Village
Ademuz is the capital of El Rincón de Ademuz, an enclave of the province of Valencia between Aragón and Castilla-La Mancha, on the western foothills of the sierra de Javalambre, 132 kilometres from the capital. It has 1,015 inhabitants (INE 2025) and is Spanish-speaking, with legally recognised linguistic predominance. The río Turia crosses the municipal area from north to south forming a broad and fertile vega, among peaks such as the Tortajada, at 1,517 metres, while the village itself stands at 747 metres. Two thirds of the comarca are forested, with holm oak, black pine and Aleppo pine along with old junipers and holm oaks, which sustain a sheep-farming industry and a beekeeping tradition once important, now in decline, while the cultivation of aromatic plants gains ground.
Curiosity
El Rincón de Ademuz is an enclave of the province of Valencia, surrounded by Aragon and Castile-La Mancha, with no common border with the rest of Valencian territory.
Activity
Patronal festival of Ademuz, capital of the comarca, with bullfights and bull runs, unique in the comarca of El Rincón de Ademuz. Among the traditions proper to these festivities, dedicated to San Blas, the rollo de San Blas stands out, a sweet bread roll made and shared to mark the celebration.
Monument
Traditional dry stone structures in the farming landscape of Ademuz, a technique included in UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity listing in 2018.
Curiosity
The cuisine of the comarca includes dishes such as gachas, arroz empedrao, almortas, puchero and tortas de píngano, as well as mazapanes and mantecados. Gachas de panizo, made with maize and/or wheat flour, are served with a variety of meat and fish, such as cod or barrel-salted sardines, fried pepper and tomato, and ajoaceite.
Curiosity
El Rincón de Ademuz is a Valencian comarca that forms an exclave separated from the rest of the Community, bordering Santa Cruz de Moya to the south and Arcos de las Salinas to the north, already in Aragon and Castilla-La Mancha. It comprises seven municipalities — Ademuz, its capital, Torrebaja, Castielfabib, Casas Bajas, Casas Altas, Vallanca and Puebla de San Miguel — with 370.10 km² and around 2221 inhabitants in 2023. The separation dates back to 1210, when Peter II of Aragon took the castles of Castielfabib and Ademuz from the Muslims; his son James I later incorporated both towns into the Kingdom of Valencia. The Turia, or Guadalaviar, flows through the comarca, between the sierra de Javalambre to the east — where the Cerro Calderón, at 1839 m, is the highest point in the Valencian Community — and the Montes Universales to the west.
Monument
15th-century Gothic hermitage located at the end of an alley between two houses on Calle de San Joaquín, in the old town of Ademuz, in the comarca of the Rincón de Ademuz. It was part of the old Hospital de Pobres de Santa Ana, founded on 1 June 1446 under licence from Juan de Navarra, brother of King Alfonso V of Aragon, to take in the poor, the sick and pilgrims, with twenty beds cared for by Sisters of Charity. It is a small building of square plan with almost identical Gothic arches on the doorway, the main altar and the east wall, and it retains its fixed altar of carved stone. It is the only surviving remnant of the four hospitals that once existed in the comarca, and holds the status of Bien de Relevancia Local (a local-level heritage protection designation used in the Comunitat Valenciana).
Monument
Hermitage in Ademuz (Valencia) built in the 14th century using construction techniques of the previous century; Gothic in style, it is the oldest building in the town, next to the market gardens on the Turia River. It has a portico with two Tuscan columns, a two-bay bell-gable and a doorway in the Romanesque tradition with a modern Hebrew inscription of Psalm V, 8. Inside, of rectangular plan with three naves with pointed arches, the central one twice as wide as the side ones, a mural painting of Mary Magdalene is preserved, recently restored.
Monument
The Ermita de Santa Bárbara stands in ruins on the castle hill that crowns Ademuz, within the old precinct of the medieval fortress, and was declared a Bien de Relevancia Local (a local-level heritage protection designation used in the Comunitat Valenciana) in 2007. It occupies part of the site of the original intramural parish of San Pedro, founded in the 13th century after the conquest by Peter II of Aragon, which together with the castle was destroyed by the earthquake of 7 June 1656; the present hermitage was built on its ruins at the end of the 17th century. From its location one of the finest views in the comarca is commanded, a viewpoint over the Turia vega. Beside its walls stood the town's old cemetery and the famous cross that used to scream, which according to tradition gave off mysterious sounds as a storm approached.
Monument
Hermitage of Our Lady of Rosel, a small oratory of square plan covered by a dome on pendentives, from the late 18th century, linked to local Marian devotion in Ademuz (Valencia). It is located on the outskirts of the town, on the banks of the Bohílgues River, shortly before this flows into the Turia, in a spot surrounded by market-garden terraces and irrigation channels.
Monument
The parish church of Santa Bárbara in Mas del Olmo, the largest and most populous of the three hamlets of Ademuz (Valencia), was the last of the hermitages of these hamlets to be built, in the early 17th century. It is a Bien de Relevancia Local (a local-level heritage protection designation used in the Comunitat Valenciana) and belonged to the diocese of Segorbe until 1960. It has a rectangular plan, with a barrel-vaulted presbytery set apart from the nave, the latter covered by three bays with diaphragm arches and a wooden gable roof; at the foot stands the choir, with a turned balustrade, and it retains a pulpit with a sounding board. It is the only one of the hermitages of the hamlets of Ademuz with a bell tower, with a bell cast in the mid-18th century, among the oldest in the municipality. Between 2004 and 2006 students from the University of Valencia restored its interior.
Monument
14th-century hermitage that is the most notable feature of Val de la Sabina, a small hamlet of Ademuz next to the Senda de los Cuchillos, and the oldest of those scattered across the hamlets of the municipality, although it is only documented from the mid-16th century onward. It is one of the few religious buildings in the comarca of lay foundation, owed to the Castellblanc family of Ademuz. Of rectangular plan and single nave, without side chapels, its interior is notable for the presbytery, covered by a Gothic rib vault, while the nave is closed by a simple wooden gable roof. Outside, the buttresses of the presbytery stand out, along with a doorway with a semicircular arch flanked by ceramic scenes of the local Calvary.
Monument
The church of the Immaculate Conception in Sesga, a hamlet of Ademuz (Valencia) situated at 1180 metres above sea level, was built at the end of the 16th century as a hermitage to spare the faithful of Sesga the journey to the church of San Pedro y San Pablo in Ademuz; in the 17th century, as the population grew, it was given its own vicar. It is listed as a Bien de Relevancia Local (a local-level heritage protection designation used in the Comunitat Valenciana). It is of rectangular plan, with a single nave in two bays and a wooden gable frame; the presbytery, added in the 18th century, is of square plan and covered by a dome on pendentives decorated with rocaille paintings depicting the Annunciation, the Immaculate Conception and the Adoration of the shepherds and of the Magi.
Monument
Former town hall with a Renaissance loggia that presides over the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, the hub of the medieval town of Ademuz, alongside other notable buildings such as the Cambra Vieja del Trigo, the old municipal almudín, or the Casa Abadía. A building serving as the seat of the municipality is already attested in the 16th century, although the present one appears to date from the following century, built after the earthquake that in June 1656 destroyed the old municipal building, demolished part of the castle and of the original parish church, and damaged numerous houses. It is of rectangular plan, with an ashlar arcade on the ground floor that was also used for markets, a main floor with a continuous balcony and an upper floor with small window openings, a layout typical of the Aragonese tradition of municipal buildings.
Monument
The almudín of Ademuz, also known as the Cambra Vieja del Trigo, functioned as a municipal store for the storage and control of grain. It stands at one end of the Plaza de la Villa, in the historic centre. Its doorway retains a carved Señal Real, the heraldic emblem that distinguished the main municipal buildings during the foral period and which today is displayed as testimony to the status of royal town of the Crown of Aragon that Ademuz once held.
Monument
16th-century building that served as the municipal prison of Ademuz, today preserved as part of the town's civic heritage. It stands behind the Casa de la Villa, on Calle Empedrado, which climbs towards the castle. Built in the last third of the 16th century, during the reign of Philip II, a coat of arms above its round-arched doorway reveals the year of construction, 1567. Besides serving as a prison, the building was the residence of the municipal alguacil and the seat of part of the municipal archive; it originally had only one upper floor, to which two more were added in a 1950s intervention. In the 20th century it housed schools and a telephone exchange, and today it is the seat of the Instituto Cultural y de Estudios del Rincón de Ademuz.
Nature
A fortified Iberian settlement destroyed by a great fire around the middle of the 4th century BC, whose remains of charred bodies have earned it the nickname of 'the Pompeii of the Iberians'. Under excavation since 2009, barely 10% of its area has been uncovered.
Curiosity
A hamlet at 1114 metres above sea level, the most populous of the three hamlets of Ademuz, made up of the quarters of El Puntal, La Era, La Plaza and La Ermita. It preserves the parish church of Santa Bárbara, the last of the hermitages built in the hamlets of Ademuz and the only one with a bell tower, with a bell cast in the mid-18th century, among the oldest in the municipality; its interior, with a raised choir loft with a wooden balustrade and a pulpit with a sounding board, was thoroughly restored between 2004 and 2006 by the Universidad de Valencia. The old communal oven, now restored, houses the Museo del Pan today and is only lit on special dates. The hamlet retains traditional rural architecture despite the sharp depopulation of recent decades.
Historical milestone
The troops of Peter II of Aragon, with the support of the military orders, took in 1210 the Muslim fortress of Al-Damus almost three decades before the conquest of Valencia; the place ended up being a royal town with a voice in the Cortes.
Historical milestone
The troops of Peter I of Castile invaded this frontier salient twice between 1356 and 1369, during the conflict with Peter IV of Aragon; the residents' loyalty to the Aragonese Crown was afterwards rewarded with privileges.
Historical milestone
An earthquake shook the valley in 1656 and ruined the parish church and numerous houses of the town; its effects were felt throughout the Rincón, including the church of Puebla de San Miguel, which lost its roof.
Historical milestone
The Carlist bands of the leader known as el Serrador clashed in 1837 with the liberal forces within the municipality; the Rincón, wedged between Aragon and Castile, was a territory of passage and refuge throughout the war.
Food and drink
A thick porridge of maize flour cooked with oil, garlic and pieces from the pig slaughter, food of winter and of shepherds; it is served in the pan itself and eaten with a wooden spoon or with bread.
Food and drink
A sweet of Andalusi origin — its name comes from the Arabic al-hasú, 'stuffed' — traditionally made with a dough of almond, toasted breadcrumbs, fine spices and well-cooked honey, pressed between two wafers; typical of Castile and in particular of the province of Cuenca, it is also made in the Rincón de Ademuz, a Valencian area bordering Castilla-La Mancha, where artisan nougat-makers sell it at their stalls during local festivals alongside the valley's homemade almond turróns. It shares this tradition with other districts of Castilian roots, such as Requena-Utiel or the Alcarria, and was also, though almost lost today, a typical dessert of Tudela.
Food and drink
Hams and cured sausages dried in the cold, dry air of these uplands, heirs of the domestic pig slaughter; they are the basis of the ollas, the pucheros and the gachas of the cooking of the Rincón.