How well do you know Jávea? The local knowledge quiz

Twenty-five questions, one honour system

This is a self-score quiz on Jávea, built entirely from facts already published across this site's own history, hiking, beach and fiesta guides — nothing invented, nothing rounded up for effect. Each question gives its answer straight away, after the dash, so there's no scrolling to a separate answer key and no pretending you didn't peek. Read each question, answer honestly in your head (or out loud, if you're doing this with someone else), then reveal the answer and mark yourself right or wrong before moving on. It rewards people who've actually walked the Montgó and sat through a mascletà, not people who are good at multiple choice.

How to play

Work through the five themed sections in order, or skip to the one you're most confident about — the scoring doesn't care which order you answer in. For each question, commit to an answer before you read the reveal; that's the only rule that makes the honour system worth anything. Tally your correct answers as you go, or wait until the end and count once. There are no half points and no trick questions — every answer is a plain fact, stated the same way the source guide states it.

History & names

Start with the two names the town goes by, and the stone and saints behind its old town.

• Q: What is Jávea's name in Valencian, the region's co-official language? — A: Xàbia — both Xàbia and Jávea are official names for the same town.
• Q: Which language family does Valencian belong to? — A: The Catalan language family.
• Q: The old town's fortress-church, built between the 14th and 16th centuries, is dedicated to which saint? — A: San Bartolomé.
• Q: What golden local stone gives the old town's streets and doorways their colour? — A: Tosca — a soft, honey-coloured fossil sandstone.
• Q: The riu-rau, the arcaded drying porch found across the Marina Alta, was built for which 19th-century trade? — A: Drying muscatel grapes into raisins for export.

Geography

The mountain and the capes that frame the town from every direction.

• Q: How high is the Montgó summit? — A: 753 metres.
• Q: Which cape closes Jávea's bay to the north, where the Montgó runs into the sea? — A: Cap de Sant Antoni.
• Q: Name the two headlands south of the bay that give Jávea its wildest coastal walking. — A: Cap Prim and Cabo la Nao.
• Q: What stands on the ridge between Jávea and Dénia and is one of the area's favourite sunset viewpoints? — A: The Molins del Montgó — the old windmills.
• Q: The pine forest around Granadella and Ambolo is recovering from a fire in which year? — A: 2016.

Food & fiestas

The calendar Jávea measures its year by, and the trade that once paid for it.

• Q: On what night do the Fogueres de Sant Joan bonfires burn on the beach? — A: The night of 23–24 June.
• Q: Where does the Moros i Cristians mock beach landing take place, in mid-July? — A: The Arenal.
• Q: Which fiesta closes the year's calendar at the port, honouring the patroness of fishermen, running from late August to 8 September? — A: Mare de Déu de Loreto.
• Q: Which saint's day opens Jávea's fiesta year in mid-January with old-town bonfires? — A: Sant Sebastià.
• Q: In late April or early May, the old town honours a figure locally credited with sparing Jávea from a 19th-century epidemic. Who? — A: Jesús Nazareno, credited with sparing the town from cholera.

Beaches & coves

One sandy beach, and a coastline of pebble and rock that makes up for it.

• Q: What is the name of Jávea's only large sandy beach? — A: Playa del Arenal.
• Q: Which cove has twice been voted the best beach in Spain? — A: Cala Granadella.
• Q: What is the pebble beach right at the harbour called? — A: La Grava.
• Q: What is the long rock-and-pebble stretch between the port and the Arenal known as? — A: El Montañar.
• Q: Which flat-topped islet anchors the view at Portitxol, said to be Jávea's most photographed seascape? — A: The Portitxol islet.

Local life

How the town actually runs, day to day, behind the postcard.

• Q: Roughly what share of Jávea's registered residents are international, across about 85 nationalities? — A: Roughly 40–47%.
• Q: Which nationality forms the largest single international community in Jávea, at around 5,000 people? — A: British.
• Q: What planning rule has kept Jávea low-rise and pine-clad rather than a wall of towers? — A: A long-standing building-height cap.
• Q: Since which year has the AP-7 motorway past Jávea been toll-free? — A: 2020.
• Q: What form of public transport does not serve Jávea at all — regarded by many locals as a feature, not a flaw? — A: The railway — there is no train station.

Score yourself

Add up your correct answers out of 25 and find your band below. There's no prize beyond the truth, and no penalty either — the whole point is what you do with the score, not the number itself.

What your score actually says

A holidaymaker score means you know Jávea from the beach towel and the odd sunset photo — a completely reasonable place to start, and every long-term resident began there too. Part-timer means the town has started to sink in: you've walked past San Bartolomé enough times to know its name, and you've probably jumped the Sant Joan bonfire at least once. Honorary Xabiero means the geography, the calendar and the vocabulary have all become instinct rather than facts you looked up — the kind of knowledge that only comes from actually living the seasons here, not from reading about them in one sitting.