Village
Cullera is the tourist capital of the comarca of La Ribera Baixa, in the province of Valencia, situated on the Mediterranean coast between the mouth of the Júcar River and the Montaña de los Zorros. It has around 24,700 inhabitants. In Roman times it was a port known as Portum Sucrone, linked to maritime trade, and in the district of La Rápita remains of a salting factory have been found; under Muslim rule it was called Qulayra, the name from which the current one derives. It was conquered in 1239. The Júcar River irrigates much of the comarca, and by the sea stretch the L'Estany lagoon, to the south, and that of San Lorenzo, to the north, near the Albufera Natural Park. It preserves its castle, its walls and the lighthouse on the headland by the sea.
Monument
A complex of Muslim military architecture raised in the 10th century, in the caliphal period, on the Montaña de los Zorros of Cullera (Valencia), from where the coastline and the mouth of the Júcar are controlled. It is mentioned in the Cantar de Mio Cid, which recounts its sacking by El Cid; it passed into Christian hands in 1239 with James I and served as a defence against Berber pirates in the 16th century. It consisted of a first walled enclosure, the old albacar, with a ten-metre main tower, and a new albacar with five towers. It also preserves a 15th–16th-century Gothic chapel, today home to the municipal Archaeological Museum. The complex, declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 1983, has housed since 1997 the Municipal Museum of History and Archaeology of Cullera.
Monument
The Cullera lighthouse stands on the cape of Cullera, on the headland overlooking the mouth of the río Xúquer, next to the town's castle. Built in 1858, it gave its name to the hamlet of El Far, which spreads over the foothills of the Cullera mountain from Cap Blanc beach to the Dosel area. Around it a fishing hamlet formed first and, from the 1960s onward, a second-home development with tall buildings beside its beaches.
Activity
Cullera celebrates San Antonio Abad on 17 January, and its patron saint, the Virgen de la Encarnación (la Moreneta), from Easter Saturday to the Sunday of the following week.
Monument
19th-century sanctuary in Cullera, also known as the Virgen de la Encarnación, beside the town's castle.
Monument
The torre del Marenyet is a circular defensive tower some twenty metres high on the right bank of the Júcar, near its mouth at Cullera, built in 1577, well into the 16th century, during the reign of Philip II, to watch the coast against the frequent attacks of Turkish and Barbary pirates. It was part of a defensive system some fifteen kilometres long linking the coasts of the former Kingdom of Valencia, reinforced after the destruction suffered by Cullera in 1550 at the hands of the pirate Turgut Reis. Built of masonry, about ten metres in diameter, it has two floors connected by a narrow staircase and topped by a battlemented terrace from which the arrival of enemy ships was signalled with pigeons or fire.
Activity
A market built between 1896 and 1900 by the architect Luis Ferreres, considered one of the finest examples of Modernista architecture surviving in Cullera.
Monument
The former town hall of Cullera, built in 1781 with the air of a small Italianate palace, in the historic centre next to the church of the Santos Juanes.
Monument
Historic hermitage of Cullera dedicated to the santos Abdón y Senén, patrons of farmers, which for years housed the town's former Rice Museum. The museum was organised into three thematic areas: the old tools used in rice cultivation, the work of preparing the land, sowing and harvesting, and the origin of rice growing, its presence in local gastronomy and farmers' traditional dress.
Curiosity
The seafood cooking of Cullera is famous for its version of paella with king prawns and red mullet fresh off the boat, traditionally served in the restaurants along Sant Antoni beach.
Curiosity
A village belonging to Cullera, south of the Estany and set among orange groves, which preserves the hermitage of San Vicente Ferrer and holds its patron saint festival on Easter Monday.
Curiosity
The historic centre of Cullera preserves a medieval layout at the foot of the castle, with narrow streets running down towards the port and the mouth of the River Xúquer.
Historical milestone
In 1550 the squadron of the Barbary corsair Dragut landed on the beach, stormed the town and carried off a good part of the residents as captives. The episode explains the network of watchtowers raised afterwards along this stretch of coast.
Historical milestone
With the Islamic stronghold of Qulayra taken in 1239, the installation of Christian colonists went on for decades. In 1290 Jaume II intervened personally in the distribution of houses and lands so as to settle the new population on a stable footing.
Food and drink
The local fleet lands daily cuttlefish, red mullet, king prawn and rock fish that are auctioned at the port's fish market. From that catch come the rice dishes and suquets served by the restaurants of the lighthouse and of the fishermen's quarter.