Village
Benassal is a municipality in the comarca of l'Alt Maestrat, in the province of Castellón, known for its thermal waters of the Font d'en Segures, recommended since ancient times to cure various ailments and today used in a spa. Its origin may be Muslim; in 1239 the lord Balasc d'Alagó gave a charter of settlement to Berenguer de Carratalà, who repopulated it with 50 Catalan settlers. It belonged to the Order of the Temple from 1303 and, after its dissolution, to the Order of Montesa, which walled the town and governed it until 1592. In May 1938, during the Civil War, the German air force bombed it to test its Stuka bombers, causing 38 deaths. Its parish church, from the late 17th century, preserves a Baroque doorway from 1677 and a rich treasury of religious goldwork.
Monument
The Balneario de Benassal is arranged around the Font d'en Segures, a spring of mixed calcium-magnesium bicarbonate and trace-mineral waters, declared of public utility and mineral-medicinal by royal order in 1928, although its therapeutic value had already been known since the 16th century and is documented from the 18th century with its first recorded spa visitor. It is considered one of the three best waters in the world for kidney ailments. The water has been bottled and sold since 1915, for sale in pharmacies and authorised establishments. The complex preserves early 20th-century Modernista architecture, with hotels and apartments next to the spring. Today at the fountain a maximum of two two-litre containers per person may be filled.
Activity
Benassal celebrates San Antonio Abad in the week of 17 January, with horse races and traditional dances; San Cristóbal at the Whit Monday pilgrimage; and San Roque from the last weekend of August.
Monument
The Castillo de la Mola in Benassal, despite its name, was not a fortified building but the residence of Berenguer de Calatarrà, founder and first settler of the town in the 13th century, located next to the portal de la Mola of the walled precinct. Over time it became a meeting place for the other settlers and even housed the town council seat until the late 15th century. Today the building houses the Archaeological Museum of the comarca of L'Alt Maestrat.
Nature
The Área Natural Municipal del Rivet, in Benassal, is a forest of holm oaks and oaks with a spring, as well as a swimming pool, kiosk, tennis court and other public facilities. It forms part of a flora micro-reserve declared a protected area within the municipality.
Curiosity
Benassal is famous for its thermal waters, which gave rise to its historic spa, one of the landmarks of the comarca of L'Alt Maestrat. They emerge at the Font d'En Segures, at about 940 metres altitude next to Mount San Cristòfol, two kilometres from the town, and have been known since the 16th-18th centuries, although they were not declared of mineral-medicinal and public-utility status until 1928. They are calcium-magnesium bicarbonate and oligometallic waters, recommended for kidney ailments. The spa and its hotels display Modernist architecture from the early 20th century, and the sale of bottled water through pharmacies began in 1915.
Monument
La Mola is the original nucleus of Benassal, where a stretch of wall is preserved along with the towers of Garcés, Redona and la Presó, as well as an access gateway with an arch of Arab tradition. The so-called Mola building, from the 13th century, preserves an arch from the original walls and today houses the Archaeological Museum of the Alto Maestrazgo and a museum dedicated to the writer Carles Salvador i Gimeno.
Monument
The church of the Assumption of the Virgin of Benassal, from the 18th century, preserves a baroque doorway and an important collection of goldwork and religious ornaments, including pieces such as the llit de la Verge, the altar retable and a Last Supper made in iron by the sculptor José Gonzalvo Vives.
Monument
The castle of Corbó stands on a crag at about 1,060 metres of altitude, northwest of Benassal, in the Alt Maestrat. Documented since 1157, when Ramon Berenguer IV granted a founding charter to Alcañiz, it was conquered from the Muslims by Peter the Catholic in 1210, and the founding charter of 1239 left Pedro Daroca as feudal lord of the territory. Incorporated into the district of the castle of Culla, it passed in 1303 to the Order of the Temple and in 1319 to that of Montesa, which kept it garrisoned until it was depopulated in 1612. Of the rock castle, today in ruins and scattered over a wide area, a single walled enclosure survives, with two twin barbican towers and a main tower with a cistern; a local legend tells of an underground passage leading to a cave with a spring at the foot of the mountain. Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) (RI-51-0010797).
Nature
River in Benassal known for its rock art and its rugged landscape.
Curiosity
Carles Salvador i Gimeno (Valencia, 1893-1955) was a poet, grammarian and teacher, a key figure in the standardisation of Valencian: in 1919 he published El valenciano en las escuelas and took part in drafting the Normas de Castellón, which fixed Valencian spelling according to the grammar of Pompeu Fabra. He worked as a teacher in Benassal, a village that pays tribute to him with a monument in its square. Author of poetry collections such as Rosa dels vents and El bes als llavis and of a Gramática valenciana (1951), he was also permanent director of the Centro de Cultura Valenciana from 1935 and promoter of the Valencian language and literature courses of Lo Rat Penat.
Activity
Festival of Benassal, in the comarca of the Alt Maestrat, in honour of San Antonio Abad, celebrated during the week of 17 January. It includes the rossegada, a country meal out in the fields, the bringing in of logs carried on horseback that later form part of a bonfire, horse races, the traditional ball pla dance and the distribution of coquetes, a sweet typical of the town.
Historical milestone
The place received its first settlement charter a few years after Blasco de Alagón took the castle of Culla and its district; in 1303 it passed to the Temple and, after the dissolution of the order, to Montesa.
Food and drink
A dessert of curdled milk, creamy and barely sweetened, that closes the festive meals; together with the kid tombet and the pilotes de Carnestoltes it makes up the traditional repertoire of this mountain town of the Maestrazgo.