Sueca

Since 1961, Sueca has hosted the International Valencian Paella Competition, a fitting role for a rice-farming town in eastern Spain whose surrounding fields supply one of the region's defining dishes. The town sits between the Albufera wetlands, the river Xúquer, and a stretch of Mediterranean coastline, with Moorish-rooted architecture — flat roofs, horseshoe arches, and view-turrets — visible across a heritage-dense centre that also holds a concentration of early 20th-century modernista buildings. The writer Joan Fuster, considered one of the most influential essayists in the Valencian language, was born here.

• Population28,908
• Nearest water0.5 km
• Nearest mountain8.3 km
• UNESCO within 50 km70