Logbook · 8 places

What to see and do in Vilafamés

What to see and do in Vilafamés (La Plana Alta, Castellón): 8 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

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

How far each place is from the centre of Vilafamés

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Spain › Valencian Community › Castellón › La Plana Alta › Vilafamés

What to see and do in Vilafamés

Vilafamés
Village
Vilafamés is a medieval municipality of La Plana Alta, in the province of Castellón, with 1962 inhabitants (INE 2025), listed since 2015 as one of the Most Beautiful Villages of Spain and declared a Conjunto Histórico-Artístico (a historic-artistic heritage protection status); it is also home to the Vicente Aguilera Cerni Museum of Contemporary Art (MACVAC). It sits atop a hill, at the northern end of the sierra de les Contreses, with wide views over the surrounding plain. The surroundings preserve traces of very ancient occupation: in the Cova de Dalt at the Tossal de la Font remains of the so-called Homo erectus vilafamensis were found, some 80,000 years old, and in the Matutano cave, Upper Palaeolithic sites dated to between 14,000 and 11,000 years ago. The urban centre, of Muslim origin, preserves its medieval layout.
Castle of Vilafamés
Monument
The castle of Vilafamés crowns the highest part of the village, at 400 metres above sea level, overlooking the plain of La Plana Alta (Castellón); around it spreads the old town, its white houses contrasting with the reddish tone of the fortress. Its foundations date from the Muslim period, although the surviving structures date mostly from the 14th century, when the master of the Order of Montesa ordered the fortifications strengthened after the Christian conquest of 1233. It underwent major renovations during the Carlist Wars of the 19th century, the period from which the circular central tower dates. It retains an almost complete wall, two characteristic towers and, facing the keep, a courtyard with a cistern, possibly the only remaining trace of the Muslim period.
Museum of Arte Contemporáneo Vicente Aguilera Cerni (MACVAC)
Monument
The Vicente Aguilera Cerni Museum of Contemporary Art (MACVAC) in Vilafamés, in the comarca of La Plana Alta, was founded in 1969 by the art critic after whom it is named. It occupies the Palacio del Batlle, a Valencian Gothic building from the mid-15th century with 18th-century alterations, formerly the residence of the royal administrator and seat of the Order of Montesa: it retains a sober façade with a voussoired doorway, arches in the Aragonese tradition, ajimez windows on the main floor and a gabled roof with gargoyles. It holds more than 800 works from the 1920s to the present, of which about 300 are exhibited in 29 rooms, with additional space at Castellón airport. Among the artists featured are Pablo Picasso, Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, Alberto Sánchez, Josep Renau and Robert Capa.
Roca Grossa de Vilafamés
Curiosity
A large rock located on Carrer de la Font in Vilafamés, in the Castellón comarca of La Plana Alta, next to the village's historic centre, of which it is one of the characteristic features of the landscape. It weighs 2,163.2 tonnes, has a volume of 832 cubic metres and rests at an incline of 34 degrees on the stratum on which it sits. It is listed as a Monument of Local Interest within the historic ensemble of Vilafamés, declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) by Decree 80/2005 of the Generalitat Valenciana.
Festivities of Vilafamés
Activity
Vilafamés celebrates San Antonio Abad in mid-January with the 'Machada'; San Miguel Arcángel on the fourth Sunday of Lent and again on 29 September (San Miguel de Vendimias); and its main festival in mid-August, in honour of the Virgen de la Asunción and the Cristo de la Sangre.
Trail of Sant Miquel de Vilafamés
Activity
A circular path linking the Roques de Mallasén with the hermitage of Sant Miquel of 1640, the Font del Salze and the Molí de Justa, in the countryside around Vilafamés.
The settlement charter of Vilafamés
Historical milestone
James I entrusted Guillem Ramon de Viella with bringing settlers to the old Beni-Hamez and granting them the fuero of Zaragoza; the document was confirmed by the king in February 1242 and fixed the town's district.
The Sant Antoni rolls
Food and drink
Rings of sweet dough that are blessed and distributed after the procession of Saint Anthony Abbot in January; the village's other sweet date is Easter, when the monas are eaten beside the hermitages.