History
The land around Simat de la Valldigna has been inhabited since the beginning of history, as the coves de Bolomor in Tavernes de la Valldigna, and Medalletes and Parpalló in Barx show. Nonetheless the first concrete historical references appear during the Muslim period. The Christian conquest of the 13th century began a new period in this village history. James I conquered these lands, but his grandson James II gave them to the Cistercian order. When James II came back from an expedition against the kingdoms of Murcia and Almeria at the end of the 13th century, they came through the vall d'Alfàndec (ancient name of the Valldigna valley). Then the king was impressed by the valley's beauty, and he exclaimed (speaking to the Cistercian Santes Creus monastery abbot): Vall digna per a un monestir de la vostra religió! (A suitable valley for a monastery of your order). The Santes Creus abbot replied: Vall digna! (Suitable valley). On 15 March 1297 James II of Aragon donated the vall d'Alfàndec (Alfàndec valley) to the Cistercian order in order to found a monastery devoted to the Virgin Mary. Since this moment, the Alfàndec valley will change its name and it will be called Valldigna.
Initially Christians and Muslims lived together in the Valldigna area. They worked in the lands that the monastery abbot lent them in usufruct, even though the conditions were harder for the Muslims. Nonetheless they were allowed to remain as Muslims. The Valldigna Moorish people gathered around the la Xara mosque in order to pray. In this place they received teaching as well, contracts were made, and the Muslims judges made trials. This convivence ended in 1609, with the expulsion from Spain of all Moorish people. Life in the Valldigna valley went on, according to the evolution of the feudal society, under the rule of the monastery and its abbot. It lasted until 1835, when all monasteries in Spain were seized by the State (in what was called the desamortización de Mendizábal). Then the rule of the monastery and its abbot over the valley and its people ended, and a time of neglect, ruins and destruction of the monastery began. It was a private property until 1991, when the Generalitat Valenciana (Valencian regional government) bought it.
Read more about this topic: Simat De La Valldigna
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“One classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when corruption has just begun to set in. The serpent has shown his scaly head in the undergrowth. The apple gleams on the tree. The old drama of the Fall is ready to start all over again.”
—Jonathan Raban (b. 1942)
“The second day of July 1776, will be the most memorable epoch in the history of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated by succeeding generations as the great anniversary festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the day of deliverance, by solemn acts of devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with pomp and parade, with shows, games, sports, guns, bells, bonfires and illuminations, from one end of this continent to the other, from this time forward forever more”
—John Adams (1735–1826)
“If usually the “present age” is no very long time, still, at our pleasure, or in the service of some such unity of meaning as the history of civilization, or the study of geology, may suggest, we may conceive the present as extending over many centuries, or over a hundred thousand years.”
—Josiah Royce (1855–1916)