Torre del Reloj de Monovar

Monuments

Tower located on one of the small hills on which sits the town of Monóvar. Of square plant, with four decreasing bodies. Good example of exempt tower, without church, or attached town hall, dedicated exclusively to give the time. It is a type of construction unusual in the southern Valencian lands, but that can be related to the bell-towers exempt from Catalan Gothic. The clock tower was built in the eighteenth century, specifically the year 1734. It is an exempt tower whose construction is intended, by the civil authorities, to clearly indicate the signs of municipal power against those of ecclesiastical power. It should be noted that until the seventeenth century the clock that governed the life of the monoveros was installed in the bell tower of the previous parish church. The uniqueness of the Monóvar clock tower lies in the fact that it is an exempt tower whose sole purpose is to house the clock of the city and its bells. According to notarial document dated May 12, 1734, the tower was made in the place occupied by the zamoha, Castilianized voice of the Arabic "sauum'a" which means climbing and also serves to name the minaret. This is not strange if one takes into account the strong core of the Islamic population that existed in Monóvar until 1609, together with the conservation of the place name "zamoha" until well into the 18th century. All this leads one to suppose that the tower was probably erected on the same site where the minaret was raised. Being a place where the natural elevation of the land favors the distribution of sound in a larger area. The tower was completed in October 1734 and its total cost was 329 pounds. The same document contributes the author of the work: Manuel Terol, Alicante master stonemason member of the most important dynasty of stonemasons of the eighteenth century in our land. The clock tower is 18 meters high. It is square and consists of four bodies, decreasing in size as they rise. It is masonry except for the entry and start, where several courses of stone ashlars were placed. In the second body the sundial is arranged and, above, the mechanic. The last two bodies, pierced by arches, house the bells. In that area the angles are chamfered and reinforced with small buttresses. A simple decoration with balls, old scurialense roots, appears in the last body, which ends with the characteristic dome blue glazed tile and a weather vane.