PEGO I LES VALLS

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   LA VALL D’ALCALÀ:
   Man has inhabited La Vall d’Alcalà since prehistory. Archaeological digs carried out in the “Abrigo de la Roca” site prove the presence of hunters and the exploitation of flint mines in the area 15.000 years ago. It was later, some 7.000 years ago, that the cave paintings of Condoig and the Gleda gorge were created.
   The remains of three hamlets in Xarpolar, Tossal de la Roca and Penya Retura date from the Iberian or pre Roman period. Full splendour arrived at the valley in the Moorish era. At the end of the 13th century, Alcalá was the capital of a Moslem province, fief of the Moorish Kingdom of Valencia, that comprised the valleys of Lorcha, Planes, Gallinera, Alcalá, Ebo, Laguar, Pego, la Retoria, Orba, Pop (Parcent, Benigembla), Castell de Castells and Tárbena.

   The last ruler of this small autonomous state was Abu Abdala Mohamat Ibn Hudayl, nicknamed AL-AZRAQ, “The Blue”, who confronted the Christian advance of Jaime I and is much mentioned in the royal diaries. A very popular figure in the Marina Alta and Baja and the Comtat regions. Al-Azraq was born in Alcalá around 1218 and after 30 years of fighting died in April 1276 in the battle of Barranco de Alcoi. The commemoration of this historic event is the origin of the popular Moors and Christian's fiestas, celebrated in Alcalá and in many other villages.
   After the foundation of the Kingdom of Valencia, the Arabic province disappears and a feudal estate, the Baronía de Castillo, Honor and Valle de Alcalá, with a territory that corresponds to the actual municipal district together with the village of Benissili, that today belongs to the Vall de Gallinera, is formed. For over three hundred years this land was densely populated by moors, period from which have been conserved the villages of L’Atzuvieta, la Roca, Benialins, la Caerola and Benixarco, that were abandoned due to the Moorish expulsion at the beginning of the 17th century. Resettled by families from the island of Majorca and the inland town of Ibi, La Vall d’ Alcalà at the beginning of the 20th century counted with more than 600 inhabitants and four villages but later suffered the effects of massive emigration.