Logbook · 6 places

What to see and do in Bejís

What to see and do in Bejís (El Alto Palancia, Castellón): 6 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Nature · 1 Activities · 2 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Bejís

Peñaescabia 3.8 km

Towns near Bejís

What to see in Torás 2.3 km · 2 places
What to see in Teresa 4.5 km · 1 place
What to see in Sacañet 6.4 km · 1 place
What to see in El Toro 8.8 km · 6 places
What to see in Viver 9.6 km · 8 places
What to see in Benafer 12 km · 1 place
What to see in Jérica 12 km · 10 places
What to see in Barracas 12 km · 1 place

Spain › Valencian Community › Castellón › El Alto Palancia › Bejís

What to see and do in Bejís

Bejís
Village
Bejís is a municipality in the Alto Palancia comarca, in the south of the province of Castellón, near the border with Teruel, beside the Regajo reservoir. Set on a hill at 800 metres above sea level between the sierras of El Toro and Andilla, and surrounded by the Palancia and Canales rivers, it has 400 inhabitants. The village is of Roman origin, of which an aqueduct survives, and was later occupied by the Muslims, who built the castle, until the reconquest of 1228-1229 in the service of James I. That castle was ceded in 1235 to the Order of Calatrava as a frontier commandery, with a founding charter for one hundred and ten settlers, and it withstood five months of siege before surrendering to the Isabelline forces in 1840. In August 2022 a fire destroyed 20,000 hectares of the municipality.
Festivities of Bejís
Activity
Bejís's patronal festival is in honour of Nuestra Señora de Loreto and the martyrs Victorio and Peregrino, in early September; on 3 February San Blas is celebrated with the handing out of blessed rolls at his hermitage.
Source of the Palancia River
Nature
The Río Palancia rises in the sierra de El Toro and flows 90 kilometres through the provinces of Castellón and Valencia before reaching the sea near Sagunto. In its upper course, which crosses the municipality of Bejís, it maintains waters of great purity, and it is from this town onward that discharges from downstream settlements begin to be noticeable. The basin, covering 976 km², sits on limestone, sandstone, clay, marl and gypsum, giving it a varied landscape and rich biodiversity; owing to its high ecological value, the headwaters of the Palancia are listed in the Inventario de riberas, márgenes y otros espacios hídricos de interés as a natural area to be protected.
Peñaescabia
Nature
Peñaescabia is a 475-hectare municipal natural site declared by the Generalitat Valenciana on 26 November 2004, extending between the municipalities of Bejís and El Toro, in the Alto Palancia comarca. It lies on the foothills of the sierra of El Toro, with a maximum height of 1,331 metres, near the source of the Palancia river, and preserves a highly diverse Mediterranean forest, with black pine woods, yew trees, thuriferous juniper stands and holm oaks, home to species such as the Bonelli's eagle, the wildcat and the badger. In the Umbría de los Tajos, the site's area of greatest environmental value, three footprints of a chirotherium, around 250 million years old, have been found, and the surroundings also hold the hermitage of San Cristóbal and the Patrosa aqueduct.
The settlement charter of Bejís
Historical milestone
The document distributed lands and rights among one hundred and ten settlers in a place ceded in 1235 to the Order of Calatrava, which had turned it into a commandery on the frontier with Aragonese lands.
The Carlist surrender of Bejís
Historical milestone
After five months of siege, the Carlist garrison of the castle surrendered in 1840 to general Azpiroz; the fall of the stronghold was part of Cabrera's final collapse in the Maestrazgo and the Palancia.