Village
Catí is a town in L'Alt Maestrat, in Castellón, founded on 25 January 1239 by Blasco de Alagón, who gave it to be settled by Ramón de Bocona —future settler of Onda— and forty other men, confirmed by Jaime I in 1243. Loyalty was its distinctive virtue, recognised with a coat of arms bearing a walking dog as its symbol. Its medieval economy revolved around the manufacture of woollen fabrics, with shearers, fullers and weavers, and it based its prosperity on the wool trade with Genoese merchants; in the 16th century it came to have more than nine thousand head of livestock. It preserves Gothic houses and an altarpiece by Jacomart, from the 15th century, in its parish church. Today, with 719 inhabitants, it is known for its cheeses, suckling lambs and kids, and for an industry of nougat and rustic furniture.
Monument
Church of la Asunción in Catí, built in the 14th century, which houses an altarpiece painted by Jacomart, painter to Alfonso V, in the 15th century; next to it the abbey commissioned by rector Pedro Durán was built in 1376.
Activity
Catí celebrates its main festival from 7 to 17 August, in honour of its patron saint Sant Martí de Tours, and its patron saints the Mare de Déu de l'Assumpció and the Mare de Déu de l'Avellà.
Curiosity
Catí is known for its tasty artisan cheeses, traditionally made along with curds and fresh cheese with a touch of arrope (grape must syrup), and for its spring waters. Notable among them are those of the Avellà spring, whose healing properties were already known to the Arabs, in a peaceful setting that brings together the hermitage of Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia and an old spa.
Monument
The retable of Jacomart, in the parish church of Catí, is considered one of the finest painted retables of the 15th century. It is the work of the Valencian painter Jacomart, who served as chamber painter to King Alfonso V the Magnanimous. The church that houses it, built in the 14th century, stands in the centre of the village and gathers other works of art of interest, although the article on the municipality does not detail the specific iconographic subject of the retable.
Monument
A group of three hermitages of medieval religious architecture in the district of Catí. That of Santa Ana, half a kilometre from the village, is one of the most complete and finished in the municipality: with a single nave with three arches, a choir and a main altar, its construction began on 29 August 1441 under the direction of the stonemason of Forcall, Arnaldo Pedro. The hermitage of the Virgen del Pilar, about six kilometres away in the Vall de Catí, dates from the 17th century: work began on 6 January 1625, and the building measures 13 metres long by 6.60 wide, with a two-pitched roof over two stone arcades and a bell-gable without a bell; the whole complex reaches 22.20 by 10.30 metres. The hermitage of San Vicente completes the group, although no further data are preserved about it.
Monument
Former town hall and exchange of Catí, in the Alt Maestrat, a civil Gothic building dated to the 14th century and considered the most emblematic construction in the town, the only one to preserve its original structure and materials. The works, directed by the master builder Bernat Turó of Traiguera with the help of his sons and stonemasons such as Jaume Sans, began in 1418, actually started in 1428 and continued until 1437. The building was put to very diverse uses: the main floor held the meetings of the Council, the lower floor served as a prison and butcher's shop, and the upper parts as a grain store. The façade, on the calle Mayor, combines two Gothic entrance arches with three ogival arches inside, and the main hall is covered by a valuable coffered ceiling supported by pointed arches.
Nature
The spring of l'Avellà is a source of waters with therapeutic properties already known to the Arabs, in the district of Catí. Its waters are used at a spa located in the same peaceful spot occupied by the hermitage of Nuestra Señora de la Misericordia, a group that forms one of the most appreciated corners of the municipality's natural surroundings.
Curiosity
Catí, in the Alt Maestrat (Castellón), was granted for settlement on 25 January 1239 by Blasco de Alagón to Ramón de Bocona and forty other men, probably coming from the lands of Lérida; King James I confirmed the founding charter in 1243. Together with the other hamlets of its district, Catí began a lawsuit against Morella in 1292 that lasted four centuries, until it achieved its independence in 1691.
Curiosity
The site of Mas de Torres, in the district of Catí, is part of the group of Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin on the Iberian Peninsula, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1998. This declaration brings together 301 protected sites in the Comunidad Valenciana, of which 102 are in the province of Castellón, among them that of Mas de Torres.
Activity
The traditional pilgrimage of Catí to the hermitage of San Pedro, in the neighbouring municipality of Castellfort, is held every year on the first Saturday of May and has been documented since at least 1321. It includes the ceremony of the Despertà, a morning ritual that takes place at five in the morning in Catí and is repeated on the morning of the following Sunday beside the hermitage, marking the beginning and the close of the pilgrimage with this characteristic call that gives the local tradition its name.
Historical milestone
During the 14th and 15th centuries the merchants of Catí sold Maestrazgo wool to Genoese buyers; from that trade survive graffiti of ships drawn in a manor house of the town and the Gothic houses built with the profits.