Oliva
 

Oliva is located on the Costa del Azahar at the northern tip of the Costa Blanca in the Valencian community. This has long been a popular resort with the Spanish. Oliva is increasingly popular with overseas tourists, attracted by 10 kilometres of uncrowded coastline and excellent sports facilities, golf, fishing and water sports. Oliva has a population of about 20.000.

The town lies in the heart of Spain’s orange growing region along the Mediterranean coast. It is 75 kms south of the provincial capital Valencia with the nearest airport being Manises in Valencia. 100 kms to the south is Alicante and its El Altet airport. Oliva is easily connected by the Mediterranean motorway A-7 and the main N-332 road which also connects Oliva with Alicante and Valencia.

BEACHES: A number of wide, sandy beaches can be explored in Oliva. The Terranova Beach, on occasions, has a sweet water spring called "Tou" or "Clotal" that is suitable for bathing. The popular Pau-Pi Beach is where the yacht club is located plus some of the oldest Mediterranean-style houses. Here, there is good access for wheelchairs and there are lively businesses, shops, restaurants and ice-cream parlours where you can stop for a delicious “blanco y negro”. The Aigua Blanca is an open beach with natural dunes lying between two river mouths, the Alfadalí and the Bullent. Ideal for watersports. The Rabdells is a beautiful, open beach surrounded by dunes, perfect for bathing during the day and a romantic, tropical hotspot during the summer nights as the beach bars stay open for cocktails and music. The Aigua Morta Beach offers a nearby 18-hole golf course, well-known football pitch and river fishing. The Les Deveses Beach is the most southerly of Oliva’s beaches and borders on Dénia. It is ideal for sailing and windsurfing thanks to the south-westerly called “Garbi” that comes off the Montgó bringing cool air even during the hottest summer months.

MONUMENTS AND PLACES OF INTEREST: From the old quarter of Oliva there is a wonderful view over the 18th-19th century church of Sant Roc which was a former mosque. There are plenty of monuments to see and places of interest in the town. The 17th century church, Santa María la Mayor, the 18th century hermitage of Santos Antonio and Vicente, the 16th-18th century abbey of San Roque; the 15th-16th century wall ruins, the 18th century chapel of la Virgen del Rebollet in las Carmelitas church, the town market, the home of Gregorio Mayans (C.18th), the cave la Cova (C.18th), the chimneys "dels Rajolars" (brick fabric), and the Santa Ana castle ruins dating back to the 12th and 14th centuries.

FOR NATURE LOVERS: There are some interesting natural attractions surrounding Oliva. As has been mentioned, several of Oliva’s beaches are lined with natural dunes. These dunes are of considerable biological value given that they are some of the few left in such good condition in this part of the Mediterranean. They provide an added attraction to your visit to the beach as they improve the quality of the landscape. Oliva’s dunes are populated with uniquely-local flora and fauna of great natural beauty, they complement the fertile orange groves and clean, golden sandy beaches to create a stunning natural landscape. Between the main dunes and the lesser ones a secluded area is created for those seeking peace and quiet and to soak up the sun. A footpath runs along the top of the dunes from which walkers can see, in both directions, some extraordinary and breathtaking views.

Nearby is another stunning and important nature reserve. The Marjal, an extensive wetland, almost flat, with an underground water table that leads to changes in the water level throughout the seasons. The Marjal floods seasonally as a result of rainwater and subterranean water pockets, or aquifers. This fascinating environmental feature creates unique vegetation and wildlife comprising mainly of migratory birds that need these ecological islands to be able to complete their vital cycle. Rich flora provide a thick carpet of vegetation that gives shelter and food to birds as well as an ideal place for them to rest and build nests. The Spanish government included the Pego-Oliva Marjal in the Ramsar Agreement list in 1994, a list in which the world’s major wetlands figure. A year later, the Marjal and the rivers and mountains surrounding it were declared an officially-protected nature reserve.

GASTRONOMY: In Oliva, you will find a variety of delicious local dishes. Among the picadetes (tapas) or snacks, you will find figatells (grilled meatballs), vespa (smoked tuna with garlic and olive oil), and gamba amb bleda (prawns in garlic with red pepper). You can also sample the flavoursome cocas or coques a la calfó (oven-baked maize tarts) and coques de pasta bona (similar to small pizzas). Also pebreres farcides (peppers stuffed with rice, tuna and tomato) plus sweets such as els rosegons, pacencies and mantecados (shortbread).

FIESTAS: Oliva’s most traditional fiesta is the Moors and Christians. It is celebrated every year on the third weekend of July. The Carnival in Oliva is a fiesta dating back to medieval times. With the arrival of spring, Oliva prepares itself for the great Fallas’ week. A fantastic show of music, colours and aromas fill every street corner. The fallas themselves, huge monuments of papier mâché and wood, satirise aspects of everyday life for the people of Oliva. Each neighbourhood erects its own falla and in Oliva there are six fallas exhibited.

Easter week in Oliva is unique for its honour as one of the town’s oldest traditions. On Palm Sunday, the entire town is filled with palm-leaves, and the distinct aroma of dried, fresh palm inundates the streets evoking an atmosphere of secrets and traditions. From Palm Sunday onwards all bakeries sell monas de Pascua, traditional Easter cakes with chocolate or coloured hard-boiled eggs in the centre.

On May 3, festivals are celebrated in honour of Christ of San Roque allowing the townsfolk to enjoy a huge number of acts, such as plays, children’s activities, pelota valenciana matches and colourful costume parades which represent the town’s oldest traditions. During the year there are many other fiestas such as the fiestas mayores, originally an annual trade fair. Although now the commercial functions of the fair have disappeared, the fiestas mayores consist of a week of sports’ activities, various concerts and cultural activities.

Then there are the porrats festivities again with their origins in Medieval times and based around the economic activities of the town. In January the festival of San Antonio Abad is celebrated. There are often public meals served during the fiestas and everyone can enjoy a specially prepared traditional dish. At the San Antonio chapel a mass is held and the animals are blessed, this is an incredible spectacle as people bring their cats, dogs, goats, donkeys and any other livestock that needs blessing to the church.

Every year on the first Sunday in September the town celebrates the nine-day festival of Nuestra Señora del Rebollet, the patron saint of Oliva. The Virgen del Rebollet is the oldest effigy of the Virgin Mary in the Comunidad Valenciana. A Romanesque sculpture dating back to the end of the 12th century, it shows the tender image of Mary breastfeeding the baby Jesus. The sculpture is taken through the streets to the castle and as was the custom of the pilgrims the followers of the procession pick up a cane and hang a pumpkin from it.

Neighbourhood fiestas or fiestas de barrio are held regularly and reveal a buoyant atmosphere where the spontaneity of the people brings out the full character of each neighbourhood. During these fiestas open-air public meals are shared, a huge variety of children’s games and activities are held and there are popular dances all through the night under the stars in the town’s squares.