Sagunto civic groups push for 29 July to be recognised as founding date
Cultural associations in Sagunto want 29 July - the day King Jaume I granted the Carta Pobla (founding charter) of Morvedre in 1248 - established as the city's key civic date.
Several civic and cultural associations in Sagunto have revived the debate over making 29 July, the day the Carta Pobla (founding charter) of Morvedre was granted in 1248, a central date on the municipal calendar. The push, driven by civil society groups, aims to strengthen institutional memory and give this founding document the recognition they believe it deserves in the history of the Valencian region.
The associations recall that the City Council's plenary session has debated several motions in recent years, put forward by different political groups, asking to highlight 29 July and add it as a significant date on the municipal calendar, with institutional, cultural and educational events tied to it. Some motions have been approved, but no stable celebration or annual programme has yet followed through on the idea.
Recent anniversaries feed into the debate: a few years ago the Council marked the charter's 775th anniversary, but did so in October, far from the historical July date, and for the 750th anniversary it produced a facsimile reproduction of the document - a symbolic gesture not followed by an annual commemoration tied to the original date.
The Carta Pobla, granted by Jaume I on 29 July 1248, belongs to a category of medieval document known as a "carta puebla" (settlement charter): texts through which kings and lords granted privileges to groups of settlers to repopulate strategic areas during the Reconquista (the Christian reconquest of Spain). In Morvedre's case, Jaume I himself had conquered the town nine years earlier, in 1239; with the Carta Pobla, it was brought under the Furs de València (Valencian legal code), adopted a model of municipal self-government and began an economic reorganisation that would make it one of the kingdom's most active towns.
Arxiu Camp de Morvedre, the association leading the campaign, regards 29 July as the city's founding day and wants it turned into a stable celebration that strengthens civic cohesion. Its president, Albert Llueca, argues recent commemorations have been positive but insufficient, and that the decisive step - turning the date into a living, widely recognised occasion - is still missing.
Municipal groups that have backed motions on the issue agree on the need to boost historical outreach, involve schools and open up citizen participation around 29 July, including the possibility of an annual institutional event.
According to El Periódico de Aquí, with additional data from Wikipedia.