History
Chella is of great archaeological interest and is well known through various explorations and surveys.
Ceramics and flints have been found showing a long human occupation, from the Mesolithic to the early age of the metal. From the Neolithic, vestiges are also present.
From the Iberian period, there was an abundant ceramic painted geometric decoration and fragments of vases black varnish. Nearby, in a northwestern ravine, two slabs serving as a bridge seem to be vestiges of the threshold of a Roman house.
In the Muslim era, Chella was a farm that James I of Aragon donated to Pere Dovit, although he later returned to the crown. In 1341, the king gave it to Tomás de Ulmis, who passed it in 1356 to the count of Denia and later to the duchy of Gandia. In 1611, Carlos of Borja published a mapping of the population after the expulsion of the Moriscos. Later, it belonged to the Marquis de Bélgida.
Despite the existence of archaeological remains of an Iberian village, located in Los Secanos de Arriba, as well as a Roman farmhouse in the current house of Fulgencio and remains Muslim remains that lived in spaces the caves of Peña del Turco, the current municipality of Chella has its origin in a Muslim farm, located in the current square of the old church, where there is still a part of the wall of the mosque which is currently a niche with the Virgin of Gracia patron saint of the town.
In 1244, James I of Aragon conquered the region and rebelled against Al-Azraq, a Muslim ruler, and against the inhabitants of Chella. After being defeated, they were expelled, repopulating the commune with Muslims loyal to the king. The population was given in stronghold successively to Thomas de Ulmis, the Count of Denia, Pedro Escintelles and the first Duke of Gandia (Alfonso el Vell), and after his death returned to the Crown.
During the Germanías, the Moors of Chella were forced to be baptized and the parish of Bolbaite dismembered from that of Chella.
With Carlos of Borja, he returned to the hands of the dukes of Gandia and the counts of Oliva; and in 1609 Philip III (King of Spain) ordered the expulsion of the Moors and Chella was completely abandoned until 1611. It was then that the letter was granted and the new settlers (Llobregat, Granero, Garcia Esparza, Palop, etc.) were installed.
During this century, the population is growing; the remains of the Muslim castle remain in the upper part, today the district of La Peña. This development is consolidated in the eighteenth century, when the feudal lords are no longer the Borja, but the Marquis de Bélgida. In the war of succession Chella ceases to belong to the government of Xàtiva and enter the village of Montesa with the neighboring municipalities of Anna, Enguera and Estubeny. All these cities were affected by the earthquake of 23 March 1748, which destroyed the old church of Chella, thus accelerating the construction of the new (1763) neoclassical style and Latin cross with bell-shaped corners towards the cardinal points, turn and that it keeps its first bell Maria de Gracia dating from 1789.
During the same century the transformation of dry lands in the orchard, thanks to the discovery of a new source (Le Abrullador) thanks to the examination of Cabanilles has generated significant economic growth.
In the nineteenth century, when territorial lordships disappeared, Chella became a municipality in the municipal sense. In the Madoz census of 1840, the population was 1200 inhabitants, whose economy was based on the cultivation of wheat, corn, barley and the production of oil, wine and silk. During the restoration, the agricultural social structure was made up of small and medium-sized landowners and day laborers, which led to the appearance of "caciquism" (the name given to all the political relations that animated the years of the Restoration of the Bourbons in Spain (1874–1931)).
There is a legend, with romantic hues, that El Chato, a true character in the service of caciquism, became a rodero (bandit) after a disappointment in love.
The phylloxera (destructive vine aphid) has brought about the end of vineyard cultivation and wine production. This caused many emigrations in Argentina or Algeria (Sidi Bel Abbés) and the extension of the olive growing.
Since the time of the Republic and the civil war, stands in the barracks of Paterna, the figure of Carlos Fabra Marin (07/02 / 1904-6 / 7/1970), Republican sergeant who aborted, at night on 29 July, with his aide-de-camp and his only pistol (a 9-millimeter Bergman), the seditious military uprising in Valencia. The shooting left 3 dead and several wounded. This intervention was decisive to avoid the military rebellion of Valencia against the Second Republic. He was decorated for this action by General José Miaja.
Passing captain in 1937, remaining close to general José Miaja and the republican government in Valencia, he decided to send the family (wife, son and daughter) in 1938 to France and joined his family in exile in France on 2 March 1939 and helped many migrant families in the years 1950–1960.
Arrested during the German occupation, he was taken prisoner at the Vernet camp of Ariège in the Pyrenees.
During the dictatorship of Francisco Franco, he was condemned to ostracism by the inhabitants and related political parties, until his heroic history was found through essays and publications. Since then, a street in Chella has been awarded. His direct descendants still live in Chella as well as in France where he died on 6 July 1970 without having seen his native country again. First buried in St-Denis near Paris, his remains were in 1986 repatriated to Chella (paid by the City Council of Valencia), during the commemoration of the 50 years of the end of the Civil War, where a tribute was paid to him by the veterans still alive and many associations.
A tribute to his heroic intervention was delivered by Paterna City Council in 2006.
With the arrival of democracy and the return of emigrants, the economy has improved. The labor force moved out of the agricultural sector into construction and services. Domestic manufacture and the development of caliqueños cigars constituted a submerged economy, which employed mainly women's work.
Currently, urban development continues along the same routes: Higueral, Carlos Fabra, Federico Granero, Blasco Ibáñez, Miguel Hernández, La Paz and Valeriano Bellver streets, and Avenida de Santa the Constitution, which has ceased to be an urban transit because of the hijacking of the road. In the direction of Bolbaite (Bolbait in Catalan), the city has expanded with the industrial zone, articulated around the street of the First May, whose crossings take the name of the rural areas of the term. For a decade, the population has increased with the arrival of people coming mainly from Eastern Europe, Maghreb and Great Britain, which opens a new stage of coexistence.
Economy
Traditionally based on agriculture.
In irrigated areas, garlic, wheat, maize, peanuts, onions, tobacco and fruit trees are grown.
In dry land, olives, almonds, grapes and carob are harvested.
In Chella, they are undoubtedly distinguished above all by artisanal products such as the famous Caliqueño cigars, bobbin lace.
The stone is also worked (facades, chimneys, paths, etc.), which is one of its main activities
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