La Barbera is a 17th century country house; it was converted in the 19th  century into a romantic mansion with furnishings and rich personal wardrobe items from very different backgrounds. In fact, there are a lot of objects from Britain such as crockery, biscuit boxes favoured by the British Royal Family and furniture featured in the London Exhibition of 1851.   La Barbera was owned by the Aragonés family which has an exiting history. Amongst its members we find important politicians, military personnel and members of the clergy. There are some that still live in the house...

We have retained the façade of the old Doctor Esquerdo public school, which is now the new Vilamuseu, the town’s museum and the centre of the Network of Museums and Monuments of Villajoyosa. The famous doctor, Álvaro Esquerdo, born in 1851 and died in 1921, financed its construction. The façade mimics ancient styles. The twin or double windows imitate medieval palaces. The egg-and-dart, or egg-and-tongue mouldings, copy Greek and Roman architecture. The college was closed in 2005 in ruins. Vilamuseu has accessible facilities and activities designed for all ages. Today this building is also a Venue of the University of…

It was historically called Pla de l'Om or Elm Square. The Napoleonic troops uprooted this great tree in 1813. In 1990 the Town council ordered a new elm to be planted in its memory. It has also been variously called the Square of the Constitution, St Augustine, the Republic and New Spain. It is here that the Thursday market and public executions took place. In 1607 the Augustinian monastery of San Pedro, Santa Marta and San Antonio was erected. Disentailed in 1836, the convent was converted into a prison and courthouse. In 1936 it was knocked down to make way…

There is the site of a military camp — in latin called ‘castra’ — from the Sertorian war, which took place between 83 and 72 BC. It is the first to be discovered in the Valencian Community. It could accomodate one cohort, more or less 500 men. The fossa fastigata — or sloping ditch — surrounding it, has been excavated in Colon, Pizarro and Juan Tonda streets. We have marked its path with these bronze medallions. If you read the word FOSSA the right way round you are within the camp. On the embankment there would have been a fence…

They were moved here from the cemetery excavated in the Creueta or Juan Carlos I square in 2001. There you can find another panel that explains this important archaeological site. On these platforms of stones there was a body of mud, that is, hard-packed earth, which has not survived. Here were buried prominent citizens of the Iberian-Roman town. They are from 1st century BC and were enclosed by mud walls. Around them there were tombs with cremated bones in urns. Alongside the urns were objects buried with the deceased, on display in Vilamuseu, the museum of the city of Villajoyosa.…

It was used from the end of the 7th century BC until the 5th century AD. It stretched 800 metres along the road that led to the valleys of Alcoy. There are Phoenician-Punic, Iberian and Roman tombs. One hundred of them were unearthed in this square. Two monumental tombs from the first century BC have been relocated to the park of Barbera. The Creueta is a cross whose name means ‘little cross’. It marks a crossroads of Roman origin. It retains the old stone base and the rest is cast iron. These crosses were placed at the exits of cities.…

In 2015 we did some archaeological soundings prior to the construction of this roundabout. We found an extraordinary archaeological site. We excavated part of the asphalted area and avoided excavating the interior of the roundabout. There were 150 Phoenician, Iberian and Roman graves. We preserved them under the tarmac. They formed part of an enormous cemetery stretching back to the old town. From the 7th century BC, for more than a thousand years, people were buried here. The graves were next to the road connecting Villajoyosa to Alcoy. It is the Camí del Peix (Fish Road), one of the oldest…

These public baths were built between 85 and 110 AD next to the forum of the Roman city of Allon (what is now Plaza de la Generalitat), after the granting of the status of municipium by Emperor Vespasian circa 74 AD. Allon was one of nine Roman cities of the Valencian Community, and its territory was the region of Marina Baja. In 2019, the Master Plan for restoration and enhancement of the Baths was approved, which will run from 2020.   1- Service Areas  2- Drainage channel  3- Praefurnium (kiln) 4- Caldarium (hot room, with two bathtubs or alvei) 5-…

The Chalet de Centella was built between 1927 and 1930, in the expansion of Villajoyosa along Calle de Colón, then the Valencia highway, paved for the first time a few years earlier, in 1925. At this time the Calle de Colón had already become the city center, a favorite place for the local population to walk, with unique buildings of different styles such as the Olimpia Cinema, the Álvaro Esquerdo School or interesting rationalist-style buildings from the 25-30s, with which the Chalet itself contrasts, having a more classic style. Its owner, Vicent Lloret Pérez (1879-1950), built it to establish his…