Xàtiva

**Xàtiva**
	Xàtiva
	Xátiva from the air
Flag	Coat of Arms
Location
	Coordinates : 38°59′25″N 0°31′16″W / 38.99028°N 0.52111°W; Time zone : CET (GMT +1); - summer : CEST (GMT +2)
General information
Native name	Xàtiva (Valencian)
Spanish name	Játiva
Administration
Country	Spain
Autonomous Community	Valencian Community
Province	Valencia
Comarca	Costera
Geography
Land Area	76.56 km²
Altitude	115 m AMSL
Population
Population	28,474 (2006)
Density	372 hab./km² (2006)

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Drawing by Anton van den Wyngaerde in 1563, commissioned by Philip II.

Xàtiva (Spanish: Játiva) is a town of eastern Spain, in the province of Valencia, on the right bank of the river Albaida and at the junction of the Valencia–Murcia and Valencia Albacete railways. Xàtiva is built on the margin of a fertile and beautiful plain, and on the southern slopes of the Monte Bernisa, a hill with two peaks, each surmounted by a Castle of Játiva. With its numerous fountains, and spacious avenues shaded with elms or cypresses, the town has a clean and attractive appearance. Its collegiate church, dating from 1414, but rebuilt about a century later in the Renaissance style, was formerly a cathedral, and is the chief among many churches and convents. The town-hall and a church on the castle hill are partly constructed of inscribed Roman masonry, and several houses date from the Moorish period. There is a brisk local trade in grain, fruit, wine, olive oil and rice. The leading football club is CD Olimpic Xàtiva

Xàtiva (Saetabis) was famous in Roman times for its silk fabrics, mentioned by the Latin poet Ovid. Xàtiva is also known as an early European center of paper manufacture. In the twelfth century, Arabs brought the technology to manufacture paper to Xativa.

Birthplace of two popes, Callixtus III and Alexander VI, as well as the painter José Ribera spagnoletto, it suffered a dark moment in its history at the hands of Philip V of Spain, who, after his victory in the Battle of Almansa in the War of the Spanish Succession, ordered the city to be burned, changing its name to San Felipe. In memory of the insult, the portrait of the monarch hangs upside down in the local museum of L'Almodí. ^[1]