Dénia.com
Search

The chaotic plantà of the monument that led to the Fallas de Dénia: 75 years of «La bola del món»

13 March 2022 - 08: 00

Next week Dénia will celebrate its Fallas after two years of forced stoppage due to the pandemic. However, this 2022 resurfaces the flame on a most special date, since it is 75 years since the seed was planted that would lead to the current party that paralyzes the city for days.

1947 was a very important year for the Fallas world of Dénia, as it was in which the Penya del Tio Pep raised its monument. Now, despite the fact that it is considered the first failure of the capital of the Marina Alta, the truth is that ninots had already been planted and burned decades before in different streets of the city, but anecdotally and not as organized as in the case in question. In fact, that same 1947 in Les Roques, specifically on Olivera street, two neighbors planted a humbler monument.

The Valencian push

During the exercise of 46-47, a commission from Valencia revived Dianense's interest in the famous festival. This, to which the Sueca-Alcoi-Dénia streets of the Valencian capital belonged, decided to appoint honorary presidents to the municipalities of these three cities, organizing celebrations in order to raise money. It was what encouraged the Penya del Tio Pep to take the final step to formalize the festivities in Dénia.

La Penya del Tio Pep was made up of a group of neighbors, most of them called Josep (or Pep), who decided in 1946 that the following year they would build a monument in the center of Dénia to recover the Fallas celebration. The task of creating the fault was entrusted to Francisco Crespo The Malaga in order to plant it in March 1947.

March 1947

The long-awaited week arrived with everything ready for the fallera party to spread among the neighbors. The idea was ambitious, but they were very successful in carrying it out. To begin with, on March 17 it was announced that Teresita Carrió Alemany would be the Fallera Queen of that year, a figure that did not exist to date, also having her own court of four maids of honor.

But it was not until the afternoon of the 18th that Dénia could see the expected failure. At 19:00 the monument began to be assembled in Plaça del Mercat, what it is today Glorieta Country Valencià.

This was baptized as “La bola del món” (The ball of the món) and it did not have much to do with the current failures in the city, which were larger, although it was large enough to differentiate itself from what had been experienced in the municipality up to that time. In the center of it, starring in the work, there was a huge globe that gave it its name.

A monument that started it all

Despite the visible differences with the current designs, the spirit was already very similar to that of today. Local criticism was well present, the monument being particularly acidic as it publicized the lack of scruples of certain merchants. However, the materials and the experience were little like those of now, which gave a good scare to the rock that was waiting with such enthusiasm that March 18.

"The ball of the món" only lasted a few hours planted and intact. A gust of wind, one of those with which the Marqués de Campo commissions have lived for so many years, blew away a large part of the monument. The wind was about to do the task entrusted to the flames, but it still left enough ninots for the night of Sant Josep to celebrate a great cremà.

The lighting of the fuse

Given the repercussion that the party had, a meeting was held in a city bar between members of the Penya del Tio Pep and residents of different neighborhoods of Dénia in order to expand interest and spread gunpowder throughout the municipality . At that same meeting it was decided to create what is now known as the Local Board Fallera and the division of Dénia into 4 districts was formalized: Centro, Marítimo, Oeste and Roques.

It was not the last failure of the rock, repeating the success the following year, nor was it the first monument that Dénia saw, as we said at the beginning. Of course, it was the one that lit the fuse of a party that little by little grew, with some interruptions, until what it is today, although that is another story.

Leave a comment

    37.861
    4.463
    12.913
    2.700