They were part of the former convent of the Franciscan Friars of the Minims, a religious building erected during the first half of the 7th century. Even with the ecclesiastical confiscation of Mendizábal in 1835, the convent’s oratory remained the property of the church and the rest of the complex (the cloister, the convent’s outbuildings and the hospital) became municipal property in 1850.

The cloister was the place of meditation and the nerve center of the community, around it were the church, the chapter house, the refectory, the dormitories, etc.

The courtyard, of 10×11 Valencian rods (old measure of length), was landscaped and there was also a well. The porticoed galleries of the cloister, 3 rods wide, gave access to the different rooms. The church communicated with the cloister through a door under an arch that can still be seen today.

The chapter hall was the meeting place, where somebody was called to account. The refectory was the dining room; the kitchen was next to the refectory. The dormitory of the Friars of the Minims consisted of individual cells. There was also a pantry, bakery and wine cellar. The infirmary was separated from the convent by the prohibition of eating food of animal origin inside the enclosure of the convent, whether the sick could eat with dispensation.

The vegetable garden was located on the west side of the convent building, between it and the reservoir.

Little is known of the cloister, but the arcades, formed by a thread of 28x14x5cm tiles, which could correspond to the Arabic metrology, they are placed edgewise with white mortar of lime and sand, are the original ones and correspond to the construction system of the period of Mudejar influence. The north facade of the convent building is not aligned with the facade of the church, it is slightly removed to emphasise the church and create a new public space, the square.

In 1987 a project was approved to raise the height of the second floor, which was a quarter of a storey below the main floor, to be used by the town hall; the work was finished around 1992 and the official inauguration was in 1995. In 1993 excavations were carried out in the central courtyard of the cloister and it was left as it is today.

Part of the convent was used as a hospital from 1730 onwards, an institution dedicated to the care of the poor, the sick and the transients. The hospital was erected in an annex building, located on the site where the current old people’s home is located.

The cloister and the convent’s outbuildings are the current seat of the town hall.

(Based on Ignacio Arce Grilo and María del Mar Boluda Garrido, Ondara: Architectural description of the former Convent of The Minims in Ondara. Title of the book: “Mirades enrere” (Looks into the past), 1st conferences by the Town Hall of Ondara in 2013)

Name by which is popularly known the oratory that was part of the old convent of Franciscan Order of the Minims. Religious building erected during the first half of the 7th century. The Minims arrived in Ondara in 1611, two years after the expulsion of the Moors, with the donation of a small church and some garden lands with abundant water, donation made by Felipe de Cardona, Marquess of Guadalest. It maintained its original activity until the ecclesiastical confiscation of Mendizábal in 1835. Finally, in 1850, the convent remained the property of the Church and was transformed into a public oratory, while the rest of the building (cloister, hospital and outbuildings) became municipal patrimony.

In the process of construction of the convent, first the church was built and later the cloister and the annexed rooms such as the chapter house, the refectory, the dormitories, etc. The Order of the Minims was characterized because their vows obliged them to poverty, austerity, obedience and perpetual abstinence, reasons why in their works they relied on local craftsmen, in their construction systems and in the autochthonous materials, characteristics that are reflected in the sobriety of the architecture and ornamentation. Unlike the monastic orders, whose purpose is prayer and, therefore, their monasteries are isolated from the towns, the fundamental purpose of the mendicant orders is preaching and, consequently, their convents have an urban and open character.

The original configuration of the church is very simple and has clear Renaissance features; the shape and structure of the ogival temple persist. It is a rectangular plan of reduced dimensions, a single nave with side chapels between buttresses, except in the first bay (architectural space between two load-bearing walls) – of smaller dimensions and divided into two levels by the presence of the heart – where two closed enclosures include the stairs that go up to the heart and to the bell tower. On the main façade, the entrance to the church is emphasized by a semicircular arch flanked by pilasters, friezes and cornice; above this, two ball pinnacles at the top of the pilasters. In the center, a niche with “San Francisco de Paula” Francis of Paola, (O.M the founder of the Roman Catholic Order of Minims) that connects with the window of the heart. The corners, the upper cornice and the belfry arches are also made of rough stone.

The wall hides the roof, crowning the façade with somewhat capricious undulations, typical of the period, although the current completion corresponds to the restoration carried out in 1994 and 1995. Inside we can contemplate fresco paintings, with plant and heraldic motifs typical of popular art, from 1674, found in a restoration carried out in 1991, in the first chapel entering on the right where Luisa de Sotomayor y Lima, Marquise of Guadalest, was buried, and from 1699, in the third chapel on the left, sponsored by Vicente Giner. The communion chapel is neoclassical and later 1835. The dome of the chapel is covered with blue glazed tiles, highlighting the edges at the corners of the segments with tiles of a different colour.

During centuries it was customary to bury in churches under the protection of the saints, until in 1784 it was restricted for reasons of public health and since 1799 it was mandatory to locate the cemeteries away from the urban area, but the application of the order was delayed in time. Until 1812 there was no cemetery in Ondara (but it did not last long) and in 1854 the current one was inaugurated. The benefactors or their families were buried in the chapels or in the main altar; the religious were buried in the main altar until the cloister was built, where they were buried afterwards.

Nowadays the church of the convent is dedicated to the “Mare de Déu de la Soledat” Mother of God of the Solitude, patron saint of the municipality, and belongs to the parish church of Santa Anna.

(Extracted from the book “Looks into the past”: Ignacio Arce Grillo i María del Mar Boluda Garrido, Ondara: mirades enrere, 1es. Conferences. Town hall from Ondara, 2013)

A medieval military construction, the clock tower is the only one still standing of the four defensive towers of the castle-palace of Ondara. The castle-palace of Ondara is located in a strategic position, at 37,82 (the height above sea level –  m. a. s. l.) , overlooking a small fertile valley. It belongs to the area of influence of the city of Denia, at different times. The original construction of the palace can be related to those of the palace-castles of Olimbroi and Forna, around the second half of the 13th century.

It presents a typical model of buildings of this type, four towers in the corners, joined by curtain walls, with annexed buildings, with a ground floor and one or two upper floors; the towers always had at least one more floor. The palace-castle of Ondara also had a barbican in front of the towers and overlooked the current market square. The ground floor is dedicated to service rooms, while the upper floor is the main / noble floor.

From the Palace we have preserved some walls integrated to buildings, including the north tower, and evidence of the existence of a barbican. Independently we find the clock tower. This tower has has experienced modifications and reconstructions that we do not see reflected in the sources of information, but this is indicated by the existence of broken embrasures from the end of the 16th to the beginning of the 17th century. In the 18th century, the palace was in ruins, due to the effects of manorial absenteeism and historical events, particularly during the war of succession.

Today we can affirm that we are in front of a fortified enclosure from the Christian period, where we have documented two towers (the clock tower or south tower) and the north tower, where thanks to the archaeological documentation two stone doorways have come to light, which probably gave access to the tower from a small central courtyard or some kind of corridor. They have four arrow-shaped stonemason’s marks.

The main door would probably be facing west, on the nearest façade of the road that crosses the land from north to south; but it is also the area with the gentlest slope and the one that overlooks a large open space that was never built on, with more than likely commercial origins, (i. e.) that is, today’s main square “Plaza Mayor”. From the main door there was access to the courtyard through a covered space, where this piece of incomplete cut stone was located and it has been documented.

The existing walls would probably form part of the perimeter of the palace, and if so, the two undiscovered towers would be at the meeting point of these walls, defining a more or less rectangular enclosure with four towers located at the corners. Around the courtyard would be located all the typical rooms of a palace (bedrooms, dining room, halls, chapel, kitchen, etc.)

Nowadays, the visible tower holds the machinery of a recently mechanized tower clock from the end of the 19th century. Subsequently it has been adapted to serve as a museum and interpretative space of local history.

(It has been declared ACI – Asset of Cultural Interest)

Work carried out by Josep Antoni Ahuir

(Is the court used in the Valencian Community for two different modalities to play the Valencian ball)

Building inaugurated in October 1872 for the practice of Valencian Ball, a sport with a long tradition in Ondara and the whole region. It is the second oldest still in use after the Pelayo’s building in Valencia. Reformed in 2015, in its sports facilities you can play different modalities, in the big trinquet (ball court): “escala i corda i raspall” stairs, high net and without any net and in the smallest trinquet (ball court): games with a bigger ball “pilota grossa” rebound ball, as well as various modalities played with badana ball (soft ball).

The passion for Valencian Ball in the town of Ondara comes from long ago, there is already documented a memorable game on November 26th, 1880 between players from La Marina and neighboring La Safor played in the street.

The Frasés surname is inseparable from the history of Valencian Ball (pelota) in Ondara. Frasés are the first trinquet players (trinqueteros) of the old court (trinquete) that the fans remember; the surname  Frasés is also linked to the new trinquete and even the player “Surdo de Pamis” started his career in the world of pelota with a Frasés. Another name linked to the history of the Valencian ball is that of Francisco Peris, called “Surdo of Pamis” (place added to Ondara), he was not a player, but he was a promoter and a dynamizer of the ball like few others. The man called “Surdo” began to play and to get into the world of organizing games in his youth in Ondara; and he managed to make the trinquete of El Zurdo of Gandía one of the most dynamic and important in the country. One of the legendary players in the history of “pelota” Valencia ball is called “Rovellet”, he was also closely linked to Ondara.

Ondara, when it only had about 3.000 inhabitants, was the first village where a covered and illuminated “trinquete” Valencian ball court was built, where night games could be played, when the old trinquete was already working. The official inauguration was on 11^th of May in 1956. The dynamism of the Valencian ball “pelota” in Ondara in those years was enormous; two and three games were played daily, some at night, on weekends and with the best players of the moment. A relatively small village, had for a few years two fully functioning ball courts, until a strong wind blew down the cover of the new ball court and it was practically destroyed.

After the disappearance of the new court “trinquete”, the old trinquete continued to function until, little by little, the number of fans decreased and over the years the court “trinquete” was closed and physically ruined.

After many vicissitudes the current “trinquete” has become municipal and has been recently rehabilitated and conditioned for the practice of Valencian ball “pelota” again. It has been created an association and a school of “pelota” for children and the world of “pelota” is coming back to life in Ondara.

(Worked by Vicent Ortuño)

Imposing house with a quadrangular floor plan, with a solid and stately appearance, of fortified residential typology, built by the Ferrando family. The exact time of its construction is not known, but from its stylistic appearance and the neoclassical artistic elements it can be concluded that it could be dated to the mid-19th century.

From the analysis of the urban structure with straight streets and uniform widths, as well as the plots with equal dimensions repeated in width and depth, it can be deduced that it is an action planned following the criteria of neoclassical urbanism.

The facades are flat and homogeneous with a very regular composition, with a predominance of symmetry, hierarchical holes in the horizontal and vertical arrangement. The frames are finished with flat moldings, slightly highlighted on the surface of the facade. The access holes are made with a frame of greater importance, highlighting the one corresponding to the main access.

The corners of the façade on Sol Street have two sentry boxes with loopholes at the height of the main floor. One might think that these are formal solutions or simply whimsical. The justification was the defense of the house against the attacks of organized bandits that proliferated in the area during the nineteenth century.

From the ornamental aspects, it is worth mentioning the rigour of the composition. It is remarkable the importance of the corbels located in the lower part of the cornice, the straight mouldings of the access holes, but above all the formalization of the sentry boxes.

It has attached to the end of the facade of Sol Street, a chapel that had a piano, with access from inside the house.

Nowadays it has been declared an ACI (Asset of Cultural Interest)

( Worked by Santiago Varela)

Ball court / Valencian trinquete

(Is the court used in the Valencian Community for two different modalities to play the Valencian ball)

Building inaugurated in October 1872 for the practice of Valencian Ball, a sport with a long tradition in Ondara and the whole region. It is the second oldest still in use after the Pelayo’s building in Valencia. Reformed in 2015, in its sports facilities you can play different modalities, in the big trinquet (ball court): “escala i corda i raspall” stairs, high net and without any net and in the smallest trinquet (ball court): games with a bigger ball “pilota grossa” rebound ball, as well as various modalities played with badana ball (soft ball).

The passion for Valencian Ball in the town of Ondara comes from long ago, there is already documented a memorable game on November 26th, 1880 between players from La Marina and neighboring La Safor played in the street.

The Frasés surname is inseparable from the history of Valencian Ball (pelota) in Ondara. Frasés are the first trinquet players (trinqueteros) of the old court (trinquete) that the fans remember; the surname  Frasés is also linked to the new trinquete and even the player “Surdo de Pamis” started his career in the world of pelota with a Frasés. Another name linked to the history of the Valencian ball is that of Francisco Peris, called “Surdo of Pamis” (place added to Ondara), he was not a player, but he was a promoter and a dynamizer of the ball like few others. The man called “Surdo” began to play and to get into the world of organizing games in his youth in Ondara; and he managed to make the trinquete of El Zurdo of Gandía one of the most dynamic and important in the country. One of the legendary players in the history of “pelota” Valencia ball is called “Rovellet”, he was also closely linked to Ondara.

Ondara, when it only had about 3.000 inhabitants, was the first village where a covered and illuminated “trinquete” Valencian ball court was built, where night games could be played, when the old trinquete was already working. The official inauguration was on 11^th of May in 1956. The dynamism of the Valencian ball “pelota” in Ondara in those years was enormous; two and three games were played daily, some at night, on weekends and with the best players of the moment. A relatively small village, had for a few years two fully functioning ball courts, until a strong wind blew down the cover of the new ball court and it was practically destroyed.

After the disappearance of the new court “trinquete”, the old trinquete continued to function until, little by little, the number of fans decreased and over the years the court “trinquete” was closed and physically ruined.

After many vicissitudes the current “trinquete” has become municipal and has been recently rehabilitated and conditioned for the practice of Valencian ball “pelota” again. It has been created an association and a school of “pelota” for children and the world of “pelota” is coming back to life in Ondara.

(Worked by Vicent Ortuño)

During the war of the Germanías (The Revolt of the Brotherhoods) , in the 16th century, many Muslims were forcibly converted to the Christian faith. As the number of converts increased, new perpetual vicarages in Moorish places were created, depending on Denia. In 1543 the one of Ondara was created, which had Benidoleig and Pamis attached to it. In 1574 the parish church of Ondara, independent of Denia, was dismembered. Later, Benidoleig would be added to Orba. These circumstances precipitated the creation of a new parish church in one of the first streets outside the primitive urban nucleus, since until then, the Christian liturgy was celebrated in the chapel of the castle itself. In 1617, the existence of the church is beyond doubt; in the 18th century, enlargement and renovation works were carried out on the church.

The temple is inserted between the abbey house and the old house of Pepico Santonja, the current wake room of the parish and with a cornice height similar to that of the neighbouring houses. The location is unusual as it is not located in any square or prominent public space but in a street. The plan of the building follows the model of a single nave with five sections of side chapels located between buttresses, which are connected by means of passages with semicircular arches. The floor plan is rectangular, with Latin crosses, without cross and with an arm added later, in the 18th century, where the communion chapel was located. The main altar has, on each side, two chapels in the form of a transept or cross. A new chapel was added next to one of them, taking advantage of part of the space of the house on the left side of the church acquired for parish functions and a chapel of rest.

The main nave is covered with a barrel vault. On the sides there are windows that illuminate the interior. These rest on each of the side chapels, which also have a barrel vault roof and are perpendicular to the central nave. The head of the current temple is a later addition to the original work of the seventeenth century and was made in the eighteenth century. The cover of the same, where the main altar dedicated to Santa Anna is located, is also of barrel vault but in relation to the curved construction site of the main nave, this is located in a lower height than the previous one.

The ornamental elements are those typical of the baroque period with a classical language. The artistic style of the building is therefore neoclassical. The Cardona coat of arms that presides over the central nave, according to Pere Mª Orts i Bosch, must have been made when Isidro Tomás Folch de Cardona y Sotomayor (1643?-1699) was Lord of Ondara, VII Marquis of Guadalest, Admiral of Aragon, Knight of the Order of Alcántara and Captain General of Galicia.

On the exterior façade there are two pilasters that support a flat entablature with a frieze and cornices over which there is a niche with an image of Santa Anna, carved in stone and an oculus. Right next to the main door there is another simple door leading to the baptistery. The bell tower is located on one side and has a square base and is made up of three sections. The façade is therefore classicist.

The altarpieces and images of the current chapels of the church are all from after the civil war (1936-1939), except for those of   Saint Francisco, Saint Vincent Ferrer, Saint Antoni and a small image of Saint John, which are all earlier, approximately from the 18th century. In the communion chapel there are some oil paintings on canvas by Salvador Gil Camarena, son of a native of Ondara. Those of the altarpiece of the main altar and those of the communion are by Ramón Porta, from Oliva.

(Provided by: Miquel Gómez Sahuquillo. Archaeological monitoring . Church of Santa Ana in Ondara, 2010. First Conference,title: “Mirades enrere”,  Town hall of Ondara, 2013)

In Ondara the first public wash house, located next to the “Font de la Alcachofa” called as the Artichoke Fountain,  formerly known as the Fountain of the three water streams, and nowadays already disappeared, it was made, most probably in the 1920s and the second public wash house, which is the one we are in now, in 1950.

Younger people probably think that there have always been washing machines and running water in the houses, but not, the truth is that until a few years ago, the houses did not have running water, nor were there electric washing machines, so they had to wash clothes where they could, even in rivers, because many of the public wash houses were not built until after the civil war in 1939.

Recovering and conserving the building and preserving the memory of what it represents is fundamental to the culture of a people. The public wash house was for the women what the bar or the casino was for the men; it was a place where, besides washing, people talked and commented on the life and events of the villages. It was a kind of social centre. Today we contemplate it as a building that represented modernity, a facility that made it easier for women to wash clothes; an intermediate step between the most absolute precariousness and the popularization of washing machines. And we have to contemplate it as a tribute to all those women, where our mothers or grandmothers would surely be found, who carried a task as necessary as it was discriminatory and heavy.

This second washing place is a singular building inaugurated in 1950, just at the beginning of where the Alfatara’s irrigation channel started, by using the water coming from the “Alberca” a reservoir that retained a diversion dam. The running water from the irrigation ditch was also used for the village’s dry cleaners, it fed the second washing place, located at the other end of the village, and also the disappeared flour mill from Mr Sendra. It has recently been refurbished and now houses, permanently, a series of photographs and posters about its past.

(Work carried out by Vicente Ortuño)

The church is located in the small village of Pamis, it is a small chapel dedicated to Saints Abdón and Senén, popularly known as the Saints of the Stone, although it was originally dedicated to Saint Joseph and Saint Mary. In order to cover the spiritual needs of such a large and dense district as that of Denia, new perpetual vicariates were created in the Moorish places; thus in 1534 a perpetual vicarage was created in Ondara, under the adoration of Santa Anna and dependent on Denia, and Pamis and Benidoleig were added to it. Since then the church of Pamis has always been dependent on the church of Santa Anna in Ondara. The temple was erected at the end of the 17th century. As in practically all the temples, the dead were also buried inside the church of Pamis, until the cemetery of Pamis was inaugurated in 1845. The church, framed between houses, has very simple characteristics, similar to other churches in the area.

The façade is completely plain, without any ornamentation, except for a ceramic tiling framing the figures of the Stone Saints above the entrance door and a window above it, which is the only point of light in the temple, these three, plus the bell tower, centered on the façade and aligned vertically.

(Heritage Commission)

The hermitage of the “Santísimo Cristo de la Agonía” Holy Christ of the Agony  was built at the end of the 19th century. The building of the old hermitage is formed by a volume of quadrangular plant of six meters long. Constructively they are masonry walls about fifty centimetres thick and a four-sided roof with a wooden structure, ceramic beams and arabic tile roof.

It was located on the outskirts of the village, in an area known as the high threshing floor and was the end of the Calvary area or Way of the Cross. Over time the area was urbanized and almost all the various chapels of the Calvary area disappeared; only the chapel was saved and the neighborhood, now transformed, is known as the Christ neighborhood “Barrio del Cristo”. It is currently located within the town centre, on one side of Menéndez Pidal street. In 1966, the citizen of Ondara called Josep Llorens Bosch, made the donation of a small plot of about 60m2 to the parish church in order to expand the chapel, being the express will of his mother Josefa Bosch Piera. After some obstacles, finally, in 2007, the extension of the chapel was completed.

(Heritage Commission)

The church of Pamis

The church is located in the small village of Pamis, it is a small chapel dedicated to Saints Abdón and Senén, popularly known as the Saints of the Stone, although it was originally dedicated to Saint Joseph and Saint Mary. In order to cover the spiritual needs of such a large and dense district as that of Denia, new perpetual vicariates were created in the Moorish places; thus in 1534 a perpetual vicarage was created in Ondara, under the adoration of Santa Anna and dependent on Denia, and Pamis and Benidoleig were added to it. Since then the church of Pamis has always been dependent on the church of Santa Anna in Ondara. The temple was erected at the end of the 17th century. As in practically all the temples, the dead were also buried inside the church of Pamis, until the cemetery of Pamis was inaugurated in 1845. The church, framed between houses, has very simple characteristics, similar to other churches in the area.

The façade is completely plain, without any ornamentation, except for a ceramic tiling framing the figures of the Stone Saints above the entrance door and a window above it, which is the only point of light in the temple, these three, plus the bell tower, centered on the façade and aligned vertically.

(Heritage Commission)

The bullring of Ondara, inaugurated in 1901, represents a clear and extraordinary exponent of the eclectic architecture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and is an example of neo-Mudejar architecture that uses forms and materials linked to Arab architecture: solid brick, horseshoe arches and stepped battlements. Its construction was fast and in about six months it was completed. The inaugural bullfight took place on Monday 28th October 1901. Throughout its first stage, 3-4 bullfights were held each year and marked the calendar of the Ondara series of bullfights, which was held between October and November. The bullring was badly damaged during the civil war, it was rebuilt in 1957 respecting the original construction of the square, a bar was added, an infirmary and lighting was installed throughout the square. But surely because it was rebuilt in a time of economic crisis the materials used were not of the quality of the originals.

At that time it had a capacity of just over 4000 people. Shortly afterwards the current bar terrace was used as a dance floor and in the grandstand located just in front of the bulls a kind of stand was built, where a projection camera was placed and a screen was installed in the arena of the square for film projections in the summer. It took place in the 1960s.

The restoration in 1957 altered some parts of the work, which have been replaced in a later restoration carried out in 2014, in which they wanted to recover the original of the square, reusing stone and solid bricks and replacing some architectural elements that had been removed, such as the lower arches of the stairs to the boxes. In this last rehabilitation the masonry wall that delimited the enclosure of the square to the Dr. Fleming Avenue and General Bosch street, was removed and replaced by an iron latticework that allows to contemplate the exterior walls of the square.

In the 1960s, numerous bullfights were held, with a special mention those carried out by the daily Levante for the benefit of the Fontilles sanatorium, very close to Ondara, and in which the most prominent figures in the bullfighting world participated.  It is above all from the end of the 70s, with the decline of bullfighting shows, that the site became a space that hosted numerous and varied artistic, cultural, entertainment, cinema, dance and sports events.

In 1985 the concessionaires proposed to the Ondara Town Hall the early termination of the lease contract for the 1st January 1986. From that moment the bullring will be managed by the City Council. In 2001 the architectural complex was declared a Local Interest Property. It is undoubtedly the most emblematic building in the village of Ondara.

Nowadays, it is a fundamental part of the cultural and festive life of the town.

(Based on Robert Miralles: ” Notes for the history of Ondara’s bullring in its first centenary  (1901-2001)”, Ondara Town Hall.

La rehabilitació de 1957 va alterar algunes parts de l’obra que han sigut reposades en una posterior rehabilitació realitzada el 2014, en la qual han volgut recuperar l’original de la plaça tornant a utilitzar pedra i brics massissos i reposant alguns elements arquitectònics que havien estat suprimits, com els arquets inferiors de les escales d’accés a les llotges. En aquesta darrera rehabilitació es va eliminar el mur de maçoneria que delimitava el recinte de la plaça a l’avinguda del Dr. Fleming i la del General Bosch i va ser substituït per un enreixat que permet contemplar els murs exteriors de la plaça.

En la dècada dels 60 s’hi van realitzar nombroses corregudes de bous, mereixent especial menció les que organitzava el diari Levante a benefici del sanatori de Fontilles, molt pròxim a Ondara, i en les quals participaven les figues més destacades de món taurí. És sobretot a partir de finals dels 70, amb la davallada dels espectacles taurins, que el recinte va esdevenir  un espai que va acollir nombrosos i variats esdeveniments artístics, culturals, d’entreteniment, cinema, ball, esportius,…

En 1985 els concessionaris proposen a l’ajuntament d’Ondara la rescissió anticipada del contracte d’arrendament per a l’1 de gener de 1986. A partir d’aquell moment la plaça de bous passa a ser gestionada per l’ajuntament. El 2001 el conjunt arquitectònic va se declarat Bé d’Interés Local. És sense dubte l’edifici més emblemàtic del poble d’Ondara.

En l’actualitat, s’articula com a espai fonamental de la vida cultural i festiu de la vila.

Basat en:  Robert Miralles: Apunts per a la història de la plaça de bous d’Ondara en el seu primer centenari (1901-2001), Aj. d’Ondara.

The fountain was built at the end of the 18th century and was supplied with water from a separator of the Parri irrigation channel. Lately it has become popular with the name of “Fuente de la Alcachofa” Artichoke Fountain, due to the shape of the top crowning the upper part of the fountain.

The material used is limestone for the stairs, benches and the fountain basin and pink jasper stone for the base of the central top.

The fountain has been subjected to a series of interventions, so in the year 1966, as there was already drinking water in the village and it was considered that architecturally it did not represent anything, the corporation decided that the three fountains that existed in the municipality (this one, the “Fuente Honda” called Deep Fountain and the “Fuente de la Xona” called Snail Fountain) had to be eliminated. The Snail Fountain “Fuente de la Xona” was completely removed, the Deep Fountain “Fuente Honda” was destroyed and the stone bench and the grating that enclosed the fountain inside was thrown away and was buried and the current fountain was dismantled.

After a few years, the restoration of the fountain was positively evaluated because of its beauty, its location, its significance in the history of Ondara and because it was possible to do it, as the parts of the fountain had not been destroyed.

In the year 1979 it was restored in the place where it was originally, although the continuous bench and the trellis that separated it from the old washing place were missing.

(Based on Robert Miralles: Ondara from the origins to 1900 “Ondara, de los orígenes a 1900”, Town hall of Ondara, 2013).