The Conqueror King and the soil clours

The Conqueror King and the soil colours

Jaume I the Conqueror (Montpellier, 1208-Alzira, 27th July 1276), after conquering Mallorca and Ibiza, spread the Crown of Aragon over the Sharq Al-Ándalus (1233-1245) and founded the kingdom of Valencia (1240-1707). The Muslims were expelled from the towns and many rural farmsteads to create a network of villages populated by colonizers coming from Catalonia (two thirds) and Aragon, Navarra, Cas- tile and Occitania (one third). In most of the counties, these colonizers spoke Catalan, a language that started to be called Valencian in the middle of the 14th century. All of them shared some laws, the Fueros de Valencia, which, from the decade of 1330 contributed to the genesis of a national feeling of Valencianity, which is strongly present nowadays.

The route “Jaume I in the Vall d’Albaida region” is –in fact– a cultural homage to the founding king of the kingdom of Valencian people, and an invitation to discover through his figure –so mythologized along the centuries- the colours, tastes and sensations of an inland Valencian region.