Xátiva

About 45 minutes south of the city of Valencia lies Xátiva (sort of a sha-tee-bva sound) This town has been around since before the 12th century and looks like it is straight out of a movie. We piled onto a bus at 10:30 and drove down there to be met by a tour  guide, where we were shown around the historic streets. 

The picture above is the oldest public water fountain in Spain. People would bring their animals to it and let them drink, and I suppose it started a trend. The older buildings in the town are made mostly out of this stone brick and the streets are all smooth and cobblestoned. They feel worn down under you shoes, which is what hundreds of years of walking can do to a rock. 

The buildings and streets are all smushed close together like someone built them all before realizing he didn't have enough space. I came a couple inches from being grazed by a van because the sidewalks are basically nonexistent. 

Xátiva is also famous because it is the the birthplace of two popes, Callixtus III and Alexander VI. So naturally there are large churches and bell towers. Inside the big cathedral of the city are huge paintings and statues of religious icons. In this next picture, our tour guide told us that everything colored gold in this part of the cathedral is made out of real gold. 

This kind of mural is a common sighting on the walls. 

We did a lot more in Xátiva, so be sure to stick around for part II. I took a lot of photos on this trip, so the ones that don't make it into these blog posts will probably end up in a Facebook album.