Twice a year, the Foradà solar alignment creates a remarkable spectacle high in the mountains of the Marina Alta.
As the sun sets, its rays pass through a natural hole in the rock of the Foradà, casting a beam of light towards the remains of an old Franciscan convent below.
The next Foradà solar alignment takes place on Sunday 4 October in the Vall de Gallinera. This year, the event also forms part of a weekend of activities on 3 and 4 October marking the 750th anniversary of the death of Al-Azraq.
What is the Foradà solar alignment?
The Foradà is easy to recognise thanks to the large natural arch cutting through the mountain.
On 4 October, the feast day of Saint Francis of Assisi, the position of the sun allows its rays to pass through that opening and reach the site of the former Franciscan convent at Benitaia.
It is not simply a modern tourist curiosity. Written evidence shows that people noticed the phenomenon more than 400 years ago.
A Franciscan friar, Antonio Panes, described it in a document dating from around 1620. He wrote that the convent received very little winter sunshine because of its position below the mountain. Yet on Saint Francis’s Day, sunlight passed through the perforated rock and reached the convent.
Panes later included the phenomenon in a Franciscan chronicle published in 1665.
Science put the old story to the test
Centuries later, researcher Dr José Lull investigated whether the historical account actually matched the movement of the sun.
His archaeoastronomical research confirmed the alignment and established that it occurs twice each year.
As well as 4 October, the phenomenon takes place around 9 March, the feast day of Saint Frances of Rome.
The October alignment is particularly interesting because it corresponds with the date recorded by the Franciscan sources centuries ago.
Who was Al-Azraq?
This year’s October weekend also brings the Vall de Gallinera’s commemorations of Al-Azraq to a close.
Al-Azraq was a 13th-century Muslim leader whose name means “the Blue” in Arabic. He became an important figure in resistance to Christian expansion in this part of what is now Alicante province.
He died in Alcoy on 5 May 1276, making 2026 the 750th anniversary of his death.
A cultural programme has been running to mark the anniversary, with the Vall de Gallinera taking part in activities since March. The programme has explored Al-Azraq and the society and culture of the period.
The final events on 3 and 4 October have deliberately been timed to coincide with the Foradà alignment, bringing two very different pieces of local history together over the same weekend.
Four centuries of people looking towards the same hole in the mountain
The Foradà alignment has an appealingly simple ingredient list: a mountain, a natural opening and the setting sun.
What makes it unusual is the historical paper trail behind it. A friar wrote about the sunlight reaching his convent in the early 17th century, and modern astronomical research later demonstrated why it happens.
More than four centuries after that account, people will once again gather in the Vall de Gallinera on 4 October and wait for the sun to find its way through the mountain.
Bridging the Gap’s recap
- The Foradà solar alignment returns on Sunday 4 October.
- The phenomenon takes place in the Vall de Gallinera in the Marina Alta.
- Sunlight passes through a natural opening in the Foradà towards the site of an old Franciscan convent at Benitaia.
- Franciscan documents recorded the phenomenon more than 400 years ago.
- Research by Dr José Lull later confirmed the astronomical alignment.
- It occurs twice a year, around 9 March and 4 October.
- Activities on 3 and 4 October will also conclude local events marking 750 years since the death of Al-Azraq.
