-
Stairways Route
These traditional slopes connect the town centre with the beach, the promenade and the main area of bars, restaurants and tourist shops on the seafront, as well as the Yacht Club and the marina. The "Escalonades" route is a project of artistic interventions, where each staircase is themed with…
Mediterranean Chocolate
The "Baixada del Xocolate" highlights this traditional industry, which is still very important in Villajoyosa today and in itself is a tourist attraction, as the factories can be visited, there are still traditional chocolate factories and the Valencia Chocolate Museum at Chocolates Valor alone receives around 90,000 visitors a year.
From the 18th century, in the port of Villajoyosa,
they loaded large ships, that went to the American colonies,
with fabrics and cigarette paper from Alcoy.
These ships returned with cocoa and other products.
Since then the city has smelt of toasted cocoa.
Today the industry is concentrated on four firms:
Valor, Clavileño, Pérez and Marcos Tonda
Chocolate has been made in Villajoyosa since at least 1748.
They were small family businesses working from their homes,
but these families lived mainly from agriculture.
Many chocolate makers sold their product from carts
through the south east of the Iberian Peninsula and through La Mancha.
The arrival of the motor vehicle widened the market.
Today Villajoyosa chocolate goes all over the world.
Image: Old chocolate factories
