Popular initiatives that fill the streets with life

The cultural initiatives promoted by the residents of Espadán-Mijares are proof of the social and entrepreneurial spirit that characterises the inhabitants of this area. Some of them have been very successful, managing to capture the attention of even the most distant visitor.

The greatest example is the MIAU, the Unfinished Museum of Urban Art, which has made Fanzara an internationally recognized town. If we walk through the streets of this town we will find more than 150 artistic interventions, testimony to the work of 73 artists, during the five editions of the festival.

Its origin is the most interesting: it is a project in constant evolution and growth, born from a social movement that encouraged the coexistence of the residents of Fanzara. The initiative quickly became a collective experience of collaboration and learning exchange between artists, neighbours, volunteers and organizers, all through urban art.

Walking through Fanzara is like walking through a museum without doors or rooms, where you can enjoy a mix between the contemporary, urban art, and the traditional rural world. The MIAU has turned this small town in the interior of Castellón into a place worth visiting, so get ready to enjoy amazing murals.

But Fanzara is not the only town in which the residents have opted to promote their own cultural heritage. Sueras has become one of the busiest towns in Espadán-Mijares. SOM, Sueras Obert Museu, is the enhancement of the ethnographic heritage of the town, based on the experience "Sueras: a village on the street".

Improving, preserving, documenting, publicising and valuing the ethnological heritage is the objective of this fair that is held during the Christmas holidays and has served to bring back old trades and traditions that have almost disappeared. During these dates, the streets of Sueras become places to visit and meet where you can learn, from the hand of the residents of the town, about its pre-industrial past, through samples and activities such as the planting of potatoes, the Easter threads, threshing… The Cultural Centre of Sueras, promoter of the SOM, has achieved the participation of all the neighbours and thus open the life of the town to thousands of visitors.

Argelita also organizes every year the Medieval Days in honour of Zeit Abu Zeit, a very important historical figure in Espadán-Mijares, since many of the towns in the area were his domain. During the fair there are recreations of jousting on horseback, sword fights, workshops and thematic talks, parades and medieval dances.

And, if we talk about music, the greatest cultural heritage is found in Tales, a town of “Dolçainers and Tabaleters”. This tradition has always been deeply rooted among the inhabitants of the town, who founded the School of Dolçainers and Tabaleters de Tales in 1987, aware that the dulzaina has been the instrument that has promoted the name of Tales throughout the Spanish geography.

The popular initiatives and the cultural heritage of Espadán-Mijares have often been overshadowed by the natural attractions of the area, but the impetus and effort of its inhabitants to value them has borne fruit, achieving that several social initiatives have great recognition at regional, national and international level.