The municipal exhibition hall "El Teatret" of Xixona, hosted on Friday 9 September the inauguration of MARQ's travelling exhibition, Guardians of Stone, Castles of Alicante, dedicated to the buildings and fortifications that served as a defence for the province of Alicante.
The mayoress of Xixona, Isabel López and the deputy of Culture César Augusto Asencio presented the exhibition together with the technical director of the MARQ, Manuel Olcina and the managing director Josep Albert Cortés. Also in attendance were the representative of the Banco Sabadell Foundation, José Andrés Maroñas, and the curator of the exhibition, the Museum's archaeologist José Luis Menéndez.
The travelling exhibition comes from Villana and will be in the town of Xixonenca until 30 October and aims to disseminate and bring to the public the history, remains, characteristics and, in short, everything that encompasses the rich heritage that make up the province's castles, across 84 of the 250 registered fortifications.
The exhibition is structured as follows five routes which roughly coincide with the delimitations of the large counties of the province: the Vega Bajathe Vinalopó Valley, L'Alacantí, L'Alcoià-El Comtat and Las Marinas de Alicante.
The display boxes, which are easily transportable for touring, offer shocking images and all the necessary information on historical context or relevant people linked to each territory. The set is complemented by the audiovisual Almiserata production made by the department of Image and Promotion of the Area of Good Governance of the Diputación de Alicante with spectacular aerial views of the castles.
The five castle routes
The first route focuses on the territory of the Vega Baja and makes reference to the Tudmir Castles which groups together the large fortifications of the region, headed by the Orihuela Castle. The Inner Border Castles is the second proposal that covers the Vinalopó Valley, one of the great frontiers that divided our territory in medieval times and that has left us an extraordinary legacy formed by some of the most spectacular fortifications in the province, such as the fortifications at Villena, Sax o Biar.
In the third route, in the area of L'Alacantí, we can see the Clau del Regne CastlesWith the city of Alicante as a strategic centre as early as the 14th century, they were intended not only to defend the urban enclaves, but also the properties in the huerta.
The fourth route corresponds to the Mountain Castles with simple constructions in crenellated enclaves or defence towers, such as Almudaina or the Tower of Les Maçanes. Finally, 'Guardians of stone' shows the Castles on the Frontier of FearItinerary covering the fortifications of the northern coast of the province, so called because of its special orography and besieged by corsairsThe city was built in front of which a real imperfect wall was constructed, full of towers, amenaras and urban ramparts.
In this link you can see a "time lap" of the assembly.
