Village
Siete Aguas is a Spanish-speaking municipality of Hoya de Buñol, in the province of Valencia, on the border with Castilla-La Mancha, on the mountainous step separating the comarca of La Plana de Utiel-Requena, at 700 metres above sea level. Its place name is recorded in the Carta Puebla of James I in 1260 as Setaygues, a Valencian calque of the Latin Septem Aquis; it remained so until the 17th century, when it was translated into Spanish as Siete Aguas, reflecting the Aragonese origin of the population since the Reconquista. The terrain is mountainous, with sierras exceeding 1,100 metres to the north, such as La Cabrera, and to the south, such as Malacara. The Buñol river rises within its territory. It has 1,289 inhabitants. Its Gothic Cruz Pairal symbolised the border between Castile and Valencia until 1851.
Activity
The Semana Cultural de Siete Aguas is held in the second week of August and is organised by the OLEA youth association, a cultural initiative from Siete Aguas dedicated to promoting cultural activities in the municipality. It is one of the most notable festive events on the local calendar, in the La Hoya de Buñol district (Valencia).
Activity
Siete Aguas dedicates its patronal festivities to San Juan Bautista on the 23rd and 24th of June, with the traditional bonfire and face-washing at the Fuente de los Siete Caños; its main festivities, from the 1st to the 6th of August, honor instead the Santísimo Cristo de los Afligidos.
Monument
Gothic stone cross that marked the border between the old kingdoms of Castile and Valencia until 1851, standing at the boundary between the municipalities of Requena and Siete Aguas. That year, a Royal Order of Isabella II placed Requena within the province of Valencia and moved the border to the Cabriel River, so the cross was removed from its original site. Now restored, it is kept today at the Glorieta, at the entrance to the town of Siete Aguas.
Monument
The Torre del Mojón, also called Torre de la Contienda, is a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) formed by the remains of a watchtower or defensive tower situated on the historic border between Castile and the Kingdom of Valencia. It stands in the Mojón district, in the municipality of Siete Aguas (Valencia), a Spanish-speaking municipality in the Hoya de Buñol comarca. It holds a generic declaration as a bien de interés cultural, under registration number 46.18.229-002.
Monument
Parish church of Siete Aguas (Valencia), dedicated to San Juan Bautista, about two hundred years old. Inside, two images of great popular devotion are venerated: the Santísimo Cristo de los Afligidos and the carving of San Juan Bautista, patron saint of the municipality, in whose honor the main festival is held on 24 June.
Nature
The Ruta de las Fuentes de Siete Aguas (Route of the Springs of Siete Aguas) runs past more than a hundred springs scattered across the municipality, in the La Hoya de Buñol comarca, noted for their quality and healthfulness; among them are the Fuente del Retiro, the Tejería spring, the Gota spring and the Papán spring. The village's own name, Siete Aguas, comes from the Latin Septem Aquis, seven waters, referring to the abundance of water in the area.
Nature
Natural area close to the urban core of Siete Aguas, within the comarca of La Hoya de Buñol.
Curiosity
On 17 November 1260 James I granted a settlement charter (carta puebla) to Siete Aguas, in favour of Miquel Pere de Portaguerra and thirty other Christian knights, with the aim of repopulating this frontier town of the Kingdom of Valencia; the king himself kept the town for his own because of its strategic position. The document already records the Valencian place name Setaygues, a translation of Septem Aquis. Siete Aguas became an island of Christianity governed under its own fuero (charter law) within a comarca inhabited almost exclusively by Muslims and subject to Islamic law, and it marked the boundary of the kingdom until 1851, when the administrative border was moved to the Cabriel River.
Activity
Siete Aguas celebrates the festivities of San Blas on the 3rd of February, with a morning procession, in addition to the festivities of San Juan Bautista (24th of June) and the Santísimo Cristo de los Afligidos (6th of August).
Activity
Siete Aguas dedicates its patronal festivities to San Juan Bautista on the 23rd and 24th of June, with a bonfire and the traditional face-washing at the Fuente de los Siete Caños.
Activity
The Gran Fondo Internacional de Siete Aguas is a popular long-distance race held every August in this Valencian municipality. It runs along a 15,150-metre paved circuit and brings together amateur runners and elite international athletes alike, on a course described as being of uncommon beauty and toughness. It is considered one of the finest events on the international calendar of road distance races, which explains the prestige it has earned among endurance-athletics enthusiasts.
Nature
Natural cavity in the municipal district of Siete Aguas, of speleological interest within the network of caves and ravines of the Hoya de Buñol.
Nature
Natural pool of still water in the municipal district of Siete Aguas, one of the village's traditional recreational spots.
Historical milestone
The district marked for centuries the limit between the Kingdom of Valencia and the Castilian lands of Requena, with a customs post and control of the roads. The border only moved to the river Cabriel in 1851, when Requena and Utiel passed to the province of Valencia.
Food and drink
At seven hundred metres of altitude and with scarce rainfall, the vineyard of the district gives grapes of high acidity that are vinified into light reds and macabeo whites. They are wines for local consumption, very different from those of the Valencian coastal huerta.