Village
El Toro is the highest municipality in the Alto Palancia, in Castellón, at 1,011 metres, on the high plateau it shares with Barracas, an extension of the moorlands of southern Teruel. To the south stretches the sierra de El Toro, with peaks exceeding 1,600 metres, making this one of the coldest spots in the Comunidad Valenciana. The Palancia river, a natural monument, rises within its municipal area, beside the Pozo Junco site. It has 256 inhabitants and includes the settlement of El Molinar. There was an Iberian settlement, around 250 BC, at the Peña de las Majadas. Its church of Santa María, inside the castle, was established in 1258 according to a bull of Alexander IV; its ice houses, at 1,550 metres, were built between the 18th and 19th centuries.
Monument
Parish church of El Toro (Castellón), built in the first third of the 17th century, with an exterior in the Gothic tradition and an interior in Renaissance taste, raised in rubblework and ashlar cornerstone. It has two lintelled doorways with broken pediments, one at the foot of the church and another on the epistle side, and a single nave divided into four bays with side chapels and a Sagrario chapel in the presbytery. The vault is a barrel vault with lunettes on pillars with Tuscan capitals, of Jesuit influence; the main doorway, with a straight lintel, was completed in 1649. The tower, attached to the apse on the epistle side, was renovated in 1927. Also notable is the decoration of the Chapel of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and of the space beneath the choir loft, with motifs of the eucharistic chalice, swans and plant elements.
Monument
The Castle of El Toro stands in the upper part of the town, in the area known as El Cerrito, at 1040 metres above sea level. Its earliest walls, of small stone, were probably built to defend against the barbarian invasions, and were extended and remodelled during the Middle Ages. It strategically dominated the plateau in a comarca that was a route for troop movements, and gained importance during the conflicts between Peter IV of Aragon and Pedro de Jérica, great-grandson of James I the Conqueror, around 1336-1337. It is of the mountain type, with an irregular layout, with the fortified church of Santa María, established in 1258, inside its precinct. Within it stands the Great Tower, or keep; today two ashlar corners survive, two storeys high.
Monument
The snow wells of El Toro are three ice pits known as the Nevera Honda, the Nevera Alta and the Nevera de El Cerrito, built between the 18th and 19th centuries in the municipal area of El Toro (Alto Palancia, Castellón) to store snow and trade it. One is located near the village's castle, while the other two lie in the Sierra de El Toro, next to the Peña Salada, at around 1,550 metres above sea level.
Nature
The Sierra de El Toro is a formation of the Iberian System, on the easternmost spur of the Javalambre massif, located in the municipal area of El Toro and shared with the neighbouring municipalities of Manzanera, Bejís, Abejuela, Sacañet and Andilla. Its peaks rise above 1,600 metres, such as the Puntal de Magaña (1,614 m) or the Puntal del Agrillar (1,616 m), among the highest in the Comunitat Valenciana, which makes it one of its coldest spots. Formed of Jurassic limestone materials with abundant marine fossils, it acts as a watershed: within it rises the Palancia river, while other streams feed the Mijares and the Turia. Vegetation varies with altitude, from holm oaks and oaks to pine forests and, on the summits, prostrate savin juniper and common juniper. During the Civil War it was the scene of fierce fighting after the Battle of Teruel, of which trench remains still survive.
Activity
The Trilla festival of El Toro, which re-enacts the traditional labours of the harvest. It is held on the last weekend of July or the first of August, coinciding with the end of summer in this town in Alto Palancia, and is one of the festive dates on the municipality's calendar.