More Festivals - Moors and Christians

FilaesCastle
The consolidation of the groups of revelers inThe Moors and Christians festival is celebrated in
'filaes' began in 1786 due to the increasing numberother locations but the most famous is the Alcoy
of participants at the party.of Valencia due to its great tradition, organization
The Association of Sant Jordi was responsible forand purity.
promoting the cult of the patron. They were alsoThe castle appears on the party in the eighteenth
responsible for ensuring their temple andcentury to give more brilliance to the
organizing annual festivals in Sant Jordi honor. representation of the struggle of Christians
They also had certain autonomy. Thus "filaes'against the followers of Al-Azraq. The first castle
were born for the Moors and Christians. Thethat was built was small and moreover it was
members of filaes have distinctive dresses andmade of coarse cloth and pieces of wood. Next
'rows'. The aim of these groups was to bringto it were built small houses to represent the
friends to participate together in the festival.town of Alcoy.
Over the centuries many "filaes" appeared andIn 1799, Joaquin Verdú, mayor of Alcoy, got a
disappeared until they were set the way as wenote from the Devotees of San Jorge (the
know them today.Association of Saint George) where they
From 1844 compulsory performance of captainannounced the construction of a castle at their
and lieutenant positions became mandatory.own expense since they wanted the castle to be
Moreover, they are the key elements in themore realistic.
development of the Fiesta.Fernando Cabrera designed the new castle built
Women in the festivalby the Aznar brothers. The castle, which was
Moorish band has 14 "filaes" and the Christian bandshown for the first time in 1895, is in usage even
also has 14 "filaes".today. It weighs 25 tons. During the war it was
Within the "filaes" some members are registeredstored and its metal structure was used for
at birth by their parents, the presence of womenmaking to a bomb shelter in the Plaza Emilio Sala.
has always been vetoed. The women were evenAfter the war, the metallurgical company Rodes
denied access due to local 'line'. In this last halfAsociació Brothers gave Sant Jordi a new metal
century, women participate more in the party.structure and raised the castle again in 1944.