Ontinyent

📜 From Untinyân to city

The Ontinyent area has been inhabited since prehistoric times: there are late Neolithic sites, such as the Arenal de la Costa, and many Bronze Age settlements, the most notable being the Cabeço de Navarro. In Roman times the land was dotted with farms, and the town's very name, Untinyân, dates from before the Islamic period.

The old town, La Vila, is documented from the 11th century: the historian Ibn al-Abbar mentions it as the birthplace of the poet al-Untinyani, and in the 12th century the geographer al-Idrisi refers to Ontinyent castle as a stop on the road between Murcia and Valencia. Conquered by King James I in 1244, Ontinyent became a royal town with a vote in the Parliament of the Kingdom of Valencia, and its territory included Agullent (until 1585) and the Alforins (a separate municipality since 1927). In the early 15th century it was the third most populous town south of the Júcar river.

Its modern history was shaped by the Germanies revolt (1522), the great plague of 1600 and the War of the Spanish Succession, lost at Almansa in 1707. The textile industry transformed the town in the 19th and 20th centuries, and in 1904 it was granted the title of city.

Source: historical summary by Ontinyent Tourism (Ontinyent Archaeological Service).