A welcome dead end

 On honeymoon in Paris we went to see ‘The Lady with the Unicorn’ tapestry and it occurred to me that not every nation had decided to get rid of its Middle Ages as hastily as the English. Monasteries! Just so much building material and land. Castles, well, why live in a draughty pile of rock when you can have a sleek, bechimneyed Tudor manor. Churches.  A bit of whitewash will give them that nicely reformed minimalist look.  So, when you see something called a castell you wonder what use it is now being put to.





The Castell d’Alaquas https://castell.alaquas.org/?lang=es is this bloody great lump of masonry, all four square with towers and turrets and in the middle of a growing town.  It has a wiki page in French, Spanish, Italian and Polish.  The place was given to one of Jaume I’s knights in 1238 as the spoils of Conquest.  The current castle was constructed in the 16th century.  It was renovated in the early 2000s to become its present splendour.  

Tien reckoned ‘Stunning building which has been restored beautifully. Normally it has expositions but, of course, none at the moment, which is a shame. Nevertheless, as an empty building it offers stunning interior design as of showcasing lovely flooring with intricate details as wells as amazingly artistic woodwork details in ceilings, doors and window shutters. I really loved the inner courtyard with the fabulously view of blue sky.’  





It has many uses including as an educational venue.  https://portal.edu.gva.es/fpalaquas/  The four reviewers of this give it 4-5 stars but are silent as to why.




We are crossing the river and slipping between Torrent and Picanya.  Torrent is another place with an ancient past, it still boasts a Moorish Tower, which has grown as Valencia boomed.  Currently almost 85,000 people live there.  https://torrent.es/  





We will nip into the Congelado Minimarket Cris to end our journey,  26 people give it 3.6 stars.    About eight months ago people got very bothered about packages being left there.  Four years ago Santi gave three stars.  ‘It's the only grocery store in the area. They serve bread from other bakeries in the city, they have everything, but the prices are understandably a bit high. I think it's a good idea, but it's a very small center. Even so, it's a welcome service in a completely dead-end area in terms of shopping.’




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