Benissoda

Population: 418 hab. Municipal are: 4,32 km2 Altitude: 319 m. Demonym: benissodà, benissodana Town Hall Phone no.: 96 239 08 05 Web: www.benissoda.es E-mail: benissoda_alc@gva.es

BENISSODA

MONUMENTS Church of the Nativity

The parish church of the Nativity, dating from the seventeenth century, occupies the site of the ancient Islamic oratory, in total there are about 235 m2. The nave of the temple is divided into five sections by lowcut sash arches that gravitate on pilasters of composite order. The arc-to-arc turns are very low, half a barrel. On the side of your feet, there is a heart with a wooden railing, over the main access. The bell tower built

at the end of the nineteenth century, has three bodies with trunks and small finishes, is Mannerist style and is unique in the Vall d’Albaida. The exterior is rather polished, although in the corners it retains the original stone.

City Hall

Building rehabilitated in February 2007, formerly the oven of the Señoría, later built the Town Hall, it was also used as town jail.

Francisco Ferri Square

In this square you can see some of the machines that were in the mill for the production of oil.

Natural setting and washing place of Abajo

The natural setting of the Pelut River, which offers a panoramic view of the old town, is a set of new-floor fountains and laundry rooms with gabled roofs. The fountain, with two pipes arranged on a stone and brick wall, is separated from the washing place. It has two rectangular water storage tanks with stones to wash on one side and on the other side of each, located perpendicular to the wall of the bottom of the washing place. The facade has two half-point arches.

Sundial and Park of Las Moreras

It consists of three overlapping metal cubes made of steel and located on a concrete platform with the winds. On the middle and on two of their faces are the hourly plans and astrological months. The watch works with two gnomes, one for morning hours and one for evenings, although at the near hours of noon the two gnomes work, casting on different faces identical shadows and the same time. Both gnomes are the two lower vertices of the upper cube of the face facing south. This watch, whose structure was designed by the artists Joan Olivares and Rafael Amorós, was awarded the 3rd prize at the 6th Edition of the Congress of Gnomonics held in Italy in 1999.

MUSEUMS Ethnological museum of the Vall d’Albaida region

This Regional Museum of Ethnology was born as a private initiative by Francisco Ferri Martínez and other neighbors of the town in 1988. It is an exhibition of tools and work utensils, which was part of a typical house of a labrador. The collection is divided into sections and shows everything from more everyday objects of houses to all those objects related to the farmer’s work.

FESTIVITIES

January: St. Antonio Abad From August 15: patron saint festivities in honor of the Virgen del Rosario, St. Domingo and Santa Bárbara

EXCURSIONS It is part of itinerary no. 5 of the routes through the Vall Blanca.

• Les Coves de Sorra • La Font de Baix • La Font del Patge • Bons Aires • La Palmera • El Pinaret

LOCAL PRODUCTS

• Agricultural products