Travel Guide Xàtiva

South of Alzira, it is the Arab city par excellence and an unmissable stopover, praised by Raimon in a song as a white carrec. Although it was founded by the Phoenicians, it was under Arab rule that it prospered and became the second largest city in the kingdom of Valencia in the Middle Ages. In the 12th century, it was even the first city in Europe to manufacture paper. Rich, it had beautiful monuments, palaces and temples that unfortunately were destroyed by Philip V during the battle of Almansa, during the War of Spanish Succession. The city having lost its pomp, the inhabitants took revenge by hanging the portrait of the king upside down in the municipal museum. But the city still has a rich artistic heritage to discover along the way: the Renaissance collegiate church, the hermitage of San Felix, the oldest in the city, the church of Sant Pere, the Royal Hospital, which preserves intact its original Renaissance facade, the palaces of the Marquis of Montortal and Alarcó. And the fountains: the Baroque San Francisco, the Gothic Trinidad and the neoclassical 25 Spouts. However, there is one monument that stands out from the rest. With its 30 towers and 4 fortified doors, its enormous castle is the result of the fusion of an Iberian-Roman fortress and another, Arab one. From the castle, the walls that surrounded the Roman city until the 10th century run down. A second wall was added later. It encompassed what is now the historic center