Bocairent

BOCAIRENT Medieval paths

It is one of the most charming villages of the Valencian Community and one of the treasures of our region. Bocairent is heritage, it’s culture, it’s magic, it’s history. Bocairent has dozens of reasons why she deserves to be visited and known by people. But here we wanted to highlight three reasons that will make you irresistible a visit to this municipality in the south of the Vall d’Albaida region. First, taking a walk through the archaeological heritage and focusing on the Iberian lion; then knowing the customs and traditions of this municipality with its Moors and Christians festivities and, finally, tasting the flavors of autumn with the contest of “Caça i Bolets”. Three reasons to visit Bocairent and get to know this town if you haven’t already.

From the Iberian lion, to the caves: witnesses of Bocairent’s heritage wealth

Walk through Bocairent is to nourish themselves with history. Any corner of this picturesque municipality of Valldalbaidí becomes a witness to the different cultures that lived in this town throughout history. The Iberian civilization, the Roman civilization and the most prosperous of all, the Islamic one, left in Bocairent an important heritage legacy that year after year attracts hundreds of visitors from all over. The historic center, les covetes dels Moros, the rock monastery, the cavas, the hermitages inside and outside the town center, are just some of the heritage gems that you can find in Bocairent. Sometimes jewels become such a thing not only for their value, but for the history that accompanies them. This is the case of the Iberian lion, asculpture from the 4th century BC that was found in the nineteenth century on the hill of Galbis, an area close to the birth of the Vinalopó River. His discoverer gave the piece to the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Sant Carles

de Valencia where part of its existence has passed until recently the Iberian lion has returned to its land to further nourish Bocairent’s heritage. This jewel, both for its value and its exclusivity, roars again, temporarily in the Municipal Archaeological Museum Vicent Casanova.

Festivities: the first of the calendar

With cold, rain and even snow, the bocairentinos take the plaid blanket out of the closets on the first weekend of February. Second month of the year and the inhabitants of this municipality of the Sierra de Mariola already celebrate their Moors and Christians. The first Moorish-Christian festivities of the Valldalbaidí calendar, which are celebrated on the first weekend of February, in honour of Bocairent’s patron saint, Sant Blai. Different Moorish-Christian feasts, because they seek the cold, the refuge under the traditional “Manta Bocairentina” the “Nit de les Caixes” and the darkness to sing ‘Vitol al Patró Sant Blai’ when the image of the saint enters the Town Hall Square. Nine are the ‘rows’ that take to the streets to represent a holiday that more than 150 years ago went from being a ‘Feast of the soldiery’ to a Moors and Christians feast, as we know them today. As a curiosity: Sant Blai replaced Sant Jaume as patron, both of Bocairent and of the Moorish-Christian feasts after the evil of diphtheria, an infectious ailment that severely affected the population, disappeared from the locality.

Autumn is served on a plate

What does autumn taste like? Possibly, each of us will be evoked by a taste. But in Bocairent, autumn tastes like hunting, mushrooms, ‘borreta’. And in order to prove it all one, the Bocairentinos hold a competition where the avant-garde cuisine of the entire Valencian Community is cited to participate in the hunting and mushrooms and Borreta contest and prepare the best dishes of autumn. Justified by the customs and traditions of Bocairent and the towns around the Mariola Mountain range, the contest of “Caça i Bolets” was born eight years ago. An annual, original and autumn-related contest where, in each of its editions, participating cooks have a duty to create a unique dish where game meat and mushrooms are the protagonists. This creation, freely crafted, is cooked at the same time as Bocairent’s ‘borreta’, an ancestral recipe with an unrivalled flavor that will warm your spirit and belly when you try it.