Village
Castielfabib is a municipality of the comarca of El Rincón de Ademuz, an exclave of the Comunitat Valenciana between the lands of Teruel and Cuenca. It has 284 inhabitants and is the largest municipality of the comarca by area, with 106.3 km² across six settlements, of which only Castielfabib and Los Santos have more than a hundred inhabitants. Its name comes from the Latin Castellum Fabio, "Castle of Fabius", after the castle raised on the mount of the same name; with the Muslim invasion it came to be called Qastil al-Habib, "Friendly Castle", and took its present form after the Christian conquest by Peter II in 1210. The village, known as "the little Albarracín", sits at 927 metres on a hill on the right bank of the río Ebrón. It is famous for its human bell-ringing, a legacy of its dual Arab and Christian origin.
Nature
The only set of Levantine rock art located in the comarca of El Rincón de Ademuz, discovered in 2014, declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) and included in the UNESCO World Heritage declaration since 1998. It was found in March of that year by Ricardo Canet García, a member of a firefighting crew, in connection with earlier finds at the Rodeno de Tormón, in Teruel. It sits at about 1,150 meters above sea level, on the right bank of the Val del Agua ravine, and the decorated panel, measuring just 120 by 120 centimeters, brings together five figures - three anthropomorphic and two zoomorphic - forming two compositions of different periods. Later work included a photogrammetric survey of the shelter to produce a three-dimensional digital model.
Activity
Festive-religious tradition of Castielfabib, in the Rincón de Ademuz, in which the bell ringers swing the bells of the temple of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles by hand, in an acrobatic manner. It is practiced several times a year: on the feast day of San Guillermo, patron of the town, on 10 February; on Easter morning, during the Procession of the Meeting between the Virgin and the risen Christ; and on the feast of the Virgen de Tejeda, patroness of Castielfabib, on 8 September. It is also performed on special occasions, such as the arrival of some public figure in the village or certain stag parties.
Monument
Remains of the castle and the walled enclosure of Castielfabib, in El Rincón de Ademuz, a testimony to the defensive past of the district, so closely joined to the village's fortress-church that they are almost indistinguishable. Of Arab origin, the fortress was conquered in 1210 by Peter II of Aragon after a long siege, and in it he went on to preside over the Cortes Generales of Aragon; later recovered by the Muslims, it was reconquered by James I. From the 14th century it suffered continual conflicts, among them the War of the Two Peters, the French occupation, during which it served as a prison and command post, and the Carlist Wars, during the first stage of which, in 1835, it was rebuilt using forced labour from neighbouring villages. It was the subject of archaeological campaigns, the most notable in 1998.
Monument
The church of Nuestra Señora de los Ángeles is the parish church of Castielfabib, in the district of El Rincón de Ademuz. It is a fortress-church built between the 13th and 14th centuries, combining elements of Valencian Gothic with later Renaissance, Baroque and 19th-century alterations. The parish belonged to the diocese of Segorbe from its erection in 1210 by King Peter II of Aragon, and since 1960 it has been attached to the archbishopric of Valencia. It has been declared a bien de interés cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) since 4 March 2008.
Monument
Former house used for collecting the tithe in Castielfabib, evidence of the comarca's seigneurial past.
Monument
Former 18th-century grain store in Castielfabib, a building used for the communal storage of cereal.
Monument
Former flour mill in Castielfabib, set in a natural spot in the comarca of El Rincón de Ademuz.
Monument
The hermitage of San Roque stands in the Los Pajares quarter, in the upper part of the settlement of Torrebaja, very close to Castielfabib, in the comarca of El Rincón de Ademuz; from its site one can see the hamlet and the Turia vega, closed to the east by Los Molares, a spur of the sierra de Javalambre. The first mention of the building dates from the mid-17th century, when the bishop of Segorbe Francisco Gavaldá, in 1656, mentions three hermitages in the place then called Torre Baxa, dependent on Castielfabib. During the First Carlist War (1833-1840), when Castielfabib was left without a church, its residents came to this hermitage to hear Mass.
Nature
The site lies in the last foothills of the Montes Universales, near Arroyo Cerezo, a hamlet of Castielfabib, and reaches 1560 meters of altitude. It owes its name to the fact that at this point the borders of the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia and Castile once converged; tradition holds that in medieval times the monarchs of Castile and Aragon met here to settle their affairs, and one of the oldest written references to the place is found in a division of boundaries from 1723. For its ecological, landscape and sociocultural values, the Generalitat Valenciana declared it a municipal natural site, with 567.26 protected hectares managed by the Castielfabib town council; it is reached on foot from Arroyo Cerezo or from Veguillas de la Sierra.
Monument
The remains of a convent of the late 16th century in the municipal district of Castielfabib, evidence of the historic monastic presence in the comarca.
Monument
The Ermita de Nuestra Señora de Gracia, also called the Virgen de Gracia, stands next to the municipal cemetery of Castielfabib; it dates from the 14th century and is one of the oldest surviving buildings in the municipality. It was founded as an Augustinian convent in 1394, following the royal authorization of John I of Aragon; the monks abandoned it in the 16th century and only the chapel survived, in Valencian Gothic style, with a single nave and a taller presbytery covered by a vault with a carved rosette. Since then it has served as a burial place. Its bell, named María and cast around 1550, is kept today in the Casa de la Villa.
Monument
The church of San Joaquín y Santa Ana, in the hamlet of Arroyo Cerezo, one of the five settlements that make up the municipality of Castielfabib, is an 18th-century neoclassical temple declared a Bien de Relevancia Local (a heritage protection designation for assets of local significance in the Valencian Community). The hamlet itself, popularly known as el Royo, was founded in the 16th century and is the highest inhabited point in the Comunitat Valenciana.
Monument
The Ermita de la Purísima Concepción, also called de la Inmaculada, stands within the hamlet of Cuesta del Rato, one of the historic pedanías of Castielfabib, to which it is a parish annex, and it is declared a Bien de Relevancia Local (a heritage protection designation for assets of local significance in the Valencian Community). Founded in the 18th century as the Ermita de San Diego, it is linked by proximity to the vanished Convento de San Guillermo de Castielfabib; it began as a small hermitage so that residents would not have to travel to the town to hear Mass, and was later enlarged by raising the roof and building the sacristy. During the Civil War it was looted and lost its ornamental features, and it was partially rebuilt after the war without state aid.
Monument
Hermitage listed as a Bien de Relevancia Local (Asset of Local Relevance) (46.09.092-004), built in the 17th century and renovated on several occasions. Its only bell, that of San Sebastián, was cast by Juan Bautista Roses Soler in 1951, with a diameter of 41 cm and a weight of 40 kg.
Monument
The Ermita de San Marcos, which serves as the parish church, is located in the hamlet of Los Santos, in the municipality of Castielfabib (Valencia). It dates from the 18th century, though it was reformed several times, the last in the 1950s, which gave it its present appearance. It suffered damage during the Civil War and was partially rebuilt with state aid covering 25 percent of the repair cost. It is built of rubble masonry and stone, with the entrance between two buttresses and a single-tier bell tower with a pyramidal roof, housing two recently cast bells. The interior is divided into three naves with a barrel vault and a choir loft at the foot, and it preserves abundant religious imagery, all of it later than the Civil War. It is a Bien de Relevancia Local (a heritage protection designation for assets of local significance in the Valencian Community).
Nature
A geological outcrop beside the hamlet of Arroyo Cerezo where the remains of an Upper Jurassic coral reef survive, with fossil pinnacles up to 8 metres high formed by the rise in sea level.
Curiosity
The Cruz de los Tres Reinos is a hill on the last foothills of the Montes Universales, near Arroyo Cerezo, a hamlet of Castielfabib, where the historic borders of the kingdoms of Aragon, Valencia and Castile once met. According to tradition, in medieval times the monarchs of the two crowns met there to settle their disputes, although the oldest surviving written reference dates from a boundary division of 1723. The site, protected as a paraje natural municipal by the Generalitat Valenciana over an area of 567 hectares, also gives its name to an interregional symposium held in Ademuz since 2008. It can be climbed on foot from Arroyo Cerezo via the Fuente del Abrevador, or by bicycle, motorcycle or off-road vehicle from Veguillas de la Sierra.
Historical milestone
Peter II of Aragon took the stronghold in 1210 after a long siege; perched on a crag dominating the Ebrón, it remained one of the valley's military keys and kept its status as a town over the centuries.
Historical milestone
During the Carlist wars the rebels entrenched themselves in the enclosure and the government troops ended up dynamiting the defenses in 1840 so that they would not be used again; only the fortified church was left standing.
Food and drink
The pine and holm-oak woods of the district give an autumn mushroom harvest that the village has turned into a seasonal product, with gastronomic days devoted to the species of the sierra.
Food and drink
The irrigated gardens beside the river give a much-prized late dry-farmed tomato, which the village celebrates with days of its own; it dresses the salads that accompany the roast lamb.