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The river Turia route
This route stretches over the regions of Camp de Turia and Los Serranos. It begins in Lliría, the main regional town. The Romans called it Lauro and thus the chronicler Pliny refers to the wines grown in Plá de l´Arc as lauronenses. The modern town grew up on the plain. At the time of Philip V, the king decided to reward the English Duke of Berwick for his victory at the Battle of Almansa by creating the Dukedom of Llírica. The third duke married Maria Teresa de Silva, the Duchess of Alba, who is buried in the town. Nowadays, the Casa de Alba palace is the seat of the Town Hall. Lliíria is the music town, with two bands devoted to this form of cultural expression:the Banda Primitiva, probably the oldest in Spain, and Unión Musical, founded in 1903.
Running parallel to the course of the River Turia, neither too close together nor too far apart, are the villages making up the natural space of Alto Turia, in the region of los Serranos. The villages are scattered over a broad expanse of land, watched over by towering pinnacles and woodland reaching down to the very waters of the river. The inhabitants livelihood comes from the exploitation of the hillside, cattle-breeding, cereal crops and vines, Good wine is produced there, especially white with an appellation d´origine. Chelva, which is classified as areginal centre, possesses archaeological remains from the Bronze Age, the Iberians and Romanisation. Its archpriest´s church, dedicated to Maria de Dios de los Angeles, has a breathtaking façade by Herrera. The urban design of the old Jewish Quarter is still there today.
In Tuéjar, there is a tourist information office. The road continues to climb until it reaches Titaguas, a town which is overlooked by the Lampara Mountain. A detour takes the traveller to the historical town of Alpuente, which is must: a tiny monumental treasure locked between two hills.
Inside the lands of Aragon and Castile, the Province of Valencia still has a small corner which measures 470 square kilometres, bearing the name of Rincón de Ademuz. It consists of a mountainous spot, extremely rugged and isolated. The wild scenery is relieved only by the river’s fertile plain with its farmland, apple orchards and vegetable gardens.
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