Village
Figueroles is a pottery-making municipality of L'Alcalatén, with 525 inhabitants, beside the río Lucena between Alcora and Lucena del Cid, at an average altitude of about 370 metres. It belonged to the tenencia of Alcalatén and split from the parish of Llucena in 1603, becoming its own municipality in 1726 by the will of the Count of Aranda, after whom the pond and the old flour mill, documented in the late 14th century, are named. In places such as La Traguanta, with the watchtowers of Roca Naram and Penya-Roja, or the Les Olles ravine, with its farmhouses and dry-stone cisterns, the municipality's Mediterranean landscape can be appreciated. It preserves the Renaissance church of San Mateo, built between 1640 and 1651, and 19th-century ceramic altars and altarpieces scattered through its streets.
Activity
Figueroles celebrates San Mateo and the Sagradas Reliquias, its main patronal festival, on 21 and 22 September; it also celebrates San Antonio Abad in January and la Candelaria and San Blas on 2 and 3 February, with the traditional coca de San Blas.
Monument
The parish church of San Mateo, on Plaza de la Iglesia in Figueroles, is a Renaissance-style building constructed between 1640 and 1651, listed as a Bien de Relevancia Local (a heritage-protection category for locally significant assets). Its bell tower, square in plan and 25 metres high, was built in 1793 and bears a sundial with an inscription referring to the nickname of the village's inhabitants, "Escalda-sants". The single-nave interior preserves wooden altarpieces from the 17th and 18th centuries and canvases from different periods restored by the Provincial Council of Castellón. The whole complex underwent restoration between 1993 and 2003, which also affected the bell tower. The parish belongs to the diocese of Segorbe-Castellón, within the archpriesthood of San Vicente Ferrer, based in Lucena del Cid.
Monument
The Molí Vell, also known as the mill of the Count of Aranda, stands beside the Lucena River in the municipal district of Figueroles, in L'Alcalatén. It has been documented since the late 14th century, when it belonged to the feudal lord of Alcalatén, making it one of the oldest and most characteristic features of the municipality's landscape. Today it forms part of Figueroles' ethnographic hiking route, which runs through its rural heritage.
Nature
The Lucena River, also called the Alcora River, rises in the Peñagolosa massif, in the municipal district of Chodos, and is a right-bank tributary of the Rambla de la Viuda. After passing by Lucena del Cid, where it once powered mills such as the Molino del Ros, it continues north-west to the district of Figueroles, where it is held back by the Alcora reservoir; it is regarded as one of the natural wonders of the L'Alcalatén comarca. Its final kilometres take it to its mouth on the Rambla de la Viuda, near the comarca's capital. In all it runs for 39 kilometres, descending from 1,200 metres above sea level at its source to 300 metres at its mouth.
Monument
The hermitage, on the outskirts of Figueroles, on the road known as the Camino del Calvario, forms together with the Stations of the Cross a group listed as a Bien de Relevancia Local (a local-level heritage protection designation). The calvary, with fourteen stations depicted in ceramic, dates from the late 17th and early 18th centuries, with a major refurbishment in the 19th; its last two stations are attached to the hermitage's own façade, a small building with white walls and a pyramidal roof. Inside is venerated a carving of Christ, a replica of the late-17th-century original, made in the 1940s after the original was destroyed during the Civil War. Since the late 17th century, the feast of the Most Holy Christ of the Calvario has been held there on the Monday after Pentecost Sunday.
Nature
A viewpoint in Figueroles overlooking the valley of the River Lucena and the comarca of L'Alcalatén. On the same rise of the Tossalet stands the 17th-century hermitage del Calvario, listed as a bien de relevancia local (a local-level heritage protection designation), whose grounds also take in the calvary and the cemetery; inside is venerated a crucified Christ to whom the population attributes granted wishes.
Monument
The watchtowers of Peña-Roja and Roca Naram, old watchtowers reachable on foot from Figueroles, are linked to the medieval defensive system of the Lucena river valley. They stand in the area of La Traguanta and are regarded as emblems of the municipality's landscape, since from them the city of Castellón and the Mediterranean Sea can be seen.
Nature
The remains of a defensive building in the area of El Castellar, in the municipal district of Figueroles.
Curiosity
The streets of Figueroles preserve a series of 19th-century ceramic altars and panels with religious scenes, as well as a sundial with an inscription in Valencian on the church of San Mateo.
Monument
The Casa de los Colegiales is a 17th-century manor house, built in 1608, located in the municipality of Figueroles, in Alcalatén. Inside it preserves a chapel-oratory with frescoes dating from 1726, one of the oldest pictorial ensembles in the town's civil heritage.
Nature
The Roca Naram and the Penya-Roja are rock formations in Figueroles, in the comarca of Alcalatén (Castellón), located next to the Lucena river, in the Traguanta area. Considered emblems of the municipality's landscape, they act as vantage points from which Castellón and the Mediterranean can be seen.
Activity
The patronal festivities of Figueroles in honor of San Mateo and the Sagradas Reliquias are celebrated on 21 and 22 September, with paella competitions, communal meals, open-air dances, young-bull runs, and other cultural and sporting activities.
Monument
Tower listed as a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) at the entrance to the village, one of the best-preserved medieval defensive structures in Figueroles.
Nature
Ravine with banks covered in pines and holm oaks, where an old stone cistern forming a natural cave has been preserved. Its surroundings also retain old farmhouses with dry-stone cisterns, traditional structures linked to the use of water in this part of the L'Alcalatén district.
Nature
Pond on a former royal route that linked the lands of the Alcalatén with Aragon, home to a population of newts, a protected species.
Historical milestone
The church of the place had been erected as a parish the year before and on Palm Saturday of 1603 it was definitively detached from the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of Llucena, the first step towards the village's autonomy.
Historical milestone
By the will of the Count of Aranda, lord of Alcalatén, the place separated in 1726 from Llucena and formed its own municipality, with territory, justice and jurats independent of the town on which it had depended.
Food and drink
A very thin cake of flour, oil, sugar and aguardiente made for the village festivities; together with the rotllet tou, of egg and sugar dough, it makes up the homemade baking of this small ceramic-making municipality.