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Benigembla

Village

Benigembla is a town and municipality in the Pop Valley within the district of Marina Alta in eastern Spain. The town is 314 m above sea level. It is only 50 km away from Benidorm, 88 km from Alicante, 105 km from Valencia, and 23 km from Dénia. Just 7.5 km (about 5 miles) from the town, in the direction of La Vall d'Ebo in an ancient Morisco site, Pla de Petracos, there are paintings over 8000 years old and UNESCO has designated it a protected world site of cultural interest. The town of Benigembla is also of Moorish origin, like most towns in the Pop Valley. In 1609 more than 14,000 Moors of the Pop Valley that resisted the decree of expulsion, and they gathered in the mountain of El Cavall Verd or el Pop. At the end, the Moors gave up because they were running out of food, water, and basic supplies. After giving up, most of the Moors were expelled after suffering high casualties.

After the decree of expulsion of the Moors from the year 1609, the village was repopulated mostly by Majorcan and western Catalan people. The village still retains many traditions and customs of these settlers, and also the language spoken by the villagers. At the summit of "El Cavall Verd" also known as "La Muntanya del Pop", there are still some remains of an ancient castle called ´´El Castell de Pop´´. ´´El Castell de Pop´´ was owned by Al-Azraq, then by Pere d'Altafulla. Since 1329 was owned by Vidal de Vilanova and his successors. During the final period it was handed to ´´Jaume I el conqueridor´´ by the Jovada pact by Al-Azraq. Later, Peter the Great ordered its destruction, and today there are very few traces left. ´´El Castell de Pop´´gives its name to this enchanted valley in the Marina Alta.

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