Cupola and Belfry of Saint Roc's Church

Window from  Centelles' Palace

A treasure at hand's reach

A walk around Oliva allows us to understand  better its History, written through centuries in the  design of the streets, the houses, the fountains, the  gardens and the Monuments. To start with, one can visit  the Churches of Sta. Maria, St. Roc and Rebollet and go  through the gates of the city: Fossar's, Verge Maria's  and St. Vicent's. Next, the visitor can admire Mayan's  house and the nobiliary houses in Tamarit Street and walk  peacefully in C. Moreres, St. Vicent, Sr.  Cristòfol...and its surrondings. Finding the Towers of  the City Wall and other details such as the Count's  Palace's window will incite you to discover for yourself the  rest of the treasures this Mediterranean Villa offers.

Entrance of Moors and Christians

Ascent to Calvari,  Easter.

People with Traditions

Among the fiestas that are celebrated during the  year, the 'Holiday of Moors and Christians' is the one  with most number of participants and audience. Also very  important are St Vicent's Holiday - bullfighting, the  Carnival, Easter, the Fallas and many others that cover  the city with colours. An important part of the working  population is engaged in agriculture, orange growing  most of all, but they also grow high quality vegetables.  These products can be bought at the traditional local  market wich takes place every Friday morning, where the  farmers go to sell their own vegetables. Oliva has its  own industry, mainly dedicated to clay products, such as  bricks, tiles and craft pottery, which can be bought at  the numerous local shops located troughout Oliva. Besides  the delicious paellas, Oliva's gastronomy offers dishes of  high quality and originality: pebreres farcides,  figatells, espardenya, gamba amb bleda and coques i  pastissos, wich will satisfy curious and demanding  palates.

The dune

Oliva-Pego's  Marjal Natural Park

The Natural Park and the dune: a unique  environment

Mountains  constitute an unexpected presence to the visitor in such  a coastal resort. Nevertheless the Gallinera and Mustalla  Mountain range from a perfect hairpin bend which  constitutes the natural border of Oliva and the neighbour  villages.

South from the coastal plain, the  Oliva-Pego's Marjal Natural Park extends: a humid area, populated by an abundant fauna and autochthon vegetation.  The Park is also visited by migratory birds looking for  drinking water and its special and mild microclimate.

The natural dune surrounding the coast  is of important ecologic value for being one of the best  conserved among the few left in this part of the  Mediterranean. It constitutes an added attractiveness to  the beach sojourn, sensibly encreasing the landscape's  quality showing the great beauty of its original aspect.

Oliva-Pego Marsh

The Pla

The Natural Park of Oliva-Pego marsh lays to the  south of the littoral plain, it is a humid area with  abundant fauna and autochthon vegetation. The park is  used by the migratory birds that look for the fresh water  and the mildness of its microclimate. The marshes, old  lakes formed in the coast plains more than 8.000 years  ago, have suffered a serious and worrying retrocession.  They are plain areas that temporarily flood because of  the spring or autumn rains besides the contributions of  the subterranean waters of the inner mountains. These  environmental characteristics propitiate very peculiar  vegetal communities and a fauna formed by migratory  species that need these "ecological islands" to  complete their vital life cycle.

Species
Among the other species, you can find the flamingo, the  duck "coll verd" with green chest and neck, the  water puller, the royal duck, the quail, the painted  pullet, the plover, the heron, the coot, the little  stork,etc... Oliva-Pego marsh, also known as "La  Partida" or "El Pla", is a damp and boggy  area of 12000 or 13000 fanegas, 1000 hectares  approximately. 70% belongs to Pego municipal district  and 30% to Oliva. The marsh is ploughed by  several water courses, among them stand out the Bullent  river or Sequia del Vedat and the Molinell river. The  marsh is located between La Marina Alta and La Safor  counties. Surrounded by the Mountain Mustella to the  North, the Segaria to the south, Puig d'Ebo to the west  it is separated from the sea by sandy beaches.

The water
The marsh water is a primordial and determinant factor  for its vegetal and animal richness; it has its origins  in the surface waters of the rivers we have already  mentioned and in the Gallinera torrent that has no outlet  to the sea. We have to add to these surface waters those  which comes from the springs, the subterranean waters,  some of them are salt, and the contribution of the sea  when the East tempests takes place.

The vegetation  and the piscicultural richness
The vegetation of the marsh is rich in different species  and vegetal communities, for example the water lentil,  the holm-oak forest community with the narrow leaf  bulrush and the water rush, the giant cane community and  the bulrush, the water grass community, the rosebays and  the white water lilies. Among the piscicultural richness  we should point out the eel, the bass, the spiny loach,  the catfish, the redfish, the "fartonet" and  the "samaruc", two endemic species , the  needlefish, etc.. Oliva-Pego marsh is included in the  RAMSAR agreement as an humid area and it is protected by  the EEC. It is one of the few places where you can enjoy something that seems impossible today, the nature.