Information on Oliva

Oliva area information, Oliva tourist information

The Beach

The fine sand beach is surrounded, almost all along its 10 Km. by a natural dune, which is the only separation between the orange tree fields and the sea.
Oliva's mild weather allows you to enjoy the sea almost all year round. Windsurf lovers will find the perfect place to practice: windsurfing schools and beaches reserved for them where people are not allowed to swim available. The Nautic Club offers moorage to ships and boats as well as sailing courses. A nice, quiet walk under twilight by the masts of the boots and the colourful architecture of the sailing district may end on a relaxed summer terrace or an animated xiringuito by the sea. The Mediterranean seaand the rivers Bullent and Molinell make of Oliva a privileged place for fishing lovers. During the tuna season pieces of 300 Kg. are captured.

A treasure at hand's reach

A walk around Oliva allows us to understand better its History, written through centuries in the design of the streets, the houses, the fountains, the gardens and the Monuments. To start with, one can visit the Churches of Sta. Maria, St. Roc and Rebollet and go through the gates of the city: Fossar's, Verge Maria's and St. Vicent's. Next, the visitor can admire Mayan's house and the nobiliary houses in Tamarit Street and walk peacefully in C. Moreres, St. Vicent, Sr. Cristòfol...and its surrondings. Finding the Towers of the City Wall and other details such as the Count's Palace's window will incite to discover for oneself the rest of the treasures this Mediterranean Villa offers.

People with Traditions

Among the fiestas that are celebrated during the year, the 'Holiday of Moors and Christians' is the one with most number of participants and audience. Also very important are St Vicent's Holiday - bullfighting, the Carnival, Easter, the Fallas and many others that cover the city with colours. An important part of the working population is engaged in agriculture, the orange growing most of all, but they also grow high quality vegetables. These products can be bought at the traditional local market wich takes place every Friday morning, where the farmers go to sell their own vegetables. Oliva has its own industry, mainly dedicated to clay products, such as bricks, tiles and craft pottery, wich can be bought at the numerous local shops located troughout Oliva. Besides the delicious paellas, Oliva's gastronomy offers dishes of high quality and originality: pebreres farcides, figatells, espardenya, gamba amb bleda and coques i pastissos, wich will satisfy curious and demanding palates

Historical Summary

Oliva and its territory constitute, since old times, a place of setting for the different people that have settled in the Mediterranean through the years. Iberians, Romans, Muslims and Christians have lived here and have left their mark everywhere:very important archaeological ruins, the famous irrigation channel network, the the ruins of the castle, the urban typology... The history of Oliva is full of events and personages tha talk by themselves about a past that must not be forgotten. The Christian conquest led here the first lords, the Carròs ledendary family, that would succesisvely end in the Riusec family, the Centelles or the Borjas.With the Centelles, and around a wonderful Renaissance palace (today dissapeared), Oliva knew the glory of the county that was created in 1448. A great part of the merit belonged to the cultivation of sugar cane. It was the motor of an economy that ran very well thanks to the decisive help of the muslim workers.The moriscs were expelled in the year 1609. Because of this expulsion the Valencian lands and towns remained deserted. Although Oliva was not one of the most damaged towms, they were hard times for it. In the 18 th century, together with the rest of the dissapeared Valencia Kingdown, Oliva began its recovery which had its peak not only in the economic aspect but also in the cultural one. The erudite from Oliva, Gregorio Mayans, became a key figure in the cultural world of that period. From his home town he developed an intellectual activity in contact with his Spanish and European colleagues, that even nowadays awakes our admiration because of the productivity and the high standards they achieved in their work. Gregori Mayans nephew Gabriel Ciscar Admiral of the Navy and Regent of Spain, lived the troubled events of the change of century, with the proclamation of the first constitution and the independence war, with a death sentence he could escape thanks to the help of his friend the Duke of Wellington.

Without the extint dukedom of the Borjas nad without its illustrious sons, Oliva faced the contemporary era with the challenge of replacing the old sugar cane by other cultivations that could reactivate the local economy. So, in the middle of the 19 th century and at the end of the same, we find the development of the white mulberry and the silk industry. When this posibility was left, the rice and the orange relieved. The rice farming lasted until the 1960s, but the orange cultivation has made Oliva one of the first towns aomg the producers of citrus fruits in the Land of Valencia.It has become the base of Oliva economic activity. The industry and the tourism are now in the right time to promote a diversification according to the European trend.

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