🏰 Xàtiva Opens Its Doors: A Weekend of Hidden Palaces, Free Castle Visits & Local Food
📅 25–27 September 2026
📍 Xàtiva, Valencia
There are weekends when Xàtiva is worth visiting — and then there are weekends when the city quite literally opens doors that are normally closed.
From Friday 25 to Sunday 27 September, Xàtiva celebrates World Tourism Day 2026 with three days of heritage, architecture, food and culture.
And much of it is FREE.
🏰 Free entrance to Xàtiva Castle
🖼️ Free municipal museums
🚂 Free tourist train
🚪 Nine historic houses and palaces open to the public
👟 Guided walks through historic Xàtiva
🍽️ Special menus at local restaurants
For anyone living in Valencia — especially those who have always said “we really should visit Xàtiva one day” — this is a very good excuse.
🏰 Start at the Castle — for FREE
You can hardly talk about Xàtiva without starting with its castle.
High above the city, Castell de Xàtiva stretches along the mountain ridge and is actually made up of two fortresses: the Castell Menor and Castell Major.
The site reflects more than 2,000 years of history, with Iberian and Roman origins followed by major development during the Islamic and Christian periods.
And on Saturday 26 and Sunday 27 September, entrance is completely free.
🕙 Opening hours: 10:00–20:00
If you have never been, this alone makes the weekend worth considering.
👟 ICV tip: Wear proper shoes. The castle is beautiful, but this isn’t a quick stroll around a flat monument. There are slopes, steps and plenty to explore.
And September in Xàtiva can still be hot, so bring water.
🚂 Don’t fancy the climb? There’s a free tourist train
Here is particularly good news for families, visitors with reduced mobility or anyone who would rather save their legs for exploring the castle itself.
The tourist train is FREE during the weekend.
📅 Saturday 26: 10:00–14:00 & 16:00–18:00
📅 Sunday 27: from 13:00
📍 Departure: Xàtiva Tourist Office
There are no advance reservations. Places are allocated in order of arrival, so expect the popular times to get busy.
🖼️ Don’t skip the museums — they’re free too
Xàtiva’s municipal museums will also have free admission on Saturday and Sunday.
🕙 Opening hours: 10:00–14:30
🏺 Museu de l’Almodí
This is where you can dig deeper into the ancient history of Xàtiva and the surrounding area, with archaeological collections that help put everything you see around the modern city into context.
🎨 Museu de Belles Arts
The Fine Arts Museum is worth visiting for one particularly curious reason.
Look for the portrait of Felipe V.
It is hanging upside down.
And no, nobody forgot to turn it around.
After Felipe V ordered Xàtiva burned during the War of the Spanish Succession in 1707, the king became a symbol of one of the darkest episodes in the city’s history.
The portrait remains inverted as a symbolic reminder.
Once you know that story, you start to understand why history feels particularly close to the surface in Xàtiva.
🚪 Now for the really special part…
Nine historic buildings are opening their doors
You can walk through Xàtiva’s old town many times without knowing what is hiding behind some of its enormous wooden doors.
During Open House Valencia, that changes.
On 26 and 27 September, Xàtiva once again becomes a guest municipality of the architecture festival, allowing visitors to enter nine historic houses and palaces — FREE of charge.
And several of them are places you normally wouldn’t get to see.
🏛️ The nine buildings
🏠 Casa Natalicia del Papa Alejandro VI
📍 Plaça Alexandre VI, 5
Associated with the birthplace of Rodrigo de Borja, who became Pope Alexander VI — perhaps the most internationally famous member of Xàtiva’s Borja family.
🏠 Casa Santandreu
📍 Carrer Sant Vicent, 18
🏠 Casa Mompó
📍 Carrer Montcada, 28
🏠 Casa Fenollet
📍 Carrer Caldereria, 6
🏠 Palacio de los Sant Ramon Bonhivern
📍 Carrer Montcada, 14
🏠 Casa Perpinyà
📍 Carrer Canonge Cebrià, 3
🏠 Casa dels Sant Ramon
📍 Carrer Sant Domènec, 26
🏠 Palacio del Arcediano
📍 Carrer Ardiaca, 4
🏠 Casa dels Joan
📍 Carrer Roca, 21
⏰ Opening times
For the first seven buildings:
Saturday: 11:00–14:00 & 16:00–20:00
Sunday: 11:00–14:00
The Palacio del Arcediano and Casa dels Joan can be visited:
Saturday & Sunday: 11:00–14:00
💶 FREE
You don’t need to book a specific time for these building visits. Groups will be formed according to arrival and capacity.
⚠️ Last access is 30 minutes before closing.
This is probably the part of the weekend we would prioritise if you already know Xàtiva. The Castle will still be there next month. These doors won’t necessarily be open.
👟 See the Xàtiva you normally walk straight past
Open House is also organising several guided walks.
And these are particularly interesting if you have visited Xàtiva before but never really understood the stories behind its streets.
🏰 Xàtiva Medieval
📅 Saturday 26
🕛 12:00
📍 Plaça de la Trinitat
Explore Xàtiva through its medieval past and discover how the historic city developed.
⛲ La ciudad de las fuentes
📅 Saturday 26
🕔 17:00
📍 Font del Lleó
You may have noticed Xàtiva has fountains everywhere.
There is a reason.
This route explores the city’s historic relationship with water and some of the fountains that still form part of everyday Xàtiva.
👑 La Xàtiva de los Borja
📅 Sunday 27
🕚 11:00
📍 Plaça Calixto III
If you are new to Xàtiva, this is one name you should know:
Borja.
Or, as much of the world knows the family, Borgia.
The influential family produced two popes — Calixtus III and Alexander VI — and their origins are deeply connected with Xàtiva.
This walk follows their traces through the city.
📱 Important: These Open House walking routes require advance registration. Participants need to register through Open House Valencia and obtain the free Carnet OHV with a personal QR code.
There is also an Arquitectura civil en Xàtiva route on Saturday at 12:00 specifically for Xàtiva residents aged over 65, with registration through the Tourist Office.
🍽️ And then… eat like you’re in Xàtiva
Architecture is great.
Architecture followed by lunch is better.
From 25–27 September, nine local restaurants take part in the third edition of Xàtiva al Paladar.
The idea is simple: special menus showcasing local ingredients, traditional flavours and more contemporary cooking.
Participating restaurants include:
🍴 La Talaia del Castell
🍴 Els Porxes
🍴 Moncho
🍴 Ca Conxa
🍴 Ganesh
🍴 Sait Dia i Nit
🍴 El Cullerot
🍴 Kubaba
🍴 El Puerto de Granà
Menus range from approximately €20–€32 per person, generally excluding drinks.
Expect everything from meat and fish to tapas, seasonal products and traditional dishes.
And there is one local classic you should know.
🍚 Arròs al forn
If Valencia has paella, Xàtiva has a particularly strong relationship with arròs al forn.
Literally “oven rice”, this traditional Valencian dish is baked rather than cooked in a paella pan and traditionally includes ingredients such as rice, chickpeas, tomato, garlic and pork.
It’s hearty.
It’s very Valencian.
And after climbing around the castle all morning, suddenly it makes perfect sense.
🥖 Architecture meets the Valencian esmorzaret
There is another event on Saturday morning that combines two things Valencia does rather well:
beautiful buildings and eating.
The Esmorzaret Xàtiva OHV takes place on:
📅 Saturday 26 September
🕙 10:00
📍 Palau Marqués Sanc / Carrer Montcada, 9
The event combines local gastronomy, architecture and heritage, accompanied by music from Xàtiva’s Rytmus school.
Pau Catering will be the invited restaurant.
⚠️ Unlike most activities this weekend, this one requires a ticket purchased in advance.
🧱 How do you actually save a centuries-old building?
Open House isn’t only about looking inside beautiful houses.
On Sunday 27 at 12:30, there will be a public conversation about something especially relevant in a city with as much historic architecture as Xàtiva:
How do we preserve it?
📍 Real Monasterio de Santa Clara
🕧 12:30
Santi Tormo, professor and doctor from the Universitat Politècnica de València, and architect and historian Pablo Camarasa will discuss the maintenance and conservation of historic heritage.
🎟️ Free until capacity is reached.
🎨 Something more contemporary
Not everything this weekend is about medieval walls and historic palaces.
At the Museu de Belles Arts, you can also visit:
🏳️🌈 Vulnerables
The exhibition forms part of the third edition of Museari Queer Art.
📍 Museu de Belles Arts
Carrer Montcada, 7
With museum admission free over the weekend, it is easy to combine with the rest of your route.
📚 Starting Friday…
The programme actually begins on Friday 25 September.
At 19:00, Xàtiva’s Casa de la Cultura hosts the presentation of:
📖 Una i eterna. Sobre el nacionalisme espanyol
by Ferran Garcia-Oliver
Pau Viciano and Xavier Aliaga will join the author for the presentation.
❤️ Why we think this weekend is worth knowing about
Xàtiva isn’t simply its castle.
The more time you spend here, the more you realise that some of the most interesting pieces of the city are hidden in plain sight.
An old fountain you have walked past ten times.
A coat of arms above a doorway.
A palace hidden behind an ordinary-looking façade.
The story of the Borja family.
A king deliberately hanging upside down.
And streets that have been lived in for centuries.
25–27 September is a rare opportunity to put many of those pieces together.
If it is your first visit, combine the Castle, old town and museums.
If you already know Xàtiva, concentrate on Open House and get inside some of those historic buildings that usually remain closed.
And if you live nearby?
Well… sometimes the places closest to home are exactly the ones we keep saying we’ll visit “another day.”
This weekend might be that day. ❤️
📌 SAVE THIS WEEKEND
📅 25–27 September — Xàtiva al Paladar
🚪 26–27 September — Open House Xàtiva
🏰 26–27 September — FREE Xàtiva Castle
🖼️ 26–27 September — FREE municipal museums
🚂 26–27 September — FREE tourist train
👟 26–27 September — guided heritage routes
🌍 27 September — World Tourism Day
💡 ICV TIP
Don’t try to do everything.
For a first visit, we would plan around the Castle + historic centre + one museum + lunch.
If you’ve visited Xàtiva before, make the Open House buildings your priority — they are what make this particular weekend different.
And leave some time simply to wander.
Xàtiva is very good at rewarding people who look up. 🏰❤️
