Novelda

Novelda
Monastery of Santa María Magdalena.
Coat of arms
Novelda Location in Spain.
Coordinates: 38°23′06″N 0°46′05″W / 38.385°N 0.768°W / 38.385; -0.768Coordinates: 38°23′06″N 0°46′05″W / 38.385°N 0.768°W / 38.385; -0.768
Country	Spain
Autonomous community	Valencian community
Province	Alicante
Comarca	Vinalopó Mitjà
Government
- Mayor	José Rafael Sáez Sánchez
Area
- Total	75.7 km2 (29.2 sq mi)
Elevation	241 m (791 ft)
Population (2009)
- Total	27,135
- Density	358.5/km2 (928.4/sq mi)
- Language	Spanish
Postcode	03660
Website	Official website

Novelda (Valencian: [noˈvɛɫda], Spanish: [noˈβelda]) is a town located in the province of Alicante, Spain. As of 2009^[update], it has a total population of 27,135 inhabitants.

Novelda has important quarries and mines of marble, limestone, silica, clay and gypsum. It is a major centre of the marble industry.

It was probably settled by Greeks, although it was controlled by Carthaginians and Romans. Some centuries later it was conquered from the Moors by a son of Ferdinand III of Castile.

Places of tourist interest in Novelda include the monastery of Santa María Magdalena (dated from the 19th century), which has a church designed by a disciple of Antoni Gaudí, the Moorish castle of the Mola, with its unique triangular tower, and the Museum of Modernism. This is a well preserved art nouveau house with original artefacts from the 1920s. The house itself is a work of art. The House-Museum is located in a modernista building designed by Pedro Cerdan Martinez (1903-1906) and is now a centre for modernista research and promotion.

External links

• Novelda Online (Spanish)
• Museo Modernista (Spanish)