Gandia
The city of Gandia is situated some 65km south of Valencia and 116km
north of Alicante and is one of the largest coastal towns and a rather
well kept secret. Traditionally Gandia's tourism is Spanish based with
a major part of it coming from Madrid . It seems though that the cat
may be out of the bag with more and more foreign tourism coming to the
area. With the foreign tourism, we have also seen a rise in the amount
of people coming to live. Gandia is a thriving centre of commerce, and
as such does not rely solely on tourism. The beach and the town are
actually some 2km apart which succeeds in separating the summer tourism
from day to day living. Imagine, in the middle of August being able to
visit the bank in Gandia without fighting through hoards of people
waving travellers checks and smelling of suntan lotion, to then be able
to visit the beach and and be right in the thick of it all. The same
advantages also exist in the winter time. Unlike many coastal towns
which become deserted as the colder months approach, Gandia itself
stays populated and open.
Oranges are a considerable source of
income, but also onions, tomatoes, peppers and many other natural crops
in La Conca de la Safor, handled and packed in the many local stores,
contribute to the obvious wealth of the area, together with the
industries that make the most varied of goods, the shops that sell them
and the tourism, which has an important hotel infrastructure
distributed along the coastline.
All these products were
exported, up until recently, via Gandia harbour, inaugurated in 1893
due to an English company that built the narrow-gauge railway from
Alcoi to Gandia, where the company boats unloaded the coal that heated
the factory boilers. The harbour was for many years the main point of
export of Valencian oranges and, though it has not the traffic that it
used to have in the sixties, Gandia harbour still has a fishing fleet
of some importance, while land transport has replaced transportation by
sea. This has generated the appearance of many transport companies
owning long-distance truck fleets that travel the roads and motorways
of Europe and carry the name of Gandia everywhere in the world where it
deserves to be known.
Gandia, a glorious past and very sound present.
La
Constitució square is the civic, business, cultural and religious
centre of Gandia, not only because its surroundings have the town hall
and Santa Maria collegiate church, but also because some of the most
commercial streets in the capital of La Safor end there. Lively streets
during most of the day, shops full of the most varied goods to be
found; places where the old craft tradition is continued by the
artisans near the market place, the true commercial place of any active
town.
El Palau Ducal de Gandia, a well-built construction
erected around a large central court, is one of the architectural
monuments that best define the feudal period of Gandia, when large
buildings were a symbol of the power and social prestige of the
nobility. The birthplace of Sant Francesc de Borja, which had
practically become a ruin, was acquired by the Jesuits in 1890, and
they started its reconstruction, as they considered it as a spiritual
symbol of the order.
The two monumental flights of stairs are
the most outstanding part of the palace, where the only ogival window
from the former building is kept. Inside the house where Francesc de
Borja was born, a building that became a silent witness of the most
far-reaching events in local history, we can admired several halls like
that of Les Corones, Els Carròs or Els Centelles. There are also some
interesting collections, one of them, formed by different pieces of
Manises ceramic, is particularly outstanding. But El Palau Ducal is
mainly impregnated with the spirit of Sant Francesc, as desired by its
restorers right from the start.
Gandia collegiate church, where
Santa Maria is venerated, is an excellent example of Valencian Gothic
architecture, comparable to the most emblematic buildings in the
Valencian 15th century. Created as a parish church for the Bailén
borough in the 13th century, the gothic church was built by order of
Duke Alfons el Vell during the 14th and 15th centuries. Particularly
remarkable is this first period is the gate of Els Apòstols and the
sculpture group representing them, the work of Pere Llobert.
In
1499 Duchess Maria Enríquez obtained from her father-in-law, Pope
Alexander VI, the name of Santa Maria for the parish church and, by her
order, elements were added to the early building, though, according to
her wishes, the builder tried to respect the features of the original
Gothic style. The unfortunate violent episodes of the Spanish Civil War
destroyed many of the treasures kept in the church. Especially
remarkable among these is a Renaissance altarpiece by Paolo di San
Leocadio and another by Damià Formant. Santa Maria collegiate church,
declared as a historical monument in 1931, started to be restored in
the 1940s.
Duke Alfons de Vell is one of the historical
celebrities best remembered by present-day Gandia. Sant Marc hospital,
dating from the turn of the 14th century, was built at his initiative.
The building, which is being restored, was reconstructed during the
first half of the 16th century; it consists of a central court
surrounded by the hospital rooms, with a remarkable roof and slim
arches.
But Gandia does not live in the past of course. The
footbridge leaving the town centre in the direction of El Parc de l'Est
can represent the passage from the past to the present. A present that
is obvious every Saturday in the market place and that, very often,
exhibits its dynamism in the festivals, public events and entertaining
or cultural shows that take place in this new space dedicated to
leisure activities.
Gandia, culture and heritage.
The
memory of Ausiàs March, the greatest poet that Valencian literature has
produced, fills his fellow countrymen with pride. Born in 1397, a date
which is only estimated, the noble knight, a descendant from a family
of poets and diplomats, took part in different military expeditions in
the Mediterranean and, when he was 27, he returned to his native lands,
which he never left again till his death in València, on 3rd March,
1459, which we know for sure. The monument in Gandia dedicated to the
greatest Valencian man of arts is not a commitment that had to be
carried out, but an expression of the love the town feels for the poet.
Other
names linked with Gandia and world literature are those of Joanot
Matorell and Joan Roís de Corella. The former, author of the novel
'Tirant lo Blanc', married into the March family and, besides becoming
the first modern novelist in western culture, was a man of action, and
hot tempered too. The latter, mossén Roís de Corella, was a poet and an
Italianizing essayist, a sophisticated observer of reality, a
meticulous stylist and a man of action and thought. His humanist
ideology gave him many a problem with the Inquisition, the tribunal
that not only controlled people's actions, but also their ideologies,
including those that attended Gandia University at the time, an
institution that today revives every summer those glorious times, now
without the obvious censorship of the Inquisition.
Gandia, like
its neighbouring Xàtiva, feels both historically and sentimentally
bound to the Borja family. But the relationship of Gandia with Xàtiva
begins after the glorious period of the family since it started with
Pope Alexander VI bought the duchy of Gandia for his children. And the
man who really grasps the attention of the people of Gandia Sant
Francesc de Borja (Borgia), grandson of the Pope. A Borja that had very
little to do with the terrifying legend of his forefathers and who is
known under the name of El Sant Duc de Gandia.
The man who was
to become Sant Francesc de Borja was born in Gandia in 1510 and, from
his youth, had important posts at the court of Carlos I (Charles I).
But after one day contemplating the body of Queen Isabel, the image of
death made him take a decision that was to change his life radically;
he gave up the world of the court and became a member of the Society of
Jesus, of which he became general. A man with remarkable influence, the
Borja saint did many things for his town while he was its lord; he
founded its university and other cultural and religious institutions,
and tried to help his fellow countrymen as much as he could. In 1671 he
was canonised by Pope Clement XI, and Sant Francesc de Borja is the
patron saint of Gandia, the town that has been able to preserve in an
exemplary way the palace where this Valencian saint was born.
The
long literary tradition of Gandia and its area has not lost any of its
importance with the passing of time, but rather has consolidated
itself. Names like those of El Senyoriu de Beniarjó, Ausiàs March or
Joanot Matorell give an enviable reputation to the literary prizes
bestowed every year by Gandia. And also the names of some of the most
influential contemporary writers, like Josep Piera, continue to honour
the literature created in Gandia, its area and the world.
Gandia
cultural life throbs in the town all year round, but it intensifies
around the celebrations, when the literary prizes are awarded and when
they carry out the interesting activities if La Univeritat d'Estiu, El
Festival Internacional de Música Clàsica or the different art
exhibitions.
Celebrations are also culture, maybe of another
kind, but as necessary as literature, music or painting. And Gandia
holds so many festivals, that they could not all be mentioned in this
limited space: Les Falles in spring, Les Fogueres or bonfires in
summer, the local celebrations in autumn, after they are announced by
El Tio de la Porra -i.e. the man with the club-. They are just some of
the excuses Gandia needs to dress in festive clothes, fill its streets
with light, music and strings of fireworks and transmit its joy to its
visitors.
Gandia offers excellent food as well as just the Sun and the Beach
Gandia's
fields give a variety of vegetables which the traveller must
necessarily associate with cookery in the same way as a visit to the
fish market lets loose our culinary imagination with the wealth
supplied by the sea. it is difficult to suggest a menu that that could
summarise the gastronomic delicacies of the area. But it might be
appropriate to begin with a walk by the sea in order to choose the
place where to have a meal as well as to wet the appetite.
As
starters, grilled shellfish, a good helping of octopus, dries by the
sea breeze and the sun of La Safor, a 'figatell' -big meatball with
liver, minced beef and spices-, snails, mussels full of Mediterranean
flavour, or vegetables to help us to get to the heart of our subject.
There
are also some nourishing dishes, but if the traveller decides on rice,
which is almost a must in these lands, he should try a speciality that
the vegetables of the season. So, according to the time of year, we can
try rice with beans and turnip, another with fava beans and artichoke,
or a milder one with chards and codfish, typical of Lent. It goes
without saying that there are also the thousand possibilities that a
paella offers and, moreover, the 'allipebre', stomach permitting. And
if the stomach is no longer tempted by such strong dishes, a fish stew
or any of the grilled local fish, are a good alternative to the
gastronomy of the Valencian central areas.
In any case, the
local speciality is 'La fideuada', which consist basically of a
shellfish paella cooked with thick vermicelli where all the taste is
concentrated. A dish that the locals consider their own, about whose
origin they tell different stories and which is the pride of many
restaurants in La Safor.
Click here to view property / properties in Gandia
Click here to search for property / properties in Gandia
Searches
