Moros y Cristianos or live history

abril 03, 2018

Photos by Ksenia Zaripova, Catherine Redgrave and Silvia Coronel
in Villafranqueza

Our group visited Villafranqueza the 18th of March. It was one of the best cultural experiences in Spain.

History

From the historical point of view the festivals are a popular tradition to commemorate the battles, combats and fights between Muslims and Christians during the period known as Reconquista (from the 8th century through the 15th century). The festivals represent the capture of the city by the Moors and the subsequent Christian reconquest. The people who take part in the festival are usually enlisted in local associations called filaes or comparses (companies that represent the Christian or Moor legions).
The festivals last for several days
(in Villafranqueza it was held from 25.02 to 19.03) and feature festive parades with bombastic costumes inspired by Medieval fashion. It has a great sociocultural value for the locals, since it is the past that creates the modern shape of society ( demographic scheme). From our own experience we can say that the outfits of those who participates is outstanding. While being a visitor of this fiesta, you are becoming a part of this medieval event.

Tourism attraction

Photo by Ksenia
Villafranqueza street

From the touristic point of view it is a greatly developed product, because it is easy to find information in any language you want. You can find a schedule of events on the official web-page of Communitat Valenciana (http://comunitatvalenciana.com/). There are many web-pages that give you an overlook of these fiestas. But we think that even if you are not a fan of history, this will be an interesting experience since it could be not only cultural tourism, but also a recreational typology( walking through the town), photo tourism ( which is one of the most developing typology nowadays).

Our main advice is to leave your car outside of Villafranqueza, because it is a very concentrated historical place, where it is difficult to find parking spot. If you a going from Alicante you can use bus 36, 04 y 36. And from Benidorm you can choose the tram line #1 and #9.

Another good thing about this attraction is that fact that it is absolutely free from charge for visitors.

It is a unique experience.

Current situation

According to web-pages such as Tripadvisor and Facebook, it easy to see that the current situation is really good. Many visitors are willing to visit it. However, the curiosity is that when we were there we have not seen many tourists.

But as any other attraction there is always a space for further development. Such as better promotion of the event. Because we think that there are not enough banners in Alicante city.

But despite modest promotion, the hype for this event is enormous by the ratio with the size of the area of festivity. However, the main thing to be considered is whether this event needs more attention and whether the touristic interest can spoil and destroy this historicallly important cultural heritage.