Carrícola

Population: 90 hab. Municipal area: 4,6 km2 Altitude: 425 m. Demonym: carricolí, carricolina Town Hall Phone no.: 96 235 65 85 Web: www.carricola.es E-mail: carricola_alc@gva.es

CARRÍCOLA

MONUMENTS Carrícola castle

A documentary reference in 1259 suggests that the tower was built by the Muslim inhabitants of Carrícola and Muntis with Hispanic-Muslim techniques of tapestry boxing, but already with the constructive pattern typical of a feudal fortress, with its courtyard and the tower of homage. The initiative was from the Catalan knight Ramón de Timor, who received these Moorish places from the hands of the king James I in the form of a feudal lordship. Carrícola Castle passed over the centuries by different owners and in 1296 the manor of Carrícola was integrated into the barony of Albaida. Later, Cardinal Joan de Milà i Aragó would move to the new palace in the lower part of the village

Hermitage of Cristo del Calvario

The hermitage of Cristo del Calvario is located at the foot of Carrícola castle presiding over the upper part of the town.

The ascent to the ordeal, shaded by cypress trees, is formed by the set of fourteen sheds or chapels that represent the passion with Valencian tiles. The hermitage is a small construction with a simple structure made of mazonería and roof deck on two sides of Arab tile. The interior opens a niche where the image of the Christ of Calvary is located, a sculpture of polychrome wood, possibly from the nineteenth century, depicting Jesus Christ crucified.

The Square

In the square, central space by excellence of the community life of the neighbors of Carrícola, we find the model of predominant houses dating from the seventeenth century, and currently have been protected. It is a house linked to rural life, with its stockyard in the back, one or two floors and chamber. Its facades have balconies with iron railings and natural stone supports and in some of them we find devotional ceramic ceilings. The most important building is the Town Hall, located in the old House of Honor. On its facade we find the Fardatxo Fountain, an underground natural birth that the Muslims drove through an alcabor.

Parish Church of San Miguel Arcángel

Ancient mosque converted into a Christian church and consecrated to St. Michael the Archangel in 1572. The current floor consists of a central nave covered with a barrel vault, structured in four sections, with the side chapels between the buttresses. At the foot of the building, we find a high choir, and next to the epistle rises the bell tower of two bodies. On the facade we find the access with a nice door. Inside stands the main altar, in neoclassical style, presided over by the image of St. Michael the Archangel, patron saint of the carricolines and holder of the church. It is a Baroque-style structure of polychrome wood from the late eighteenth century.

The washing place

The water came from the fountain of the Square, walking along The Street of the Bot. The ditch passed through the old mosque in time of Islam to practice ablutions, heading towards the washing place, located in the lower part of the village. The new building dates from 1955, built in stone with gabled roof, consists of two rafts one for clothes and the other for scrubbing. Neither the arrival of drinking water, nor the washing machines, have caused it to stop using. The water continues towards the main raft, almost square and about 150 m3 capacity, where the irrigation of the carrícola orchard begins, with an organized batch of 18 days, at a rate of 2 hours per water.

Gatell’s arcade and At’s ravine

Three arcades stand out in our hydraulic heritage, to expand the orchard land on the other side of the ravines of At and the Arcá. The three buildings are made in tapiases, with the ditch cashier made of solid brick, the Arcada del Gatell located next to the Gatell Fountain and raft is the smallest of the three. The arch of the ravine of At, the longest, is structured in two lowered arches of different size. It is first documented in 1348 and is the most reformed by the destructive action of the floods and water fights of our ancestors. The arch of the ravine of At and the Gatell ravine supplied drinking water to The Sea. The arch of the ravine of At, the longest, is structured in two lowered arches of

different size. It is first documented in 1348 and is the most reformed by the destructive action of the floods and water fights of our ancestors. The arch of the ravine of At and the Gatell ravine supplied drinking water to The Sea.

Arcade of the arcade’s ravine

The water was distributed from the large raft by two mother ditches. The plug on the right provided water to the ditch of the road of Otos, to the Bottom. The stopper on the left provided water to the arcade ditch, up to the arch’s slide. This last conduit collected the excess water from the Fardatxo and the leftovers from the source of the Arcade, passing the resulting cabal to the other side of the ravine of Atzeneta, by means of an aqueduct. The Andalusian arcade, is 10.27 m long by 14.30 m of elevation, and its factory is the work of Vila, with solid brick cashier. It was the beginning of the ditch of Baix or the Huerta Nueva, which after watering the term carricolino, reached the raft of the heras of Bèlgida.

Ametla de Palla

Center for education and environmental interpretation located at the foot of the Protected Landscape of the Benicadell’s Umbria. The Ametla de Palla is a place to acquire knowledge to live in a sustainable way. Built in 2005 by CEVA volunteers with the support of the Carrícola City Council. In the Ametla you will appreciate our environment through fauna, flora, organic agriculture and architectural heritage. Other aspects is the recovery of traditional construction techniques, using natural elements such as wood, stone and straw. The trades of the mountains are represented by traditional elements such as ice wells, lime kilns and traditional crops.

MUSEUMS Biodivers Carrícola

Sculptural route in the environmental spaces of the Carrícola castle ravine and the route of the Islamic arcades. Tel. 619 84 39 88

FESTIVITIES

January: St. Antonio Abad May 8: Appearance of San Miguel Last weekend of September: patron saint festivities to San Miguel, the Christ of Calvary and the Saints of the Stone

EXCURSIONS

• A walk through the Castle’s ravine • The ways of Water: set of Islamic arcades in the Huerta Vieja (old orchard) • Biodivers Route: environmental art space • The trades of the mountains: walking through the Benicadell • Environmental interpretation center the Ametla de palla • Melero’s Fountain, Gatell’s Fountain

It is part of the itinerary no. 4 of the Vall d’Albaida routes.

LOCAL PRODUCTS

• Agroecological production • Land and artisan market