The parish
The parish of Murla is one of the oldest in the Pop Valley. The holy oils were brought to it for distribution to the rest of the parishes in the same valley. Those of Benichembla, Orba and Benidoleig depended on it, until they had their own entity. We keep in the parish archive testimonies of the lawsuit with Orba to separate, as well as in the Simancas Archive all the long litigation with Benidoleig. The archives of the same are of great wealth and are preserved complete thanks to the fact that during the Civil War they escaped the burning of documents because the secretary of the town hall, Enrique Mengual, had kept them at his home. Returned to the abbey house, they are deposited in a closet for this purpose. The series of ‘quinque libri’ which, according to the conciliar decrees of Trent, had to be completed in all the parishes of Christendom, are intact and constitute an essential source for the study of local demography and genealogies; There is even a record prior to the expulsion of the Moors (1609), which reflects the relationship of families and surnames, trades that disappeared after that year, dating back to 1575, when Josep Salvador was the parish priest. Also of great interest are the books of the parish visits carried out during the mandate of San Juan de Ribera that the local chronicler, D. Sala, is transcribing and studying.
