World Agricultural Heritage

The farmlands of Alboraya hold the added value of creating a link between rural and urban life, as well as maintaining a productive system that integrates both agricultural and hydraulic cultures. These have been cultivated over centuries since the beginning of Arab rule in the region, shaping a unique landscape: the Huerta of Valencia and the Albufera, which forms part of the renowned Mediterranean Huerta.

The “Historic Irrigated Landscape of l’Horta de València” has been declared a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System (GIAHS) by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).

The irrigation network extends across the peri-urban agricultural area of the city of Valencia and dozens of municipalities to the north, west, and south of the metropolitan region, including Alboraya. Geographically, the irrigated area covers a coastal plain with a gentle slope that gradually descends from the interior toward the sea.

This distinctive landscape, made up of cultivated fields, water channels, rural paths, and traditional buildings (barracas and alquerías), has been shaped by an irrigation system supplied by the Turia River, with deep roots in Arab heritage. This irrigation network has been developed over centuries. From the Turia River, a system of irrigation ditches, originally designed in medieval times, extends and flows by gravity.

Following the Las Ermitas route, one can observe elements of this irrigation system: ditches, channels, sluice gates... specifically from the Braç del Gaiato (Lenguas de Miracle-Gaiato).