Oliva Tourism

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The harmony of the buildings and the quiet beach make Oliva a "different place"

Oliva's Nautic Club

A place for your holidays that has it all

The fine sand beach is surrounded, almost all along its 10 Km. by a natural dune, which is the only separation between the orange tree fields and the sea.

Oliva's mild weather allows you to enjoy the sea almost all year round. Windsurf lovers will find the perfect place to practice: windsurfing schools and beaches reserved for them where people are not allowed to swim are available. The Nautic Club offers moorage for ships and boats as well as sailing courses. A nice, quiet walk under twilight by the masts of the boats and the colorful architecture of the sailing district may end on a relaxed summer terrace or an animated 'xiringuito' by the sea. The Mediterranean sea and the rivers Bullent and Molinell make Oliva a privileged place for fishing lovers. During the tuna season, fish of 300 Kg. are caught.

Oliva, Cupola and Belfry of Saint Roc's Church
Cupola and Belfry of Saint Roc's Church

Oliva, Window from Centelles' Palace
Window from Centelles' Palace

A treasure at hand's reach

A walk around Oliva allows us to understand better its History, written through centuries in the design of the streets, the houses, the fountains, the gardens and the Monuments. To start with, one can visit the Churches of Sta. Maria, St. Roc and Rebollet and go through the gates of the city: Fossar's, Verge Maria's and St. Vicent's. Next, the visitor can admire Mayan's house and the nobiliary houses in Tamarit Street and walk peacefully in C. Moreres, St. Vicent, Sr. Cristòfol...and its surrondings. Finding the Towers of the City Wall and other details such as the Count's Palace's window will incite you to discover for yourself the rest of the treasures this Mediterranean Villa offers.

Oliva, Entrance of Moors and Christians Entrance of Moors and Christians

Ascent to Calvari, Easter.

People with Traditions

Among the fiestas that are celebrated during the year, the 'Holiday of Moors and Christians' is the one with most number of participants and audience. Also very important are St Vicent's Holiday - bullfighting, the Carnival, Easter, the Fallas and many others that cover the city with colours. An important part of the working population is engaged in agriculture, orange growing most of all, but they also grow high quality vegetables. These products can be bought at the traditional local market wich takes place every Friday morning, where the farmers go to sell their own vegetables. Oliva has its own industry, mainly dedicated to clay products, such as bricks, tiles and craft pottery, which can be bought at the numerous local shops located troughout Oliva. Besides the delicious paellas, Oliva's gastronomy offers dishes of high quality and originality: pebreres farcides, figatells, espardenya, gamba amb bleda and coques i pastissos, wich will satisfy curious and demanding palates.

The dune

Oliva-Pego's Marjal Natural Park

The Natural Park and the dune: a unique environment

Mountains constitute an unexpected presence to the visitor in such a coastal resort. Nevertheless the Gallinera and Mustalla Mountain range from a perfect hairpin bend which constitutes the natural border of Oliva and the neighbour villages.

South from the coastal plain, the Oliva-Pego's Marjal Natural Park extends: a humid area, populated by an abundant fauna and autochthon vegetation. The Park is also visited by migratory birds looking for drinking water and its special and mild microclimate.

The natural dune surrounding the coast is of important ecologic value for being one of the best conserved among the few left in this part of the Mediterranean. It constitutes an added attractiveness to the beach sojourn, sensibly encreasing the landscape's quality showing the great beauty of its original aspect.

Oliva-Pego Marsh

The Pla

The Natural Park of Oliva-Pego marsh lays to the south of the littoral plain, it is a humid area with abundant fauna and autochthon vegetation. The park is used by the migratory birds that look for the fresh water and the mildness of its microclimate. The marshes, old lakes formed in the coast plains more than 8.000 years ago, have suffered a serious and worrying retrocession. They are plain areas that temporarily flood because of the spring or autumn rains besides the contributions of the subterranean waters of the inner mountains. These environmental characteristics propitiate very peculiar vegetal communities and a fauna formed by migratory species that need these "ecological islands" to complete their vital life cycle.

Species
Among the other species, you can find the flamingo, the duck "coll verd" with green chest and neck, the water puller, the royal duck, the quail, the painted pullet, the plover, the heron, the coot, the little stork,etc... Oliva-Pego marsh, also known as "La Partida" or "El Pla", is a damp and boggy area of 12000 or 13000 fanegas, 1000 hectares approximately. 70% belongs to Pego municipal district and 30% to Oliva. The marsh is ploughed by several water courses, among them stand out the Bullent river or Sequia del Vedat and the Molinell river. The marsh is located between La Marina Alta and La Safor counties. Surrounded by the Mountain Mustella to the North, the Segaria to the south, Puig d'Ebo to the west it is separated from the sea by sandy beaches.

The water
The marsh water is a primordial and determinant factor for its vegetal and animal richness; it has its origins in the surface waters of the rivers we have already mentioned and in the Gallinera torrent that has no outlet to the sea. We have to add to these surface waters those which comes from the springs, the subterranean waters, some of them are salt, and the contribution of the sea when the East tempests takes place.

The vegetation and the piscicultural richness
The vegetation of the marsh is rich in different species and vegetal communities, for example the water lentil, the holm-oak forest community with the narrow leaf bulrush and the water rush, the giant cane community and the bulrush, the water grass community, the rosebays and the white water lilies. Among the piscicultural richness we should point out the eel, the bass, the spiny loach, the catfish, the redfish, the "fartonet" and the "samaruc", two endemic species , the needlefish, etc.. Oliva-Pego marsh is included in the RAMSAR agreement as an humid area and it is protected by the EEC. It is one of the few places where you can enjoy something that seems impossible today, the nature.