Village
Jalance is a municipality of El Valle de Cofrentes-Ayora, in Valencia, Spanish-speaking, with 808 inhabitants (INE 2025). It lies at the centre of the valley, at the confluence of the Júcar and Jarafuel rivers, on terrain of hills and plateaus where the Júcar carves a gorge between the Chorros de la Jávea and the peña del Buitre; the Cueva de Don Juan is found there. It belonged to various lords, including the Infante Manuel and the Duke of Gandía, until its incorporation into the Kingdom of Valencia in 1281. In the civil war of 1836 the town and its castle resisted the rebel leader Quílez, and the floods of 1864 devastated its orchards and mills and swept away the bridge over the Júcar. Today it lives mainly off the nearby Cofrentes nuclear power plant, in addition to irrigated agriculture.
Nature
One of the few caves in the province of Valencia open to visitors and one of the most important in the Comunitat Valenciana, with more than 400 metres of passages and large chambers of stalactites and stalagmites.
Activity
The Day of the Fool, also called the Feast of the Madmen, is a traditional celebration of Jalance, in the Cofrentes-Ayora Valley comarca (Valencia), held on 28 December, the day of the Holy Innocents. It has been recorded in writing since the early 17th century, through parish records, although it is presumed to be older. Participants wear outlandish costumes and paint their faces, go around the houses asking for Christmas gifts, climb onto balconies to dance with the women and stop vehicles to make their occupants dance.
Activity
Jalance holds its patron saint festivities in honour of San Blas on 3 February and the following days, with the tradition of singing coplas at five in the morning and communal meals open to the whole village. Alongside them, the so-called Día del Tonto or feast of the Locos is kept, on 28 December, the feast of the Holy Innocents, documented since the early 17th century in the parish records: the locos, in outlandish costumes and with painted faces, choose among themselves a mayor who holds the staff of office for 24 hours, and they go around the streets asking for contributions and inviting women to dance from the balconies.
Monument
Jalance Castle stands on a hill above the village, in the Valle de Ayora-Cofrentes. It is of Muslim origin, dating from the 11th century, built over the remains of an earlier Iberian fortress, and received Christian-era reforms; in the 19th century its walls were restored to shelter the population during the Carlist Wars. Its floor plan is polygonal, with ten sides, with circular towers at the corners; the upper enclosure, of about 300 m², preserves a hearth, ovens, a circular silo and a rectangular cistern. The Marquis of Santillana described it in the 15th century as an “impregnable fortress”. It was never a feudal castle, but rather a guarantor of the defence of the valley's border.
Curiosity
Three orographic units meet at Jalance: the Sierra del Boquerón, the Muela de Cortes and the Muela de Jalance, cut through by the valleys of the Cautabán and Júcar rivers.
Activity
Jalance's festivities in honor of San Blas, on the 3rd of February, in a village dominated by an Andalusi castle and the Baroque Iglesia de San Miguel Arcángel, built in 1736 over the settlement repopulated after the Morisco expulsion.
Activity
Jalance's festivities in honor of the Virgen de la Asunción, on the 15th of August, in a village whose Abrigo de las Monteses preserves Levantine rock art paintings more than 7,000 years old, declared a World Heritage Site in 1998.
Nature
Rock shelter with Levantine rock paintings more than 7,000 years old, declared a Bien de Interés Cultural in 1985 and included in 1998 in the UNESCO listing of the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin. It was discovered in 1977 by a forest ranger.
Nature
Natural site in Jalance with a nature classroom and summer camp, set among the pine woods and ravines that surround the municipality.
Historical milestone
The treaty of Campillo returned these lands to the Crown of Aragon in 1281, after almost forty years under Castilian administration. The definitive integration into the Kingdom of Valencia was completed at the beginning of the fourteenth century and fixed the border that is still recognisable.
Monument
Baroque church raised in 1736 over the settlement that had been resettled after the expulsion of the Moriscos. Its volume stands out above the whitewashed houses of the slope, below the castle of Andalusi origin that crowns the hill.
Food and drink
The irrigated land that uses the water of the Júcar and of the river Jarafuel is given over above all to the peach tree, while the dry land is left for almond and olive. The fruit is picked from June to September depending on the variety and is marketed fresh.