Redován: between the huerta and the sierra

Redován is squeezed between two very different landscapes. Its old streets sit against the southern face of the Sierra de Callosa, while the municipal land opens east and south into the irrigated plain of the lower Segura. The rock begins so close to the houses that the town and mountain appear joined. Below them, the Escorratel channel and its branches carry water through orchards and vegetable plots.

A settlement at the mountain foot

The name appears in the medieval repartimiento of Orihuela as Aben-Redvan, before a later story connected it to the Granadan commander Ridwan who raided Guardamar in 1331. The municipal historical account treats that popular explanation cautiously because the place-name is older. What can be followed more securely is a succession of agricultural lordships. The Mirón family held Redován in the fourteenth century, Jaime de Santángel bought it in 1490 and the Dominican College of Preachers at Orihuela acquired the estate in the seventeenth century.

That history explains why the present town developed as more than a cluster of houses below a cliff. It was the centre of a managed estate with irrigated ground, dry fields and dues attached to land and water. The former palace house later served civic purposes, while the parish church and the streets at the foot of the slope formed the compact nucleus visible today.

Water across the plain

The huerta is supplied through the Acequia de Escorratel, part of the wider Orihuela irrigation system. Traditional flood irrigation supported citrus, vegetables and other crops on the lower ground. Some drier plots later gained wells, transfer water and drip systems. The pattern seen from the mountain is therefore not one unchanging medieval landscape but several generations of water management laid over the same flat soil.

Channels should be treated as working infrastructure. They divide properties, cross paths and can carry fast water after releases or storms. Their importance is easiest to understand from public roads and marked routes without entering cultivated land. From above, the irrigated parcels also show why the sierra was such a useful boundary and lookout.

Paths on the Sierra de Redován

The Sierra de Redován forms the eastern part of the same limestone mass as Callosa's protected slope. Marked paths climb from the town and from the Rincón and San Carlos districts. The PR-CV 54 crosses the range from La Pilarica in Callosa through the Barranco del Chinar towards San Carlos, joining the two municipalities in a single mountain route.

Redován has also developed climbing sectors and a long via ferrata. Fixed cables and steps make movement possible on exposed rock but do not turn it into an ordinary footpath. Equipment, experience, weather and the current state of the route all matter. The municipal tourism material distinguishes family walks from technical climbing, and visitors should do the same. Rockfall, nesting birds, heat and maintenance closures can affect access.

Archaeology and scale

Finds from the sierra include Iberian sculpture and ceramics as well as Roman and later material. Their discovery history is complicated because important pieces left the area and early accounts do not always meet modern archaeological standards. The strongest point is the continuity of use around the mountain rather than a dramatic claim for one object. The sierra has been a refuge, boundary, source and route for far longer than the current town.

A useful visit begins in the old centre, follows the lower marked paths for a view over the huerta and leaves technical climbing to properly equipped users. West along the same rock, Callosa de Segura adds castle archaeology and the hemp industry. South-east, Orihuela explains the cathedral city, university and irrigation authority to which Redován was historically tied.

Sources and review

Reviewed in September 2026 using Redován Town Council's municipal history for the medieval name and successive lordships, its natural-landscape account for the Escorratel irrigation, huerta and PR-CV 54 and its current tourism record for the distinction between paths, climbing areas and the via ferrata. Land access, route condition and technical-sport restrictions change, so check current municipal notices and use appropriate specialist guidance.