What to see

Natural pools, a medieval old town and the industrial heritage of a textile city: the must-see places in Ontinyent.

📷 Manchego · CC0

🌿 Nature

Pou Clar

The town's most iconic natural spot, where the Clariano river is born and forms crystal-clear pools in the limestone.

🏰 Heritage

Barri de la Vila

The medieval heart of Ontinyent, a protected Historic-Artistic Site, home to the tallest bell tower in the Valencian Community.

🏛️ Culture

Textile Museum

The Textile Museum of the Valencian Community: looms, tools and fabrics that explain why Ontinyent is the capital of Valencian textiles. Free entry.

🏺 Archaeology

MAOVA

The Archaeological Museum of Ontinyent and the Vall d'Albaida: the legacy of the peoples and cultures who have lived in the district since prehistory. Free entry.

🎭 Festival

Festival Museum

Costumes, music, models and posters: over 150 years of Ontinyent's Moors and Christians festival across three floors.

🎎 Tradition

Giants and Big-Heads Museum

Home of Ontinyent's best-loved figures, in the Palau de la Vila: the Giants of the three cultures and the Big-Heads inspired by 1930s cinema. Free entry.

🦋 Science

Natural Sciences Museum

A hidden gem in the Franciscan convent cloister: wildlife from around the world, pre-Columbian art, Egyptian remains and a botanical garden.

⛰️ Viewpoint

Sant Esteve Hermitage

The best viewpoint over the Vall d'Albaida: a 17th-century hermitage with a picnic area, sunsets and, on clear days, views all the way to the sea.

🌲 Nature

Fuset and Font de Gamellons

Two spots in the Serra de l'Ombria for a day out: picnic areas, springs, an 18th-century aqueduct and potholes, with waymarked trails.

⛪ Church

Santa Maria church and bell tower

The main church of the Vila, with vaults inspired by Valencia's Silk Exchange, a Renaissance doorway and the tallest bell tower in the Valencia region.

🏰 Heritage

Palau de la Vila

A former Moorish fortress and royal residence after James I's conquest. Today, restored, it houses the Tourist Office and the Giants and Big-heads Museum.

🏰 Heritage

Plaça Major

The heart of Ontinyent's public life since the 16th century: the old town hall, the Llotgeta del Mostassaf and the Counts of Torrefiel palace.

🏰 Heritage

Pont Vell (Old Bridge)

The stone bridge of 1500, for centuries the only way into the Vila, with views of the hanging houses above the Clariano river.

🏰 Heritage

Carrer Major and its palaces

Gomis and Maians streets joined together, the old road to Albaida and Gandia, with the churches of Sant Carles and Sant Francesc and the noble palaces that earned Ontinyent its stately reputation.

⛪ Church

Sant Carles Borromeo church

Founded as a Jesuit oratory in 1703, a Baroque church with a Neo-Byzantine Communion chapel decorated by local artist Carlets.

⛪ Church

Sant Miquel del Raval church

Built between the 16th and 18th centuries on a 14th-century chapel, funded by the cloth-makers' guild, with a painted nave and a large 18th-century organ.

⛪ Church

Sant Francesc church

All that remains of the Franciscan friary founded in 1573: an austere single-nave church, rebuilt in the 19th century with the help of local people.

⛪ Church

Carmelite convent

A 16th- to 18th-century monumental complex next to Santa Maria bridge, on the old road to Castile.