Village
Vallanca is one of the smallest municipalities of El Rincón de Ademuz, in the province of Valencia, with 128 inhabitants divided between the village and the hamlet of Negrón. Documented since the early 13th century as a parish of the lands of Ademuz, it was in the Middle Ages a frontier settlement with Castile, the westernmost in the municipal area; despite being its second parish since the conquest, its independence did not come until 1695, when Charles II granted it the title of Villa Real, the third in the comarca after Castielfabib and Ademuz. The village is terraced on the southern slope of a 1,087-meter hill, and at its foot runs the deeply cut Bohílgues river, with a well-preserved bank, which irrigates its walnut trees. Its economy combines dry-farming and irrigated agriculture with livestock raising.
Nature
The valley of the three rivers is the territory of Vallanca, in the comarca of El Rincón de Ademuz, crossed by the rivers Turia, Ebrón and Bohílgues, the latter on its way to the Turia through the municipality. It is a rugged landscape of the Serranía de Cuenca, with numerous ravines, whose altitude ranges from 1452 metres at Cabeza Peñalba to 890 metres by the Bohílgues; the village sits at 973 metres, on the southern slope of a hill that reaches 1087 metres. Cereals, almond, walnut and apple trees, and vines are grown on its land.
Nature
The Barranco de Vallanca, in the comarca of El Rincón de Ademuz (Valencia), where canyoning is practised, lies within a rugged municipality crossed by numerous ravines through which the river Bohílgues flows in a narrow channel. The municipality's altitude ranges between 1452 metres in the highest areas and 890 metres by the riverbed, giving an idea of the drop and the rugged topography of the area.
Activity
Vallanca obtained from Carlos II in 1695 the title of royal town, which gave it administrative independence from Ademuz. Among its festivals, the Septenario de la Bajada de la Virgen de Santerón stands out, a celebration held only every seven years.
Nature
The Bohílgues River, also called the Río de Vallanca, is a tributary of the Turia in the Rincón de Ademuz; it rises in the Sierra de Santerón, in the province of Cuenca, and flows through the municipalities of Vallanca and Ademuz, where it joins the Turia on its right bank. Together with the Ebrón, it is one of the two main tributaries of the Turia in the comarca, and the only one that both rises and ends within it; it is also, apart from the Ebrón, the only one with a more or less constant flow all year round, since the rest are ramblas and ravines that run dry in summer. Its valley is narrower than that of the Ebrón, especially near Vallanca and in the Hoz gorge, already within the municipality of Ademuz, where it forms landscapes of great scenic value; this narrowness has traditionally confined irrigation to a small strip.
Activity
A celebration held in Vallanca every seven years, in which Our Lady of Santerón is brought to the town. The image is carried down on the shoulders of pilgrims from its hermitage, in the rento of Santerón, in the municipality of Algarra (Cuenca), to the parish church of Vallanca, where pilgrims come from Castilla-La Mancha, Valencia and Aragón; nine days later, once the novena is complete, it returns to its hermitage by the same route. According to tradition, the septennial celebration was established after a plague or drought ended thanks to prayers to the Virgin; the first documented transfer dates from around 1718. The 18th-century hermitage has an octagonal dome and a Mudéjar coffered ceiling, and the current image, the work of Valencian workshops in the 1940s, replaced the original, which was destroyed during the Civil War.
Monument
The parish church of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles, a late-17th-century Baroque temple, is one of the oldest in the Rincón de Ademuz: its existence is already documented in the first third of the 13th century, although the present building replaced the medieval one around 1700. It is one of the most coherent Baroque temples in the comarca, with a longitudinal plan, a wide central nave and six interconnected side chapels. Notable is its black-on-white sgraffito decoration, typical of the last decade of the 17th century, which covers much of the chapels, nave and chancel, and is considered the best preserved of its kind in the comarca. Among the movable heritage are preserved gravestones from the 14th to the 16th centuries and a 16th-century panel of the Buen Pastor.
Monument
A Catholic hermitage located next to Vallanca, in the Valencian comarca of the Rincón de Ademuz, declared a bien de relevancia local (a heritage protection designation for assets of local significance in the Valencian Community). Originally built under the dedication of the Santísima Trinidad, it was constructed in the first third of the 17th century; at the end of that century its dedication changed to San Roque, protector of pilgrims and the sick, probably as a result of plague epidemics. It has a Latin-cross plan, unusual in the comarca, with a single nave, two side chapels and a main chapel, and preserves carved crosses on its walls, four of which allude to its original Trinitarian dedication. It suffered looting and fire during the Revolution of 1936. The pilgrimages in its honour, formerly dedicated to the Trinidad, are now held on 16 August, the feast of San Roque, patron saint of Vallanca.
Monument
The parish church of San Antonio de Padua, in the hamlet of Negrón, in the municipality of Vallanca, in the comarca of the Rincón de Ademuz, holds parish rank despite being in a small settlement. Its origin may be earlier, but from the 18th century a hermitage under this dedication is already documented, which spared residents the journey to the church in Vallanca; from 1868 it attained the rank of parish served by a rector. The building, with a rectangular plan comprising a chancel, nave and choir loft above the door, has a plain façade of Franciscan simplicity, with an austere lintelled doorway and a quadrangular brick bell tower built in 1952.
Nature
The fuente del Chopo de Negrón, also called the fuente del Canalón, stands opposite the hamlet of Negrón, in the municipality of Vallanca, at 1080 metres above sea level. It takes its name from the black poplar, or white poplar, that grows beside it, two and a half centuries old and listed as an Árbol Monumental de la Comunidad Valenciana (the official register of monumental trees of the Valencian Community). The spring flows through two spouts, one thin and the other thicker, pouring into a continuous trough that serves as a drinking basin of clear, very cold water, and it stands at the point where the path descends toward the rambla, next to the old public washhouse. As early as the beginning of the 20th century, the agricultural engineer Rafael Janini described the poplar, then with a trunk more than four metres in circumference, in the first Spanish treatise devoted to monumental trees.
Activity
A patronal festival held every 17 June in the hamlet of Negrón, a pedanía of Vallanca, in the Valencian comarca of the Rincón de Ademuz, in honour of San Antonio de Padua. The events are held at the parish church of San Antonio de Padua, an 18th-century building of Franciscan simplicity, with a rectangular plan divided into three sections forming the chancel, the nave and the choir.
Historical milestone
Charles II granted the place in 1695 the title of royal town and with it administrative independence from Ademuz, on whose general territory it had depended since the conquest despite being its second parish.
Food and drink
The walnut trees on the banks of the Bohílgues give a walnut of recognized quality that is gathered in autumn; together with the almond, it is the basis of the homemade sweets and of the turrón made for Christmas.