What to see in Xaló

Jalón, also known as Xaló, is the main town of the Vall de Pop, an inland district in the Marina Alta surrounded by vineyards, almond groves and olive trees between low mountain ranges. The town holds an unusual geographic quirk: the Greenwich Meridian (0° longitude) runs straight through its built-up centre, something true of only a handful of Spanish towns.

History

Today's population largely descends from settlers from Mallorca, particularly from Santa Margarita, who resettled the town in 1609 after the expulsion of the Moriscos. On the high ground around the valley stand the remains of the Castell d'Aixa, an Andalusian-era fortification that once watched over the route inland. The Ràfol quarter, with its narrow, irregular streets, still preserves the medieval layout of the original settlement, predating the 17th-century resettlement. Visitors exploring the Ràfol on foot can still make out the outline of the pre-1609 settlement in its street pattern, even though most of the standing buildings date from the resettlement period that followed.

What to see

The valley's winemaking tradition can be traced up close at Bodegas Jalón, the cooperative founded in 1962 by fourteen farmers after the phylloxera crisis, which today groups four hundred members and produces wines, mistelas and vermouths from the local moscatel grape; it runs tastings for visitors, often paired with local cured meats and cheeses. The Museu Etnològic de Xaló covers the valley's traditional farming life before wine became its current calling card, and the Vall de Xaló viewpoint takes in the whole mosaic of terraces, vineyards and mountains in a single glance.

Every Saturday morning, the Paraje del Azud fills up with the Rastro de Jalón, a market for antiques and second-hand goods that stretches several hundred metres along the river and draws visitors from across the district, with a strong showing of foreign buyers and sellers. Between the wine, the weekly market and the routes through the valley, Jalón works well as a day stop combined with neighbouring Benissa or the rest of the Vall de Pop. The municipality, home to around 3,100 people and with more than a third of the population foreign-born, keeps its own festive calendar around Santo Domingo in early August and the Virgen de Agosto on the 15th. The Sierra de Bernia, rising to 1,128 metres on the valley's eastern edge, marks the boundary with the coastal towns of the Marina Alta and offers hiking routes distinct from the vineyard-covered valley floor.