Ondara

It is located northeast of the region of the Marina Alta, in the pre-coastal depression north of the Valencian pre-Hispanic. The foothills of the Sierra de Segaria, in the north of the area, are the only elevations of its territory, otherwise quite flat. It crosses the ravine of the Fusta and the rivers Verde and Girona that begins to build its delta downstream of the town. The main urban nucleus is 4 km away. of the Mediterranean coast on the banks of the river Girona. Its municipal area (without access to the coast) is practically flat, with the exception of the Sierra de Segaria (370 m.), Located in the northwest part of the municipality. Its municipal term limits with those of Beniarbeig, Benimeli, Denia, Pedreguer and Vergel. It has a typically Mediterranean climate, with mild winters and hot summers, with an average annual temperature of 18 ° C. The first vestiges of human settlements near Ondara are located in the caves of Colom and Corb (paleolithic medium) and cave Fosca (eneolítico) in the Sierra de Segaria, and on top of it, with an Iberian settlement. On the different theories that would explain the ONDARA place-name, it seems that Professor Manuel Sanchís Guarner's is the most rigorous. According to him, it would come from ONDAR, an Iberian word meaning sand. Special interest, due to its proximity to the current urban area and linked to the arrival of Roman settlers in Dénia, the appearance of several villas, necropolis and Roman ceramics in the games of Pla de la Font, Pujades and Vinyals, where they have recovered many vestiges. Both the town (called then Ondia) and its castle are of Muslim origin. There is documented evidence that the Cid Campeador temporarily occupied the castle, where he threatened in 1089 the city of Denia, which belonged at that time to the king of Lleida of the Al Mundir al-Hayib dynasty. Later, it was attacked by Alfonso I the Battler in the course of his military expedition through Andalusia in 1125. However, it is King Jaime I of Aragon who entered the place on June 6, 1244 and annexed it to the Kingdom of Valencia. During this time, the town belonged, sometimes to the kings, others to different particular gentlemen, like Berenguer de Pablo, Pedro Episcopal, etc. In the year 1323, King Jaime II gave his son Pedro, Infante de Aragón, population and term. At the beginning of the XVI century, Ondara will be the scene of some warlike passages of the war of the Germanías (1520-1523). There were Vicente Peris, leader of the agermanado movement, and the Marquis de Zenete, brother of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, viceroy of Valencia, on the other side. The population remained predominantly of Islamic religion until the expulsion of the Moors in 1609, after which the population increased from 1,000 to 200 inhabitants. New settlers from other places in the region and the Balearic Islands then came to fill the demographic vacuum produced. The seventeenth century will be a period of slow demographic and economic recovery, with some outbreaks of bubonic plague, until the War of Succession, where his active participation in favor of the Archduke Charles of Austria, it was, after the defeat, a revenge by the Bourbon troops. Ondara was burned and looted. The cultivation of the raisin was the engine of the urban growth of the 19th century, which was interrupted by the epidemic of phylloxera at the beginning of the 20th century; this ended the local economy and condemned the waverenses to emigration, especially to Argentina and the French Algeria. Monuments and Places of Interest Clock tower. It is the only tower that remains standing of the four that counted the old Muslim castle of Ondara. It houses the town clock, with an impressive mechanism from the beginning of the century and an artistic bell tower. Town hall. The building, erected in the first half of the seventeenth century by the Franciscans minimum on a plot given by the Marquis of Guadalest, is square, with a central cloister, and is the convent, properly speaking, or house of the friars. Convent. It is a building that dates from the seventeenth century, of an undefined and simple style. Historically referred to as Convent of the Immaculate Conception, in reality it is the church of the adjoining convent, today City Hall. At present it keeps the image of the Virgin of the Solitude, employer of Ondara. It was founded by the order of the minimum Franciscans, who occupied it until the disentailment, in the middle of the 19th century. Parochial Church. It is the headquarters of the Parish of Santa Ana. Building built in the second half of the 16th century, it has been recently rehabilitated. It does not have a defined style. Bullring. It was built between the end of the last century and the beginning of the current one with some elements of arabesque style and with a solid structure of masonry and mortar. Inaugurated on October 28, 1901, it was almost completely destroyed in the Spanish Civil War and rebuilt in 1957. The Azud. It is a small stone dam, of Muslim origin. Cool place in summer thanks to the elms that cross the edge of the ravine, and leisure for the little ones. It has been repopulated with birds such as ducks, geese and geese, although currently they are not seen often. Public Park Segaria. Municipal recreational area of ​​94,000 m² located in the Sierra de Segaria. Built with European funds in 1996, it has the essential elements to spend an ideal day outdoors. Access is through a rural road, to the right of the local road from Puente del Vergel to Beniarbeig. Parties: Festivities. The second weekend of July is celebrated in honor of the Virgen de la Soledad. It is the most important religious festival of the town and of great renown in the region. Saint James They are popular festivals and the most participatory. They are organized by the City Council. The main acts are the bull entrances, from the Calle Mayor to the Plaza de Toros, and the bull bolted. Currently most activities are oriented around the rocks and quintadas, organized in gambling dens.