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The
town goes back a very long way, the first signs of human settlement
dating back to the Bronze Age. Remains of Iberian settlements have also
been unearthed in spots like Santa
Bárbara
and the Solaneta de Nutxes, dating from the first and fourth centuries
BCE. The towns current site dates back to the Almohad era; the Arabs
called it Saxona. Once the castle had been built the town grew up on
the hillside around it. The castle, looming over the town from a height
of over 700 metres,
has survived to this day in the form of the double walled enclosure of
masonry and its keep, called Torre Grossa. Part of the wall that ran
round the old town can also be seen with old gates like the Puerta de
la Vila, the Puerta del Raval, the Puerta del Castillo or the Puerta de
Valencia. Roundabout there are several renowned turrón factories. At first the turrón was hand made until production was industrialised in 1780, output peaking in the forties of the twentieth century.
The
old part of the town has a medieval layout, whisking visitors back to
the sixteenth century. Its flagship building is the thirteenth-century
Iglesia de Santa María, the portal of this church shows the
transitional style to Valencian Gothic. Other interesting buildings are
the sixteenth-century Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción and the
seventeenth-century Iglesia de San Bartolomé. Inside the latter church
there is an interesting sculptural group made by Octavio Vicent. Also
worth a look is the Capilla de Nuestra Señora de Loreto, which gives a
good insight into the work of this architect, also responsible for the
main altar of the towns parish church.
There is also a TurrónMuseum
displaying the whole manufacturing process, the tools used, packaging,
labels, etc and also giving visitors a taste of the different
specialities. The manufacturing process can basically be broken down
into two phases: the cooking of the honey, sugars and egg white, to
which the peeled, toasted almond is then added, and then a second phase
in which the resulting dough is kneaded into the traditional form of a
oblong or round block, after which it is allowed to cool off.
Turrón production starts in September and tails off in December.
© Alhena Media
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