Novelda

Novelda is a town located in the province of Alicante, Valencian Community, Spain. As of 2009, 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, Romans and Al Andalus. Some centuries later it was conquered by a son of Ferdinand III of Castile. Places of tourist interest in Novelda include the monastery of Santa Maria 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 artifacts from the 1920s. The house itself is a work of art. The House-Museum is located in a modernist building designed by Pedro Cerdan Martinez (1863-1947) and is now a centre for modernist research and promotion. There are also several natural and salty lakes to visit in the surroundings.