Village
Castellote is a municipality in the province of Teruel, in the Maestrazgo, the largest in the comarca by area, with 235 km². Its centre rises on the slope of a hill crowned by a Templar castle, restored in 2011, at 774 m above sea level, overlooking the valley of the Guadalope river. It has 665 inhabitants (INE 2025), and its extensive municipal area takes in former settlements such as Cuevas de Cañart, Abenfigo, Santolea, Ladruñán and Luco de Bordón. The Castellote-Santolea-Ladruñán area preserves one of the most important groups of rock art in Aragon, with the Abrigo de la Vacada as its main site. Its territory also includes the Santolea reservoir, on the Guadalope, and the Puente de Fonseca, a fluviokarstic formation declared a natural monument.
Monument
The natural monument of the Puente de Fonseca occupies 249 hectares between 640 and 1,100 metres in altitude, in the municipality of Castellote, and was declared as such on 19 September 2006; it also holds LIC and ZEPA status. The natural bridge is a fluvio-karstic formation, a travertine tufa that the río Guadalope created by cutting through it, opening the tunnel through which it now flows. The dampness and limestone substrate create a microclimate with culantrillo de pozo and té de roca, willows, black poplars and white poplars on the banks, and Aleppo pine woods on the slopes. Among the fauna, the griffon vulture, the golden eagle, the wild goat and the otter stand out. The surroundings, scorched by a 1994 fire that destroyed 18,000 hectares of the Maestrazgo, are still regenerating today.
Monument
A fortress probably of Arab origin, on a greyish crag overlooking the village of Castellote (Teruel), with views over the reservoir of the same name. The earliest references to the castle date from 1168, when it was reconquered by Alfonso II the Chaste. In 1188 its lord, Gascón de Castellot, donated it to the Order of the Holy Redeemer; when this order was dissolved it passed to the Templars and, after their suppression, to the Hospitallers of St John, who held it from 1317 to 1769. Of irregular plan with three stepped enclosures, it preserves the remains of four towers, among them a 24-by-6-metre keep with walls almost 3 metres thick. During the First Carlist War it was one of the strongholds of the pretender Don Carlos, and in 1840 it withstood a siege by Espartero's liberal troops that destroyed much of its defences.
Nature
A stretch of the Guadalope river and the Santolea reservoir beside Castellote (Maestrazgo, Teruel), built in the 1920s and 1930s, whose banks offer large vertical walls suited to climbing and natural beaches for bathing, as well as water sports. The river forms meanders and cuts high-walled canyons through the Jurassic and Cretaceous limestones of the area; one of its most notable formations is the Puente de Fonseca, a fluvio-karstic natural monument that creates a natural tunnel through which the water flows. The village of Santolea was abandoned and demolished after the reservoir was built.
Activity
Patron saint festivities of Castellote on the second weekend of August, in honour of the Virgen del Agua, with a burning-horned bull and a fire bull. On 23 January San Macario is celebrated, with a bonfire and a procession to his hermitage, and on the Sunday closest to 15 May, San Isidro, with the blessing of tractors.
Monument
Hermitage in the municipality of Castellote, whose castle, of Templar origin, withstood an eleven-month siege ordered by Jaime II until it capitulated on 2 November 1308. On 23 March 1840 the liberal army under Espartero took it again, by then in Carlist hands, after a three-day siege.
Activity
Castellote's winter festival is held beside the Puente de Fonseca, a natural karst bridge declared a Monumento Natural, and the Guadalope reservoir that surrounds the town's Templar castle.
Historical milestone
When Jaime II ordered the seizure of the goods of the Temple, the garrison of Castellote held out for eleven months in a fortress that Zurita described as very strong and in rough country. The stronghold capitulated on 2 November 1308.
Historical milestone
On 23 March 1840 the liberal army commanded by Espartero attacked the villa and took the castle after three days of siege. The action formed part of the campaign that liquidated the Carlist resistance in the Maestrazgo.