Village
Castelló de la Plana is the capital of the province of Castellón and of the comarca of La Plana Alta, with 183,711 inhabitants, alongside the 8.6 kilometres of the Costa del Azahar and facing the Columbretes Islands. The original population settled on the Magdalena hill, protected by the Castell Vell that gave the city its name, until, according to tradition, it moved to the plain in 1252 by permission of Jaime I, dated 8 September 1251; that move is commemorated in the Magdalena festivities, declared of Interés Turístico Internacional (Spain's highest national category for festivities of tourist interest). In 1837, after withstanding a Carlist siege, Isabel II granted it the title of city. El Fadrí, its bell tower next to the Concathedral of Santa María, is the main monument of the historic centre, Bien de Relevancia Local (a heritage protection status at municipal level).
Monument
A 13th-century church rebuilt in Valencian Gothic and Neo-Gothic style after a fire and its subsequent demolition during the Civil War, with a Latin-cross plan and a pentagonal apse.
Monument
El Fadrí is the popular name of the bell tower of Castelló de la Plana and one of the city's most recognisable symbols. Located in the Plaza Mayor, next to the Concathedral of Santa María, it is municipally owned and stands free, not attached to the church. Octagonal in plan and in Catalan Gothic style, it measures about 58 metres and consists of four sections: the clock chamber, the former prison, the bell-ringer's dwelling, and the chamber of the eight swinging bells. Work began in 1440 and continued, with long interruptions, until its completion between 1591 and 1604. A narrow spiral staircase leads up to the terrace, topped by a small lantern.
Monument
The hermitage of la Magdalena stands on the hill of the same name, on the outskirts of Castelló de la Plana, forming part of the Castell Vell, a castle of Islamic origin near which the town of Castellón stood until the mid-13th century. When the castle was abandoned, a hermit friar, with the help of local residents, fitted out part of it as a hermitage dedicated to Saint Mary Magdalene, renovated in the 18th century. The area has been the site of pilgrimages since the Middle Ages; between 1562 and 1570 a vow for an annual penitential pilgrimage was instituted, which in the 18th century came to commemorate the move of Castellón's inhabitants from the hill to the Plana, a pilgrimage that gave rise to the present-day Magdalena festivities. It has been declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) since 1996.
Monument
The Hemp Exchange (Lonja del Cáñamo) of Castelló de la Plana was built in stages: the ground floor between 1606 and 1617, the work of the architect Francesc Galiança, and the first floor was added in 1792. The town council had bought the Casa Gumbau in 1603 to build it on its plot, next to the Plaza Mayor. Baroque in style, with a rectangular plan, Tuscan columns and classical cornices, it served as a hemp trading exchange until 1906. The Universitat Jaume I acquired the building in 1999 and, after urgent restoration, converted it into an exhibition space between 2002 and 2005; it reopened on 27 February 2007 and today houses the university's premises in the city and its alumni association.
Activity
The Fiestas de la Magdalena commemorate the legendary move of the population of Castellón from the mountain to the plain, which tradition holds took place on the third weekend of Lent in 1252, after King James I of Aragon had granted the Privilege of the Move the previous year; they have been held since the 14th century, with documented origins going back to 1375, although the current nine-day format was set in 1945. During the week the city fills with cultural and folk events featuring fireworks, music and food. Declared of International Tourist Interest in 2010, its main event, the Romería de las Cañas to the hermitage of Santa María Magdalena, was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 2017, a recognition extended in 2024 to the gaiata, the festival's main feature.
Nature
A beach with a bird micro-reserve and a protected dune system where the Kentish plover nests, one of the last unspoilt stretches of coast in the city of Castelló.
Curiosity
El Grau de Castelló is the fishermen's district of Castellón de la Plana, about 4 kilometres from the centre, with which it forms one of the municipality's two urban centres. It has more than 2,000 years of port tradition, according to the Iberian and Roman remains found in the area, and already in Muslim times trade existed via the Camí Vell de la Mar, which Jaume I ordered opened to link Castelló with the Grau. The first fishermen date from 1398, and the district, whose inhabitants are known as grauers, obtained its first census as an independent centre in 1865, with 428 residents, although it has never had its own municipal status. Fishing was its economic driver, today replaced by the commercial port, and waves of migration have raised its population above 15,000 inhabitants.
Historical milestone
James I authorized from Lérida his lieutenant Ximén Pérez d'Arenós to bring the town down from the Castell Vell to the plain, beside the farmstead of Benirabe; the move was completed in 1252 and founded the present-day city.
Food and drink
Oranges, mandarins and lemons grown on the irrigated land of the Plana, covered by the protected geographical indication Cítricos Valencianos; the crop transformed the comarca's landscape from the nineteenth century onwards.