Culla where the stones speak.

Hello traveller!

Culla is a charming town in the interior of the province of Castellón. This village has around 524 inhabitants. It takes you 1 hour from Castellón de la Plana, and 1 hour and 35 minutes from Valencia city, by car.

It is a beautiful place of legends and magic. Its origin is in the Medieval Age. On 27th March 1303, the lands of Señorío of Culla passed into Templar control. The templars disbursed 500,000 Valencian salaries in the purchase of Culla which was the last and the most expensive acquisition of the  Templar Order in the Crown of Aragon. According to the legend, this interest of the Templars for this land because it was a particular place that could point accrurately to the Templar cross on the Iberian Peninsula.

This picture was extracted from Culla mágica y medieval

It is know that the ancient Medieval Cementery was set over a spring. In this area there are some remains of medieval tombstones adorned with the cross of the Order of Montesa. According to an ancient legend, the spring also hides the secret exit of a tunnel that communicated directly with the castle. I also want to hightlight that at number 16 of La Font Street there is a tombstone because the citizens reused the materials to made other buildings. So, there is a proverb: “En Culla todas las piedras hablan” (In Culla all the stones speak).

This picture was extracted from A mamá le gusta viajar 

Another interesting place is The Prison which was the old granary of the Commander of the Order of Montesa (12th and 14th century). A network of corridors takes you to different rooms where the prisioners where kept until to complete the penance. In one of its walls you can see the chains and shackles with which they were immobilized, as well as the marks that they made with their nails to count the remaining days for their freeing.

 

Next to the main church, it is located El Pelleric that was a column where convicts were chained for public humiliation. Almost always, on the convict or close to him, a document was placed indicanting the offense he had committed. You can discover Els Perxes (the porchs) that date from the 17th century, which was an ancient market Mustassaf de Culla (inspector of the markets, judge of the weight, measures and trade). In this place was situated the old town hall of this village.

 

Also you can visit the Interpretation Centre of Molí de l´Orde which is situated 10 km from Culla, in the natural area of El Molinell. This building is a ancient flour mill and its equipments are still operating. So, it is a good opportunity to know how these mills worked and how the flour was made to make bread.

These pictures were extracted from Culla Tur

Now I want to talk to you about two magical trees, the Kermes oak and the Olive Tree. The first was declared Monumental Tree of Comunidad Valenciana. It has about 20 metres high, 7 meters of diameter of the branches and an estimated weight of 75 tones. According to the legend, during the Carlist Wars, an army company was sheltering under its foliage at night.

This picture was extracted from Turismo de Castellón 

The miraculous Olive Tree is composted of two trunks of 4.76 and 3.15 meters perimeter, on a base of 12.10 metres. It got frozen in the harsh winter of 1956, along thousands of other olive trees, carob trees, aldmonds, etc. Its owners loved it so much that they couldn´t get rid of it. In 2012 the olive tree sprouted from its stump like a true “Ave Fénix” of our times. After almost fifty years of hibernation!

This picture was extracted from Municipios del olivo

In addition, you could visit the Mineral Park of Maestrat which consists of the mines of Victoria and Esperanza. Here, there are more than 4 km of galleries. The minerals were extrated in the most precarious way, but the mines gave work to many families in this area. You might discover the ancient underground mining industry, explore its tunnels and know how they worked.

This picture was extracted from Valencia Bonita

If you like mistery, legends, nature and culture, why don´t you come to discover Culla?