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Ruzafa as an independent town
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The town of Ruzafa (constituted by practically all of the current districts of Eixample, Quatre Carreres and Poblados del Sur) was grouped together as an municipality independent of Valencia City Council in 1811. The jurist Pascual Madoz would give the following description of Ruzafa in 1849:"A municipality with Council City in the province of Valencia (10minutes); Located in level ground to the south-east of the capital; It has 340 houses that form the main body of the district; Council City, prison, 2 public schools for 200 children, 2 Churches (San Valero and Vicente Mártir) [...] a Convent of nuns (Santa Clara) and 11 hermitages distributed along the district in each one of which there are schools for boys and girls that receive particular financial support. It is surrounded by the river Túria, sea and S. Sedaví and has many small villages such as Castellá, Torreta, Saler, Benimasot, Palmar, Pinedo y Lazareto [...]. The land is loose and of good quality, distributed in rice with vegetables that are fertilized with water of the river Túria, which drains into the sea. The roads are varied and poorly maintained that lead to Albufera and Ribera among others. PRODUCTION : rice, wheat, silk, hemp, fruits and vegetables; in Dehesa there is rabbit hunting. INDUSTRY agricultural and 6 windmills. POPULATION : 1,799 neighbours; 9,075 inhabitants [...] =Diccionario de Madoz"

During the 19th century, the municipality suffered an important increase in population. According to Madoz, in 1849 there were 9,075 people living there (1,799 in the urban center, which corresponds to the today’s district). In 1860 it already had 13,013 inhabitants. In 1877 it had practically doubled its population, reaching 20,000 inhabitants.

Among the mayors who directed the municipal policy in the 1860s we find Salvador Alexandre y Tarrasa, D. Salvador Alexandre y Pascual and D. Vicente Quiles y Esteve (they were involved in a school tragedy, in which Maestro Aguilar and many students died). In the 1870s we find D. Andrés Chisbert (the last known municipal leader). After the destitution of the head of government, by order of the civil governor of the Province of Valencia, on 16 December 1877 an extraordinary session of Ruzafa’s City Council was organized, agreeing its annexation to Valencia. Since then, Ruzafa would have a mayor of district, named directly by the mayor of Valencia, losing its autonomy.

For a long time, this district was known as "la terra del ganxo" (land of hooks), since a great part of its population worked collecting logs coming to Valencia from los Serranos through the river Turia, for which they used hooks. Nowadays, this denomination is still patent in many of the names of shops and casales falleros (a building where falleros –people who participate in the most famous festival of Valencia, known as Fallas- meet throughout the year to have lunch, dinner or organise other activities) of the district.

Ruzafa nowadays


After suffering a period of abandonment, the district is going through a process of gentrification. With the improvement of the sidewalks, the hotel pressure expels small businesses, and the rise in housing prices pushed by the increase in tourist apartments makes rents more expensive. In this way, the district loses the social fabric and multiculturalism that characterised it.