Village
Almàssera is a municipality in the comarca of L'Horta Nord, in the province of Valencia, situated at an altitude of 10 metres on the left bank of the Carraixet ravine, which carries water only seasonally but can cause major flooding. Its flat municipal area is irrigated by the Royal Ditch of Moncada and the Rascaña ditch, which draw from the Turia river; its name comes from the Arabic al-maʿṣara, "the olive press". Its origin goes back to an Andalusi alquería that King James I granted in 1238 to the bishop of Huesca, and which in the 13th century passed through several seigneurial hands. It preserves the Gothic Cruz Cubierta (Covered Cross), from 1372, and commemorates the Miracle of the Fish of 1352, which gave it ecclesiastical independence from Alboraia.
Monument
The church of the Santísimo Sacramento is a Catholic church located next to the Plaza Mayor of Almàssera (Valencia). It was built on the site of an earlier temple from 1347, demolished in 1699, and its construction continued from 1792 to 1875, according to plans by Vicente Marzo; the third section of the left-hand tower was not completed until the late 1980s. With a floor plan of three naves and a transept, it has a brick façade over ashlar masonry, of academic and geometric severity, flanked by two three-section towers topped with a balustrade, with the clock on the left-hand tower. It preserves the lead casket where, according to tradition, the hosts from the miracle of the fish that gave rise to the parish were kept. It is a Bien de Relevancia Local (a local-level heritage protection category, below Bien de Interés Cultural).
Monument
Gothic cross from 1372 with capitals and religious iconography, one of the oldest monuments in Almàssera (l'Horta Nord, Valencia), commissioned by the jurats (councillors) of Valencia. It is structured in four stone pillars arranged radially, topped with semi-columns and Gothic capitals depicting scenes of the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Epiphany and the Ascension. At the centre rises the cross itself, on three octagonal steps and a prismatic shaft, with Christ crucified on one face and the Virgin Mary on the other.
Monument
Casa Llopis is a building in the Valencian Modernist style located on the Plaza Major of Almàssera. Its façade is entirely decorated with tiles forming a mosaic of dancing female figures, brought from Meliana, and is topped with a frieze of cherubs alternating with vases and lion masks. It consists of a ground floor and an upper floor, with two symmetrical dwellings separated by the door giving access to the staircase; the upper-floor windows have brown tile borders. Above the entrance doors are the monograms of the Llopis family, owners of the building, and the grilles of the windows and shutters depict warriors.
Curiosity
Legendary episode that occurred in July 1348 between the present-day municipalities of Alboraya and Almàssera (Huerta Norte, Valencia). According to tradition, the priest of Alboraya, on whom Almàssera then depended, was going to administer the viaticum to a badly wounded convert when, crossing the Carraixet ravine swollen by rain, he fell into the water and lost the small chest holding the sacred hosts. Some farmers later found three fish with the hosts in their mouths, gathered with a chalice today kept in Alboraya, while the chest remained in Almàssera; hence Alboraya's coat of arms bears three fish and Almàssera's, two. Following the event, Almàssera obtained its own parish in 1352, thanks to the mediation of Hug de Fenollet.
Activity
Patronal festivities of Almàssera, in the Horta Nord region, in honour of the Blessed Sacrament, celebrated on the fourth Sunday of August instead of the traditional date of Corpus Christi, thanks to a papal privilege. They combine traditional acts, such as the bous al carrer, with more festive ones, and their central moment is the Corpus procession, in which many villagers portray biblical characters, accompanied by dances and by giants and bigheads.
Food and drink
Tuber grown in the sandy soils of the huerta since Andalusi times, protected by a protected designation of origin; it is dried for months before being turned into horchata. The PDO, approved in 1995, protects a single variety, Cyperus esculentus var. sativus, grown in Almàssera and other municipalities of the Valencian huerta such as Alboraya, Meliana or Foios. The regulation distinguishes xufa tendra, freshly washed, from xufa seca, which is washed and dried and classified by size into colliter and gransa, as well as two shapes of tuber, the llargueta and the ametlla. Each unit weighs between 0.45 and 0.80 grams, and when dry it is made up of between 11 and 17.5% sugars, 23 to 31% fats, 6.5 to 12% proteins and 25 to 40% starch.