The first glimpse of Alcúdia is only a fraction of what you will see once you step through the ancient walls that encircle the old town and provide its current physiognomy.
The first vestiges of human presence in the municipality date back to around 6000 BC. Ancient settlers - Romans, Byzantines, Arabs and much later, the Catalans - left a rich collective legacy that has imbued each and every one of our monuments over the centuries and can still be seen today in many parts of the island. There is a historical map available in the various tourist offices that will guide you through our fascinating heritage. You can also download an audio guide: Experience Alcúdia app, for both iOS and Android.
Alcúdia took its name from the old Islamic farmhouse of Alqudya, meaning "El Pujol" and could have been located on "de n'Amorós" street, which is on the highest point of the historical centre, as well as coinciding with the oldest square in Alcúdia, originally called "de la Carnisseria", and currently unnamed.
After the Catalan conquest of Jaume I, in what is known as the Repartiment of 1232, the island’s territories were distributed amongst the King and his vassals and Alcúdia became royal land. According to several documents from the time, it seems that in 1279 Alcúdia already had a certain degree of importance as a geographic and population center, although the city would not acquire its current shape until the city walls were built in the year 1300, in the reign of Jaume II.
Thanks to a series of propitious findings that would inspire decades of research and study, we have the bust of Augusto Velado and the first mention of Pol·lèntia dating back to the 16th century.
The first systematic excavations began in the 1920’s under the auspices of Professor Gabriel Llabrés Quintana and Rafel Issassi. In 1936 the Civil War put a temporary stop to the investigations, which were later resumed and have carried on to this day, with prominent names like Almagro, Tarradell, Arribas and Wood. This coincides with the creation of the Hispano-American Archaeological Centre in the 50’s, under the patronage of the William Bryant Foundation, which ran the works until the end of the 90’s when the site was taken over by the City Council of Pol·lèntia.
Art, nature and architecture coexist in harmony in a museum designed to awaken the senses
a Bassa Blanca Museum is a unique space where art, nature and architecture come together in harmony. The museum has different exhibition areas: The Aljibe, an old water tank that currently houses NINS, a unique collection of children's portraits from the sixteenth to the nineteenth centuries. Sokrates, a space inspired by the Renaissance “cabinets of curiosities”, where ethnographic art pieces are mixed with contemporary artworks such as Barceló, Bourgeois or Cattelan. Finally, the building designed by Hassan Fathy, a Hispano-Moorish construction unique in Europe by the Egyptian architect, houses a unique art collection, where Australian and Moroccan Aboriginal art is mixed with ethnographic pieces and contemporary art by artists such as Domenico Gnoli, Rebecca Horn or Miquel Barceló among others. Furthermore, the building houses a Mudejar coffered ceiling of the fifteenth century listed as BIC.
Outdoors, visitors can explore the sculpture park, where they will find about a hundred sculptures by artists Ben Jakober and Yannick Vu. In addition, the garden, conceived by the artist Yannick Vu as a “Hortus Conclusus”, a medieval garden surrounded by walls, is a space that combines aromatic plants, flowers and some artistic installations with a spectacular centennial olive grove named OlivArt.
Services: Restaurant, accessible to wheelchair users, cloakroom service, parking, audio guide.
Opening hours: Wednesday to Saturday: 10:00 am to 6:00 pm. Sunday from 10.00 a.m. to 3.00 p.m.
Fees:
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