The tourist department of the town of Almoradí in the heart of the Vega Baja has been organising and running its popular ‘green’ and ‘cultural walks’ for some time now and as I live very near the town I thought it was high time that I went on one myself and discovered more about the place. All the walks start in the main square on a Saturday morning by the tourist information kiosk. At the moment only the cultural walk is being run due to the weather and condition of the fields around the town, however the country walks will be starting in March so look out for details in the CoastRider or go along to the tourist information centre in the town. As I said at the beginning, the walks have proved to be enormously popular and about 40 people turned up for the ‘Cultural walk’ last Saturday to be greeted by our guide for the morning Yelda Fernandez who is also a local teacher. We were all given a ‘goody bag’ containing illustrated booklets guides describing the places we were to visit and also the country walks. In addition there was a copy of the cultural programme for the town’s theatre for the months of January and February. The booklets are in Spanish and English.
It was the local theatre, the Teatro Cortes, that was to be our first stop on this hour and a half walk through the town. This charming building, known locally as ‘the chocolate box’ because of its colours of red and gold and compact size, was built at the turn of the 20th century financed and sponsored by a rich landowner Mariano Cortés Próxedes. He wanted to give the town, of less than five thousand inhabitants at that time, a cultural centre after the whole area had been destroyed in the 1829 earthquake. The original styling of the theatre has been maintained and owes much to the 19th century rather than the 20th century. Having being closed for 17 years between 1971 and 1988 it now plays host to plays, films and other forms of entertainment. In the foyer there are pictures of many of the actors, singers and entertainers who have graced its delightful stage.

From the theatre we walked through the busy streets, Saturday is market day in Almoradí, to the Girona Chapel in calle de España. Originally built as a private chapel for a wealthy local family, the chapel has been used as a blood hospital and a girls’ school before being extensively refurbished by the town council and is now used as an official reception room by the town hall.
Our last stop was the church in the main square ‘La Iglesia de San Andrés’, the church of Saint Andrew. The current Christian church, which is built on the site of a mosque in use when the town was under the control of the Moors, is the fourth Christian church to have been raised on the site. The current building, constructed after the earthquake of 1829, is not apparently as splendid as the previous but has many beautiful statues of saints in small alcoves and paintings around the altar. It is a very large cavernous building inside and when we visited a local children’s choir was practising near to the front of the church, a beautiful sonic backdrop to the knowledgeable commentary from Yelda, our guide. One of the statues is ‘Christ of the Bells’ which survived the earthquake protected by one of the bells that fell to the ground. ‘Christ of the Bells’ has become a local fiesta celebrated on the last Sunday of September. Incidentally the story behind the naming of the church is rather interesting. Apparently when Jaime I was busy reconquering Spain for the Christians he saw a golden diagonal cross on the top of the mosque in Almoradí like the cross of St Andrew. The Christian troops besieged the town on the saint’s day, November the 30th, seeing it as a good omen. The Christians recaptured Almoradí and subsequently named the new Christian church after the saint on whose day the battle had been successfully fought.
At the end of the tour a group of students from the local music school played in the doorway of the church, a fitting end to a very enjoyable morning. We had all learnt a lot more about the history and culture of the area in which we live.