Logbook · 8 places

What to see and do in Viver

What to see and do in Viver (El Alto Palancia, Castellón): 8 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 2 Nature · 1 Activities · 1 Curiosities · 2 Historical milestones · 1 Food and drink

Towns near Viver

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What to see in Torás 7.6 km · 2 places
What to see in Gaibiel 8.7 km · 1 place
What to see in Navajas 9 km · 5 places
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Spain › Valencian Community › Castellón › El Alto Palancia › Viver

What to see and do in Viver

Viver
Village
Viver, also called Viver de las Aguas for its more than fifty springs, is a municipality in the comarca of Alto Palancia, in the province of Castellón, with 1,729 inhabitants, situated in the narrow valley of the Palancia river that links the Valencian Community with Aragón. James I conquered it from the Arabs between 1237 and 1239 and in 1244 granted it the title of Real Villa; more than a century later, in 1367, the Carta Puebla granted by the lord of Jérica made it an independent settlement. In 1537 the town was sold to Ferdinand of Aragón, Duke of Calabria, who on his death bequeathed his estate to the monastery of San Miguel de los Reyes in Valencia. The Republican fortified Línea XYZ passed through its municipal area in 1938 and left serious damage.
Festivities of Viver
Activity
Viver has celebrated San Francisco de Paula for four hundred years on the Friday and Sunday of the second week of Easter, with the burning of the sacred bonfire and the handing out of blessed rice, as well as San Miguel Arcángel (29 September) and the Virgen de Gracia (30 September).
Park of la Floresta de Viver
Nature
The Parque de la Floresta de Viver, covering 40,000 square meters, is one of the most visited natural spaces in this municipality of the Castilian-speaking comarca of Alto Palancia. It runs along the bed of the barranco Hurón, which crosses the town, between walls covered in ferns and stalactites over which hanging houses rise. Along the ravine flows varied, lush vegetation, with cascades and waterfalls throughout its course through the town center.
Spring of la Asunción de Viver
Nature
The Fuente de la Asunción, the oldest of the more than fifty fountains that have given Viver its fame as a land of waters, in the comarca of Alto Palancia, is located in the plaza de la Constitución of the village. Its spouts give off abundant, very cool water, one of the traits for which Viver's fountains are known throughout the comarca.
Viver, land of springs
Curiosity
Viver has more than fifty fountains scattered across its municipal area, which has given it its reputation as a land of waters. The most important is the fuente de San Miguel, with a flow of 200 liters per second; that of Herragudo, in Masadas Blancas, is the one that rises at the greatest height; the fuente la Chana, 6 kilometers from the village, is considered to have healing properties, and that of la Asunción, in the plaza de la Constitución, flows through several spouts of abundant, cool water.
The title of Royal Town of Viver
Historical milestone
A few years after the conquest, James I granted the place the status of royal villa, a recognition that anticipated its emancipation from the barony of Jérica, achieved by settlement charter in 1367.
The XYZ Line
Historical milestone
The republican fortification built in 1938 between the coast and the sierra ran through the district of Viver and halted the Francoist offensive on Valencia there; the village found itself on the front line and suffered serious destruction. Also known as the Matallana Line, after the republican general Manuel Matallana, responsible for its construction, it was not a strip of concrete bunkers like Bilbao's Iron Ring, but a network of trenches and shelters dug into the ground, which stretched from the Mediterranean coast, near Almenara, to Santa Cruz de Moya, in Cuenca, crossing the provinces of Valencia, Castellón and part of Teruel. More than fourteen thousand people worked on its construction.
The Saint's rice
Food and drink
Rice that is blessed and distributed among the residents at the festivities of San Francisco de Paula, a custom the village has kept for close to four hundred years and that brings together the whole neighborhood.