Tackling the etymology of the place name "Barx" is no simple matter and has caused heated controversy between scholars of Roman and Moorish languages and dialects. The place name occurs in many forms in ancient texts. Moorish scholars contend that the first name identified as connected with Barx is"Bodj aldjabal" (the "tower of the mountains). Humbler beginnings come out of other associated words and Christian scholars favour "Perxe" …an old word meaning 'cabin' …corrupted into "Berxe" by Arab pronunciation.

Tower or cabin, "bordj" or "berxe", what is important is the fact that the historical existence of the name attests to the presence of a community with an ancestry that dates back to the first millennium. The long history of the village with its geographic isolation has caused two juxtaposed social attitudes to flourish alongside each other …the desire for contact with the outside world and a preference for the safety of isolation from it.

Perched at a considerable height (some 1,300 feet above sea level) with respect to the whole natural district of the Sub - Region (or Mancomunidad) of Valldigna, Barx is the sole mountain community and this geographic semi-isolation has fostered a high degree of "cultural independence" and this is the key to understanding the peculiarity of the past and present of the village of Barx.

Barx, is located between the mountain ranges of Buixcarró and Montdúver. Its borders are to the north Simat de Valldigna; to the east Xeresa; to the west Cuatretonda and to the south Gandía and Pinet. The district occupies the central part of a small, rather flat, valley delimited by limestone mountainous edges that drain into the valley bottom's covering of clay soil and draining into "L'avenc de la Doncella" …the translation of this involves an obscure word from a local dialect. An 'avenc' is a sort of cave with very high vertical sides and is most literally translated as a 'chasm.' As chasms are not usually covered by anything other than water (when submerged), you end up with a word that wont translate literally. 'Doncella' translates in a variety of forms …variously: maid, maidservant, damsel and even virgin. Given the Spanish propensity for naming things after saints, I would opt for "underground chasm of The Virgin" as my best attempt.
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During the Middle Ages, Barx was inhabited by Muslims. The process of re-conquest by King James II delivered into the hands of the Monastery of Saint Mary at Simat de Valldigna (c.1300) and the first Christian inhabitants began to arrive. In 1311 the abbot ordered the building of houses at La Drova for the purpose of nursing sick friars back to health.

The endeavours of the monks, during more than a century, to settle a united and stable Christian community came to nothing, and Barx became a farming area and a transit place for passing cattle.

Due to the difficulties with the  farmers in Barx, the Monastery made a decision, in 1651, to build houses for Barx settlers, in the "Plaza de la Constitución" (Constitution Square), as well as an Oratory, two oil presses, a grain storage, a wine storage, an oven, and  some sort of tower that (it is claimed) gives the village its name ...this is questionable as the Moorish name that makes reference to a tower actually pre-dates its construction! There is obviously some work left for local historians!
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The relationship between Barx and the Monastery has not always been an easy one during its five-hundred-year association; a conflict between the two came to a head in 1779 when the people of Barx ("barxeros") presented a legal petition against the abusive authority of the abbot. The gradual move away from the church is first set out in the  historic documentation of the changes refers to the construction of the spring of "Racó"(22nd of November 1799) and is symbolic of the independence of Barx from the Monastery. The same did not happen with La Drova, which was exploited by the monks until the confiscation of the land belonging to the church, brought about by Mendizábal, and sold to private individuals We have to wait until 1835 before Barx was officially freed of its ancient obligations to the monastery. In 1838 Barx became an independent municipal authority.