs characteristic of Christmas.