Logbook · 5 places

What to see and do in Paterna

What to see and do in Paterna (L'Horta Nord, Valencia): 5 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 1 Activities · 3 Historical milestones

Towns near Paterna

What to see in Manises 2 km · 8 places
What to see in Quart de Poblet 2.2 km · 6 places
What to see in Burjassot 2.6 km · 6 places
What to see in Godella 3.1 km · 2 places
What to see in Mislata 3.8 km · 5 places
What to see in Rocafort 4.1 km · 1 place
What to see in Xirivella 4.3 km · 4 places
What to see in Aldaia 4.6 km · 8 places

Spain › Valencian Community › Valencia › L'Horta Nord › Paterna

What to see and do in Paterna

Paterna
Village
Paterna is a municipality of L'Horta Nord, on the banks of the Turia, the ninth-largest city in the Valencian Community and the third in the metropolitan area, with 76,019 inhabitants (INE 2025). Of Roman origin, it became a vicus around the 3rd century; in the Middle Ages it stood out for its pottery, part of a centuries-old potting tradition between the 12th and 15th centuries, of which the socarrats are the most characteristic product; on 10 April 1237 James I entered the territory and handed the hamlet over to Artal de Luna. The decline of pottery-making in the 16th century, worsened by the Germanías revolt and the expulsion of the Moriscos, gave way to an agricultural economy that did not diversify until 1888, with the arrival of the railway. It preserves the Arab tower, the counts' palace and the Church of Saint Peter. Between 1939 and 1956, 2,237 people were shot by firing squad near the cemetery.
Festivities of Paterna
Activity
Paterna celebrates its main festival on the last Sunday of August, with parades of Moors and Christians and the Cordà de Paterna, declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional (a national tourist-interest festival designation) in 2017. The Cordà, of uncertain origin though documented since the 19th century, is a nighttime pyrotechnic display lasting about 25 minutes that begins at 1:30 in the morning, during the festival of the Santísimo Cristo de la Fe. Along 150 metres of Calle Mayor, coets, coetons and femelletes (types of firecrackers) are hung, totalling around 70,000 firecrackers and 1,000 kilos of gunpowder each year. The Coeter Major opens the event with a green flare and closes it with a red one, while around 350 male and female shooters, protected by thick clothing and leather overalls, are responsible for lighting them.
The entry of Jaime I into Paterna
Historical milestone
The king took without a fight in 1237 the Andalusi farmstead and handed it over to Artal de Luna; the place became a nearby base for the siege of Valencia and centuries later would pass to the infante Enrique of Aragon.
The rise of Paterna's pottery
Historical milestone
The town's potteries were between the 12th and 15th centuries one of the great ceramic centers of the peninsula, with blue and green earthenware and the socarrats, painted clay plaques that decorated the ceilings of houses.
The executions at Paterna cemetery
Historical milestone
Beside the cemetery wall more than two thousand two hundred people were executed between 1939 and 1956 after the Civil War, around half of those shot in the whole Valencian Community; the graves have been exhumed in recent years.