Village
Sagunto is a city and municipality of the Valencian Community, in the north of the province of Valencia, the comarcal capital of Campo de Morvedre. With 73,031 inhabitants, it is the tenth most populous municipality in the community and forms part of the second ring of the metropolitan area of Valencia. A former Iberian and Roman city, Saguntum, famous for the siege it suffered in the Second Punic War, it preserves its historic centre at the foot of the castle and the Roman theatre, while about 2.5 km away, by the sea, lies Puerto de Sagunto, where most of the population lives. The municipality sits on the banks of the Palancia river, with a low, sandy coastline covered in dunes and the Sierra Calderona to the southwest, reaching 466 metres. The castle rises 140 metres above the historic centre.
Monument
A fortress on the hill of Sagunto with seven separate enclosures containing the remains of public and religious buildings from the Iberian, Roman and medieval periods.
Monument
A Roman-era theatre built around 50 AD on the northern slope of the hill of Sagunto Castle, with capacity for more than 8,000 spectators and still in use today. Its planning dates back to the time of Augustus, although its completion falls already in the reign of Tiberius, between the years 14 and 37; a second phase of works, in the mid-3rd century, remodelled the building. During the Middle Ages it became an outpost of the nearby castle, a military use that contributed to its partial preservation, although the revolts of the Germanías may have caused the definitive collapse of the stage, whose ashlar blocks and marbles were later reused in other buildings in the city. It was declared a monumento nacional (Spain's former national heritage designation, precursor to today's BIC) in 1896.
Curiosity
The siege of Saguntum by Hannibal in 219 BC was one of the triggers of the Second Punic War between Rome and Carthage. After the First Punic War, which Rome had won in 241 BC, Carthage expanded its territories in Iberia, until a Carthaginian army led by Hannibal besieged, captured and sacked the city of Sagunto, an ally of Rome. In the spring of 218 BC, Rome responded by declaring war on Carthage, beginning a seventeen-year conflict that Hannibal started by crossing the Alps with his army into Italy, and which ended in 201 BC with the surrender of Carthage to Scipio Africanus.
Activity
The Fallas de Sagunto, declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional (Spain's national festival of tourist interest designation), originated with the first cadafal set up in Puerto de Sagunto in 1927. Today 58 fallas are erected, distributed among 28 comisiones falleras, 15 in Puerto de Sagunto and 13 in Sagunto, coordinated by the Federación Junta Fallera de Sagunto, created on 2 June 1971. In the days before 19 March, events follow one another such as the Crida, the humorous falla parade, the plantà of the fallas and the flower offering to the Virgin of los Desamparados; on the night of Saint Joseph, the fallas burn in a giant bonfire in the traditional cremà.
Activity
The Semana Santa of Sagunto, with more than 500 years of history and declared a Festival of National Tourist Interest, featuring the re-enactment of the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Monument
Former Jewish quarter of Sagunto (then called Morvedre or Murviedro), with a Hebrew presence documented from the late 1st or early 2nd century, in texts that are among the oldest confirming Jewish presence on the Iberian Peninsula. The best-documented period runs from the Christian conquest in the 13th century, when Jewish families arrived from Aragon and Catalonia with the conquests of James I, until the expulsion of 1492; families such as the Vives formed their own aljama, and some Jews held public offices such as that of bailiff. They were engaged mainly in craft trades and commerce, and their silversmiths were famous, such as Vidal Astori, royal silversmith in the 15th century. For security, the aljama requested permission in 1321 to close off the access points to the quarter, granted by James II.
Monument
The Jewish cemetery of Sagunto, the first in Spain open to visitors and one of the most important in Europe, occupies a strip of about 4 hectares behind the Roman theatre, at the foot of the castle walls. It contains around 60 hypogea cut into the rock together with individual trapezoidal graves oriented north to south, with the head towards the south, and bracelets and earrings of gold and silver have been found beside the bodies. It remained in use until the expulsion of the Jews in 1492.
Monument
Former port of Sagunto, known as El Grau Vell, in use from the 6th century BC to the 6th century AD, a key hub of Mediterranean trade that connected the sea transit of goods with the inland territory via the Palancia River. It preserves 18th-century defensive batteries and a 15th-century fort, restored and opened to the public in 2021. The site is declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), although its enhancement and adaptation for visitors remains pending.
Nature
The Marjal dels Moros is a protected ZEPA area (Special Protection Area for birds) and a wetland included in the Catalogue of Wetlands of the Valencian Community, located between the municipalities of Puçol and Sagunto, straddling the Horta Nord and Camp de Morvedre districts. It is home to numerous bird species, making it a site of interest for ornithologists, and has observation infrastructure and protection against the advance of the sea that have kept salt water from penetrating it. In the past the marshland extended continuously from the Albufera to Canet d'En Berenguer, but rice cultivation and the later construction of housing along the beach destroyed almost all of it, leaving it reduced to small scattered patches, of which this is one of the best preserved.
Monument
The Roman circus of Sagunto, built in the mid-2nd century, stands outside the town walls, next to the old course of the river Palancia (Udiva), and is one of the largest circuses preserved in Hispania: it measured 354 by 73 metres and had capacity for around 15,000 spectators, similar to that of Valentia. Documented since the 18th century, it was first excavated methodically by Chabret in 1888, who discovered the porta triumphalis, the spina with the euripus and hydraulic conduits; later studies by Brú i Vidal and the 1997 excavations expanded knowledge of it with the discovery of a tribune. Lacking legal protection, a large part of the site was built over in the 1960s, and today only a secondary gate is visible on Calle Huertos, built with large ashlar blocks and topped by bases with reverse cyma moulding.
Monument
An archaeological site open to visitors combining an aristocratic Roman house, the Domus dels Peixos, with the line of a colonnaded street of the forum of ancient Saguntum.
Monument
A steelworks blast furnace built between 1922 and 1926, 64 metres high, a symbol of the industrial working-class past of Puerto de Sagunto; declared a Bien de Interés Cultural and awarded the Europa Nostra Prize in 2012.
Historical milestone
The Pronunciamiento of Sagunto, or of Martínez Campos, took place on 29 December 1874 in this Valencian town. General Arsenio Martínez Campos took command of the troops garrisoned there and proclaimed as king Alfonso of Bourbon, son of the former queen Isabella II, in favour of restoring the Bourbon monarchy. The coup, backed by the Army's leading generals, put an end to the First Spanish Republic and opened the period known as the Restoration. The historian Ramón Villares described it as "the event that was expected in the flag rooms and in the aristocratic salons adorned with the fleur-de-lis."
Historical milestone
The first furnace of the steelworks raised beside the sea came into operation in the 1920s, giving birth from nothing to a workers' town with its port, its barracks and its English colony a few kilometers from the old town.
Historical milestone
The industrial restructuring shut down the blast furnace in 1984 and dismantled the steel plant, after months of strikes and demonstrations; the Port lost its reason for being and took decades to find another.