Callosa de Segura () is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality'' may also mean the go ...

in the ''comarca'' of

Vega Baja del Segura Vega Baja del Segura (in Spanish) or Baix Segura (in Valencian) is a ''comarca'' in the province of Alicante, Valencian Community, Spain. To the north its neighbouring ''comarcas'' are the Baix Vinalopó and Vinalopó Mitjà. Its southern limits ...

in the

Valencian Community The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid with ...

, Spain. It contains the

historic monument A monument is a type of structure that was explicitly created to commemorate a person or event, or which has become relevant to a social group as a part of their remembrance of historic times or cultural heritage, due to its artistic, hist ...

of the Church of St Martin. Callosa de Segura is a

traditional A tradition is a belief or behavior (folk custom) passed down within a group or society with symbolic meaning or special significance with origins in the past. A component of cultural expressions and folklore, common examples include holidays or ...

Spanish-speaking town located north-west of

Orihuela Orihuela (; ca-valencia, Oriola ) is a city and municipality located at the feet of the Sierra de Orihuela mountains in the province of Alicante, Spain. The city of Orihuela had a population of 33,943 inhabitants at the beginning of 2013. The mun ...

. It can be reached via the A-7 (E15) motorway, junction 79, or from the AP-7 motorway, junction 733 and is situated just 30 minutes from

Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Spain. It is the capital of the province of Alicante and a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city was 337,482 , the second-largest in t ...

and Murcia airports and 30 minutes from

Guardamar Guardamar del Segura () or briefly Guardamar is a municipality of the province of Alicante located at the mouth of the river Segura in southern Valencia (autonomous community), Spain. It is a Mediterranean resort, with a large pine forest abuttin ...

beach. The town is dominated by the

Sierra de Callosa Sierra de Callosa ( ca-valencia, Serra de Callosa)Vicenç M. Rosselló i Verger, ''Toponímia, geografia i cartografia'' is a long mountain range in the Vega Baja del Segura ( ca-valencia, Baix Segura) comarca, Valencian Community, Spain. Its high ...

mountains standing behind it, and some of the houses of the town creep up the side of the mountain together with various crops high up on terraced slopes.

Main sights

The Saint Roque Hermitage stands high above the town as if guarding it; above the hermitage is the castle of Callosa. The hermitage was built in 1579–1798 in honour of the patron saint of Callosa de Segura - Saint Roque, it is said that Saint Roque appeared on the spot where the hermitage is built. The Saint Martin's Church, dating from the 16th - 18th centuries, has a blue decorated dome. The

chapel A chapel is a Christian place of prayer and worship that is usually relatively small. The term has several meanings. Firstly, smaller spaces inside a church that have their own altar are often called chapels; the Lady chapel is a common ty ...

of the church contains some pieces of gold work by Miguel de Vera. The old part of the town, just below the hermitage, has very narrow streets. The original town

slaughterhouse A slaughterhouse, also called abattoir (), is a facility where animals are slaughtered to provide food. Slaughterhouses supply meat, which then becomes the responsibility of a packaging facility. Slaughterhouses that produce meat that is no ...

built in 1929 is now renovated and houses a

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

of the town. The museum has four sections: *The Archaeological Museum (Antonio Ballester Ruiz) where artefacts can be viewed dating back to the early history of the town, exhibits include funeral trousseaus, urns, copper halberds, coins, glassware and ceramics. There are artefacts from the Neolithic Era, the

Argaric culture The Argaric culture, named from the type site El Argar near the town of Antas, in what is now the province of Almería in southeastern Spain, is an Early Bronze Age culture which flourished between c. 2200 BC and 1550 BC. The Argaric culture ...

, the Iberian Culture, the Roman occupation and other more recent ones. *The Hemp and Agricultural Museum, outlining the history of

hemp Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of ''Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants o ...

production, an important part of the town's economy, and showing samples of the many products made from hemp. *The Holy Week Museum (Santa Semana) containing thrones and images by José Noguera, Hurtado Carré and José Hernández. *The Fiesta Museum

Economy

The

economy An economy is an area of the production, distribution and trade, as well as consumption of goods and services. In general, it is defined as a social domain that emphasize the practices, discourses, and material expressions associated with the ...

of the town is dependent mostly on

agriculture Agriculture or farming is the practice of cultivating plants and livestock. Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that enabled people to ...

and

manufacturing Manufacturing is the creation or production of goods with the help of equipment, labor, machines, tools, and chemical or biological processing or formulation. It is the essence of secondary sector of the economy. The term may refer to a r ...

; hemp based cordage products being an important part of this.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Callosa De Segura Municipalities in the Province of Alicante Vega Baja del Segura