Las Fallas

Monuments made to burn

The heart of the Fallas is the falla: a giant monument built from caricature figures called ninots, created by local artists and craftspeople and set up in the squares and streets of Valencia’s neighbourhoods. Each falla is a commentary, often satirical, on the social and political issues of the day. The word Fallas means both the festival and the monuments.

UNESCO describes the festival as a celebration of the coming of spring. At its end the fallas are set alight — a symbol of purification and of the renewal of the community’s social life.

Days of noise and fire

From 1 to 19 March, a mascletà — a thunderous, rhythmic display of firecrackers — shakes the city every day. Marching bands parade through the streets, people eat together outdoors, and fireworks light the nights. Each year a Fallas Queen is chosen to represent the festival.

Since 1934, every falla has sent one figure to the Exposició del Ninot, where the public votes to spare one ninot from the flames. The winner, the ninot indultat, goes to the city’s Fallas Museum.

On the night of 19 March comes the Cremà, when the monuments burn across the city.

Made by the neighbourhoods

The knowledge of how to build the ninots is passed down within families and among the craft guilds of the participating communities. UNESCO notes that the Fallas are a source of shared creativity and community pride — and that in the past, when Valencian was prohibited, the festival helped keep the language alive. The Valencia Fallas festivity was inscribed on UNESCO’s Representative List in 2016.