Iglesia de Nuestra Sra de las Nieves de Monforte del Cid, 1994

Monforte del Cid is a village in the

province A province is almost always an administrative division within a country or sovereign state, state. The term derives from the ancient Roman ''Roman province, provincia'', which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire ...

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

autonomous community eu, autonomia erkidegoa ca, comunitat autònoma gl, comunidade autónoma oc, comunautat autonòma an, comunidat autonoma ast, comunidá autónoma , alt_name = , map = , category = Autonomous administra ...

Valencia Valencia ( va, València) is the capital of the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Valencian Community, Valencia and the Municipalities of Spain, third-most populated municipality in Spain, with 791,413 inhabitants. It is ...

Spain , image_flag = Bandera de España.svg , image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg , national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond") , national_anthem = (English: "Royal March") , i ...

. The municipality covers an area of and as of 2011 had a population of 7,771 people.

Toponymy

See also: Mons Fortis (toponym) . In the thirteenth century, the town was called Nompot (as stated in the charter of the city of Alicante). On December 28 of 1328 the king Alfonso "El Benigno" gave Nompot village as part of a series of towns and villages in inheritance to his other son, the infant "Fernando de la Cerda". In an account book of Don Fernando from 1355, it already mentions the town with the name of "Monfort". After the conflict of "The Two Pedros" between Pedro I of Castile and Pedro IV of Aragon, Monfort tried to separate from the Crown of Aragon to switch to that of Castile. In punishment, Pedro IV demoted it back to the "village", returned the toponym "Nompot" and passed a law that said the population would remain "''im perpetuom''" to the, by then, Villa de Alicante. Approximately five years later, it retrieved the name of Monfort. In 1708 the name was "translated" into Spanish as "Monforte" and in 1916, the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, according to Royal Decree of June 27 of 1916, adopted the name as "Monforte de la Rambla". But that same year, at a meeting at City Hall at the request of the majority of the population (who did not like that name) formally requested the change of name to the current "Monforte del Cid"; SIENDA approved the request by Royal Decree of 4 December 1916.

Geography

The municipality belongs to the Shire of Middle Vinalopó, located in the transition from the corridors to the arid plains subbéticos precoastal Alicante. The town of Monforte del Cid is nestled in the center of the Middle Valley Vinalopó, and the municipality has an area of . The town is high, on a hill that was crowned by a medieval castle turned into the S. Seventeenth Parish Church. Among the most important mountain ranges are the Sierra del Cid, border populations Elda and Petrel, the Sierra de las Aguilas, near the border with the city of Alicante or Portichol, high above sea level. The municipality also has the main village, with the village of Orito, important pilgrimage center around the figure of San Pascual Bailon and several housing estates such as the Captain or Alenda Golf, located near the Portichol. It borders the towns of Alicante, Elche, Aspe, Novelda, Agost and Petrel. The population is from Alicante, with easy access from the A-31 road.

References

Populated places in the Province of Alicante {{Valencia-geo-stub