Villena is already getting dressed up for its big party, the Moors and Christians festival.
The council have already started stringing up lights and decorations well ahead of the first parade on 4 September.
This annual knees-up has been going strong since 1474, held in honour of Our Lady of Virtues, the town’s patron saint, who, according to tradition, stepped in to save the place from the plague.
Moors and Christians groups
The festival is split between two sides, fourteen groups in total, half Moorish, half Christian. It all started out as a rather serious militia created under Philip II, who liked the idea of locals firing guns in salute to the Virgin, but over the centuries it has morphed into something far more cheerful and noisy.
One of the big highlights is a symbolic performance called “The Conversion of the Moor”, which does what it says on the tin. Then there are the “Special Squads”, who put on new costumes each year and more than eighty bands march through town.
Moors and Christians National Tourist Interest
The whole thing has been declared a Festival of National Tourist Interest, and with over 12,000 people taking part, it is not a small affair!
It all goes back to the late fifteenth century, when the Virgin of Virtues was named patron saint of Villena and her statue was placed in a shrine seven kilometres away. Back then, residents would walk out to pay respects twice a year, in March and September. These days, the image is brought back into town with a pilgrimage at the end of August, and from then on the festival takes over.
Among the best spectacles are the Entrada, the grand opening parade, and the Cabalgata, the dazzling night parade. You also get the Embassies and Guerrillas, staged at the Atalaya Castle. Then there are the solemn parts too, like the procession and offering to the patron saint, mixed with flag parades that are anything but dull.
