What to see in Novelda

Novelda is a city of around 26,600 people in the Medio Vinalopó district, sitting between the agricultural interior and the industrial lowlands of the province. The Vinalopó river runs through the municipality from northwest to southeast, and the town itself sits at 241 metres, on the edge of the Baetic mountain ranges. Its skyline mixes marble workshops, table-grape fields and, on the hill above town, a modernist silhouette that catches newcomers off guard.

The local economy rests on three long-standing pillars: table grapes of the aledo and ideal varieties, marble and natural stone, an industry that took off in the late 19th century, and the trade and packaging of spices and saffron. Archaeological finds in the area go back to the Eneolithic period, and the town later passed through Roman and Islamic rule before the Christian conquest.

From Islamic Vinalopó to modernisme

After the Christian conquest of 1243, Novelda belonged first to the kingdom of Murcia and then to the jurisdiction of Alicante, before becoming part of what is now the Comunitat Valenciana in the late 13th century. The Castillo de La Mola survives from that Muslim past, built by the Almohads over an earlier Roman fortification. Its standout feature is the keep, triangular in plan and with no known parallel anywhere else in Europe, rebuilt in the 14th century on the orders of Blanca de Anjou, wife of King Jaime II. The complex was declared a historic monument in 1931 and entry is free.

Next to the castle, on the same hill, stands the Sanctuary of Santa María Magdalena, designed by local engineer José Sala Sala, who had studied in Terrassa and encountered Antoni Gaudí's work there. Construction ran from 1918 to 1946 in three phases, including a suspension, and produced a building shaped like a jug, a reference to the balm jar the saint is said to have carried. River pebbles from the Vinalopó, polychrome tiles and exposed brick sit together on a facade that has drawn comparisons to Barcelona's Sagrada Família, though it stands as a work with its own character. Entry here is free too.

Heritage and nature around town

In the centre, the Museo Histórico-Artístico de Novelda, open since 1980 inside the Casa de Cultura, holds pieces ranging from the Paleolithic to the 19th century and traces the Iberians, Romans and Muslims who passed through the valley. A short distance from the sanctuary, the Clots de la Sal and Serra de la Mola natural area, protected since 2021, combines pine woods and Mediterranean scrub with small pools of brackish water that surface from the aquifer along the Vinalopó riverbed.

A little over ten kilometres away, in the same district, is Elda, which shares the Medio Vinalopó and its industrial tradition with Novelda, and both towns work well as a day trip from the capital.