Logbook · 8 places

What to see and do in Alfara del Patriarca

What to see and do in Alfara del Patriarca (L'Horta Nord, Valencia): 8 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 4 Monuments · 2 Activities · 1 Historical milestones

When to go to Alfara del Patriarca: festival calendar

March: Fallas of Alfara del Patriarca (March 15-19)
August: Festivities of San Bartolomé de Alfara del Patriarca (late August)

How far each place is from the centre of Alfara del Patriarca

Towns near Alfara del Patriarca

What to see in Montcada/Moncada 750 m · 10 places
What to see in Vinalesa 1.5 km · 3 places
What to see in Foios 2.6 km · 4 places
What to see in Rocafort 2.6 km · 1 place
What to see in Albalat dels Sorells 3.4 km · 1 place
What to see in Bonrepòs i Mirambell 3.4 km · 3 places
What to see in Godella 3.6 km · 2 places
What to see in Meliana 3.7 km · 6 places

Spain › Valencian Community › Valencia › L'Horta Nord › Alfara del Patriarca

What to see and do in Alfara del Patriarca

Alfara del Patriarca
Village
Alfara del Patriarca is one of the smallest municipalities in the comarca of L'Horta Nord, in the province of Valencia, with a municipal area of barely 2 square kilometres and 3,740 inhabitants. It was a Muslim alquería until James I conquered it in 1249; it later passed through several lords until in 1396 it was acquired by the Cruïlles family, who built the palace that gives its name to the town's main monument, and later it belonged to Saint John of Ribera, the Patriarch after whom the town is named. The flat, market-garden area is crossed by the Carraixet ravine, and its economy has depended on irrigation, with orange trees, lemon trees and vegetables. The parish church, a Baroque building from 1732, and the convent of San Diego are preserved.
Palace of Cruïlles de Alfara del Patriarca
Monument
Palace also known as the Castillo de la Señoría or Castillo-Palacio de los Cruilles, in the centre of Alfara del Patriarca (Valencia). In 1396 the seigneury passed to Bartolomé Cruilles, whose family held it until 1595, when Cosme Cruilles sold it to Archbishop Juan de Ribera; in 1601 it passed to the Colegio de Corpus Christi, which kept it until 1819. It is a Gothic building on a square plan with three storeys, with corner towers of which only one survives intact, and a central courtyard with a covered staircase. It has trilobed-arch windows and alfarje ceilings; in one tower there remain traces of murals and Latin inscriptions, traditionally linked to san Vicente Ferrer. Declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 2001 and restored in the 1980s, it today houses municipal offices.
House of the Mermaid of Alfara del Patriarca
Monument
Rare fortified farmhouse of 1550 in Alfara del Patriarca, Renaissance in architecture, with a coat of arms showing a woman's head encircled by a serpent.
Convent of San Diego de Alfara del Patriarca
Monument
The Convento de San Diego, in Alfara del Patriarca, was a house of the Observant Franciscan order built in 1599, between the 16th and 17th centuries, next to the Camino de Carpesa, before reaching Almácera. It was declared a Bien de Relevancia Local (a local-level heritage designation) in 2002. Following the 19th-century disentailment, its premises became the El Globo match factory, a use that gave way, already in the 20th century, to the headquarters of an international company. The conventual church is used today as a warehouse, and the cloister, walled up, has lost its original function; on the upper floor the friars' old dormitories are still preserved. The complex has suffered several fires that have erased much of its decoration, although beneath the layer of white paint sgraffito work from the conventual period can still be made out.
Church of San Bartolomé de Alfara del Patriarca
Monument
The Church of San Bartolomé, on the Plaza de la Iglesia in Alfara del Patriarca, is a Catholic church in the Baroque style that retains a bell tower from 1667 and a façade from 1725, with 18th-century tilework in the Chapel of San Antonio. It holds the status of Bien de Relevancia Local (a local-level heritage designation) under Valencian heritage law, under the provision approved in 2007.
Festivities of San Bartolomé de Alfara del Patriarca
Activity
The patron saint festivities of Alfara del Patriarca are held in honour of San Bartolomé during the second half of August, with the main mass on the 24th. They include a fancy-dress contest and street parades, traditions to which a balcony-decorating contest was added in 2021.
Fallas of Alfara del Patriarca
Activity
Fallas of Alfara del Patriarca, a municipality whose name recalls the Archbishop of Valencia and Patriarch of Antioch San Juan de Ribera, who acquired the place and ceded it to the Colegio del Corpus Christi.
The purchase of Alfara by San Juan de Ribera
Historical milestone
Between 1569 and 1611, during the archbishopric of San Juan de Ribera, Patriarch of Antioch, the Cruïlles family sold Alfara to the prelate, who ceded the place to the Colegio del Corpus Christi; from that lordship comes the surname the municipality carries today.