Olleria'l

It is a perfect place for dinner services, cut glass, china, and ornaments. Careful though - you could end up spending more than you envisaged - the products are really good, and really cheap!

How to find it:

From the motorway between Xativa and Ontinyent, going towards Ointinyent, turn off to the roundabout exit after the mountain tunnel, sign posted Gandia and L'Olleria.

Take the last exit, which takes you into the town of L'Olleria. go all the way through the town on the same road, past the Consum and Mercadona supermarkets, until you come to the last set of traffic lights with a hardware shop on the left corner of the crossroads.

Take the right filter lane, which leads into an industrial estate. 100 yards on, take the left fork, and continue for a couple of hundred yards until you see the modern glass factory on your right.

Opposite the factory there is an unmade road leading to the Factory Shop.

L'Olleria, a town of over 7.000 inhabitants, is situated to the south of Serra Grossa, between two ravines called Foia de Port and La Freira. Its principle crops are grapes, olives, almonds and summer fruits. Thanks to its irrigation system, other vegetables are also grown. In essence it is an industrial town, with the glass and plastic industries at the forefront. Other traditional industries such as wood manufacture, pottery, furniture, bamboo and rattan production and the firework industry, complete the industrial scene. One can try the famous local dish “Arros al Forn” (baked rice) in any of the different restaurants down town.

The Santa Maria Magdalena church is the parish church and is constructed on top of the old mosque; Its gothic floor plan was built towards the 15 th century and was only completed in the 16 th century. The Dominics de Nostra Senyora de Loreto convent has a total of 12 chapels and is baroque in style. It was built in 1579 and worthy of mention are its indoor paintings and the mediaeval image of the patron saint. The Caputxins convent dates back to 1601 and houses the glass museum. Another convent, the Agustines Descalces convent was founded in 1611. The fair in October and the Moors and Christians fiesta at the beginning of September are well worth seeing.

FIESTAS AND TRADITIONS

Festa de la Magdalena

The parish church of Olleria is named after Santa Maria Magdalena. She has been the town's patron saint since the 17 th century. Until 1970, the 22 nd of July fiesta was the main Olleria fiesta, but due to circumstances, this fiesta was gradually lost until it finally disappeared. Since 1996 though, it is slowly making a comeback thanks to the Olleriens.

El Ball dels locos (The mad men's dance)

This is an old dance which has also been recovered from the past, and consists of quite an elaborate dance sequence with several figures, which always ends up with a human tower made up of the dancers themselves. It is crowned with the “figuereta”, one of the dancers, right at the top.

NATURAL RESERVES

Murta del Convento de los Capuchinos

There is an abundance of myrtle (murta) in the convent grounds, which has been transformed into a garden which is watered by a pool. This plant species usually grows as a bush, however in this particular case, it has grown into a fully fledged tree with various trunks. This century old myrtle “tree” partially dried up in 1995 because of a lack of water. The problem was solved by installing a rain-water collection system using the convent roof which now also supplies the pool.