Buñol Valencia Spain - The home of the Tomatina Festival

Description:

Buñol (Catalan/Valencian: Bunyol) is a town and municipality in the province of Valencia, Spain.

The municipality has an area of some 112 km², and is situated approximately 38 km west of the provincial and autonomous community capital city, Valencia. It lies along the Buñol River and is surrounded by the mountain ranges La Sierra de Las Cabrillas, la Sierra de Dos Aguas and la Sierra de Malacara y Martés.

Buñol is just 39 kilometres from the city of Valencia, in a mountainous area close to the coast. In the surrounding region you will have the chance to enjoy beautiful nature areas such as Alta Cave, the Juanes River and Turche Cave, where there is a 60 metre waterfall at rainy times of year.

The town also has many parks and gardens. Other points of interest are its 13th century castle, the old town around it and El Salvador Church, which also houses the town’s Archaeological Museum.

The municipal local economic base is a mixture of the industrial and the agricultural (carob trees, almond trees, fruit trees, olive trees and grapes.)

La Tomatina

Nevertheless, it is in August when thousands of people head for Buñol to take part in its famous “Tomatina”. This amusing fiesta involves everyone hurling tomatoes at each other and has the International Tourist Interest designation.

Archaeological evidence indicates civilization in Buñol going back 50,000 years. Buñol's population is about 9,000 people but is visited by over 30,000 for La Tomatina: a tomato throwing event in the Plaza del Pueblo.

On the last Wednesday of every August, thousands of people gather in the Plaza and throw metric tons of ripe tomatoes at each other.

Buñol has regional rail passenger service to Valencia via the RENFE system.

On August 29, 2007, 40,000 Spaniards gathered in the town to throw 115,000 kilograms of tomatoes at each other in the yearly Tomatina festival. Bare-chested tourists also included hundreds of British, French, and Germans.

The sunny Mediterranean city of Valencia in Spain is world-renowned for its tasty and succulent oranges. And just thirty miles away is Buñol, another town just as famous for its produce. But its notoriety comes from the locals' habit of wearing the produce as well as tasting it: every year, Buñol hosts La Tomatina, the world's largest vegetable fight. Situated only 30 kilometers inland from the Mediterranean Sea, and well-connected by motorway and rail to Madrid and Valencia, this charming town erupts into a fiery blaze of tomato-hurling on the last Wednesday of every August.

The "batalla" takes place during a week-long celebration filled with on-going festivities and with even greater anticipation for the monstrous tomato battle that serves as the culmination of the week's events.

 

Without question the biggest tomato fight in the world, La Tomatina started with a good laugh. During the forties, in Buñol's main town square, a number of friends started a tomato fight for unknown reasons. It's unclear whether the initial volley was aimed at city officials or simply pedestrians unlucky enough to be in the line of fire. Soon enough, however, with their rowdy hooliganism drawing passers-by into the fray, everyone was having a great time. They had so much fun, in fact, that from that day forward, the fiesta has been celebrated annually and has grown ever bigger each year.

In an effort to draw more tourism (and therefore more targets) into the small town of Buñol, La Tomatina has blossomed into a full-blown fiesta that coincides with the festival for the town's patron saint. For a week leading up to the epic battle, the 20,000-strong town of Buñol, is filled with parades, fireworks, food and street parties. The night before La Tomatina, the narrow streets beneath the town's imposing Medieval bell tower are filled with tomatoes, in a much more palatable form than they will be the next day!

Cauldrons of delectable paella cooking, simmered traditionally over wood-burning fires line the Concurso des Paellas, near the Plaza del Pueblo, site of the imminent skirmishes. Wine and food flow around the small town until the wee hours, in a fabulous Dickens-like foreshadowing. After all, who can do battle thirsty and on an empty stomach?