Chapel of Sant Antoni Abad of Bocairent

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Popularly known as “Saint Anthony of the Piglet or down below” (“San Antoni del Porquet o de Baix”), the chapel lies about a kilometre away from the town. You can get there by car after taking a left hand turning 800 metres along the road leading to Ontinyent, after which you must take the right hand asphalted path leading to the chapel. If you’d prefer to go on foot or by bicycle, take Mosén Hilari Street leading down to the Medieval Quarter from the Town Hall Square. Follow the road to the bottom and cross over the town’s oldest bridge, from where you get great views of the original village and the rock it sits upon, with the cemetery lying above and to the right. Go past the “d’en Ferris” spring and the old washhouse and a little further on you’ll come across a large cross, also known as “the humiliator”. It was called this because in the old days Christian troops who took prisoners professing other religions made them pray in front of these crosses as a form of punishment. Finally you’ll see the asphalted path that will lead you to the chapel.

Built in the XVI century by Augustine monks, it is made up of a single south-facing nave. The chapel has a rose window, through which a ray of sun shines illuminating the image of Saint Anthony on the saint’s day, every 17th January at five o’clock, in an wonderful natural spectacle. The entrance door, situated at the side, is framed by a round Romanic arch between two buttresses, above which there is a stone coat of arms and a ceramic tableau portraying the saint. On the wall beside the chapel belonging to the hermit’s house you will see a Romanic pantocrator figure of Christ also made of stone.

The tradition of sharing the bread of Saint Anthony, also known as the “tallà” on the saint’s day (17th January), is lost in the mists of time. But on this day and the following weekend all the devotees get together to celebrate the festival accompanied by guitars, good food and the “tallà de Sant Antoni”.