MEDIEVAL ERA - BRIEF HISTORY
As with all of the Valencian region,
it was the medieval King of Aragon,
Jaume I, who in 1244 claimed Xàbia
for the Christians and set about
the long and unstable process of
populating the town. The revolts of
Al Azraq slowed down the process of
re population.
It was not until 1397 that Xàbia
obtained its village title. By this time,
the medieval village had grown into a
network of narrow streets with a good
defensive perimeter wall. The layout
would correspond to the current
streets of Roques, Ronda Sud, Sant
Josep, Verge del Pilar, Pastores,
Príncep d’Astúries and Ronda Nord.
Within this primitive town there
was a fortified tower built on top of a
previous Arab tower called the Torre
d’Encairat. Close to this tower was
constructed a primitive Christian
church that utilized the foundations
of a captured Arab farmhouse.
Xàbia remained a tiny rural Medieval
outpost until the beginning of the
16th century when due to the growth
of the community, the walls had to be
set back into the new open roads.
PORTALS
THROUGH
FORTIFIED WALLS
THE
The defective portals in and out of the
village were marked as the Portal del
Clot (1554), Portal de la Mar (1561)
and Portal de la Ferraria (1637).
Etymologically, the name of “Clot”,
derives from the word Cros, which
means bottom of the town.
“Mar” is sea, so we can derive that
door exits in the direction of the sea.
“Ferraria” is a reference to the Cape of
San Antonio. In the era of the Roman
occupation, the Cape was called the
“Promontory of Ferraria”, meaning a
point of high land that juts out into a
large body of water; a headland. This
is where one of the very first Christian
Religious Orders from North African,
led by Donato Servetian, built a small
community to flee persecution.