I found this page long time ago in the server of the University of Alacant. I thought it was very well done, so I linked it from my homepage. One day the link stopped working. However, I fortunately had saved a copy. This is my English translation:

Cocentaina is placed beside the river Serpis, by the Eastern slope of Mariola Mountains, whose summit is Montcabrer (1,390 m high). Head of the county of El Comtat, it has a wide township. It is 110 km from València and 60 from Alacant. It is comunicated with these two cities by the major road 340, by coach (regular daily lines to València, Alacant and the coast). The train Alcoi-València has a stop in Cocentaina as well. The current population is over 10,000 inhabitants.



There is a public sports complex, with swimming pools, corts for seven-a-side football, tennis, hockey, etc., football ground, sports hall, basket and pelota court, clay-pigeon shooting and tray-shooting grounds, etc.

As the head of the county of El Comtat, Cocentaina offers a wide range of high quality services, typical market (Thursday), a considerable number of hotel beds and very successful traditional food restaurants.

SPOTS

If Cocentaina is important as a town, the natural places that surround it, well preserved and with a very characteristic ecosystem, aren't less. From Cocentaina, you may walk the Mariola ecological route, a wide and comfortable path that starts from Sant Cristòfol towards the highest summit; it goes past several fresh water springs and areas where you can pick every kind of medicinal and aromatic herbs.




You will also meet sereral "masos" (cottages) that are the delight for nature and mountain lovers.

Besides this route, there are as well two worth mentioning spots: Santa Bàrbara and Sant Cristòfol. Santa Bàrbara is a XIII century hermitage placed on a hill that dominates the town by the Southern side, amongst many pine trees, walking areas and a drinking fountain. Sant Cristòfol, the second spot, is a wooded pine area situated at the foot of Mariola Mountains, 2 km from the town, with a XV century hermitage. This place offers a restaurant and a free area for picnics, barbacues, stone rustic tables, two drinking fountains and zones for the amusement of children and adults, with a wide car parking area.

URBAN WALK

Urbanistically, Cocentaina preserve the traces of the different cultures that have coexisted and have left deep historical roots here.


We can walk about the narrow and curvilinear streets of the Raval -the ancient moslem quarter-, that try to keep, among the oriental mistery, the time. We can then compare them to the rectilinear streets of the old christian area, included inside the mediaeval walls, whose stones themselves give us evidence of their noble origin.

Cocentaina includes three small villages as districts: L'Alcúdia, Poble Nou de Sant Rafael and Els Algars, each one with a past linked to the town and their own personality...

ART AND TRADITIONS

The people of Cocentaina have been able to safeguard art and traditions, and harmoneze them with their present. Architectonically, among the buildings we must highlight the XIV century Castell (castle), a tower that dominates the whole valley, military gothic art recently restored, symbol of Cocentaina; the Palau (palace), whose origins go back to the times of Jaume I and Roger de Llúria, and that takes its definitive shapeat the end of the XV century and the beginning of XVI with the count of Cocentaina.



Nowadays, each of the wings and the towers have been restored, and its magnificent walls are a good example of different cultural manifestations. In the Palau, we shall highlight the Sala Daurada (Golden Salon), whose dome contains a mural pictoral set from the XVII century, most important i the Land of Valencia; the fabulous Sala d'Ambaixadors (Ambassadors Salon), with the moulded ceiling, lodges the town art gallery, in which stands out the retable of Santa Bàrbara, in gothic style. In the Palau enclosure we will also meet Sant Antoni's chapel, gothic as well and with its valuous retable; the tower of the Paraigua (umbrella), with its peculiar upholding estructure de that makes it unique in our country, the Gothic Salon, where we currently have the Public Library... As a whole, it's a building that deserves by itself all the attention of the peolple interested in our history, our art and our culture.

Beside the Palau, there is the convent of the nuns of Saint Clare and minster of Mare de Déu del Miracle, in pure Neapolitan Barocco style, with a great decorative and pictorial richness, tha lodges some paintings of Paolo di Mattei the icon of the Mare de Déu (mother of God), that gives the mane to the temple, patroness of this town from 1520, the age of the Valencian Germanies Civil War.

You may also visit, in the num. 3 of the Major (main) street, the Casa Museu del Comtat (County Museum), of the Centre d'Estudis Contestans (Cocentaina Studies Centre), equiped with the most modern audiovisual techniques, where you may experience the traditional system for the elaboration of the wine, the oil and the flour. The first floor lodges a collection of prehistorical materials from paleolithic inferior to the bronze age, all af them from our region.

Another place to visit is the Casa Museu del Fester, in the num. 5 of Sant de la Pedra street, where you can see the clothes, weapons and objects used in the moors and christians festival.

You should also visit Santa Maria's church, built in the XIII century and reconstructed in the XVIII, with the paintings of the famous Father Borràs; El Salvador church, inside El Raval (the ancient moslem quarter), built in the XVI century to indoctrinate the moorish. Both churches keep in their archives very important documentation for our history. We highlight as well the convent of the franciscan fathers, from the end of the XVI century, with the cloister recently restored and the gothic cross in its square. Furthermore, there are two hermitages placed in natural spots close to the town, important because of art and history: Santa Bàrbara (whose retable we have mentioned above) and Sant Cristòfol.

OUR FESTIVALS

The conservation of traditions takes shape in our festivals. Every year Cocentaina celebrates tree festivities: April the 19th, dedicated to its paroness, with a great popular participation; the second sunday of August, the Moors and Christians Festival, dedicate to the patron Sant Hipòlit, which go back to the XVIII century and remind the fights between the moor and the christian armies, and stand out becouse of their colouring, fastuosity, cheerfulness and popularity; the Fira de Tots Sants (All Saints Fair), in Novembre the 1st, which has been taking place from 1346 by privilege of Pere III el Cerimoniós, document preserved in the Town Archive. The Fira de Tots Sants has been able to adapt to the new economy through these centuries. Nowadays, it's one of the most important open air fairs of the country, with more than 700 expositors and visited by more than 150.000 people. Inside the fair also takes place the Craftsmanship Fair and Mediaeval Market, where the craftsman work in made befor the public.
Moreover, Cocentaina celebrates the Festa dels Nanos (in the middle of the Lent), Carnival, etc.

GASTRONOMY

Cocentaina, as the ancient town it is, has enjoyed and enjoys one of the most tasty and wide popular cuisines of the region. Currently, some of the dishes only can be tasted in private homes or ordering them previously in some restaurants of the town. Amongst these meals we may highlight: fassedures de dacsa, mentirons, pericana, espencat de bacallà, olleta, borreta, arròs caldós, paella de sabater, arròs amb conill, coca de dacsa, olleta de penques i bledes, arròs al forn amb trossets i garronets, etc.

As typical snacks or delicacies (taken at the bar counter with drinks) in Cocentaina we can point up: tostons, roviols, caragols avellanencs amb tomaca, sangueta...

Desserts: mantecades, genaros, carquinyols, pacències, pastisset de moniato, d'ametla, etc.

USEFUL TELEPHONE NUMBERS

Town Hall: 96 559 10 65 - 96 559 01 21

Palau Comtal: 96 559 08 69

© 1997
Vicerectorat d'Extensió Universitària i Relacions Institucionals
Universitat d'Alacant