We were ready for a run out to somewhere interesting after chilling in the sun yesterday, so after a bit of research off we went to visit Morella, a hilltop fortress town about an hour and a half northwest. Several of our friends had been and recommended it as a lovely place to visit and they were absolutely right.






Set against a backdrop of mountains and accessed by winding roads, Morella suddenly appears as you turn a corner; its quite a bizarre sight, as its a walled town on a single hill with a rock rising out of it and a castle sitting on top of that. We drove round the edge of the walls and past the restored Roman aqueduct, where we were very pleasantly surprised to be able to park for free.




As we walked up to the main arched gate, a couple of coaches were picking up their passengers – it seemed that we were arriving just as the morning tour buses were leaving, which was fine with us. First stop was the Tourist Info for a map, then we set off up the winding cobbled streets.


Our first "sight" was unexpected – a doorway leading to a small museum where 4 of the Morella Giants were stored until needed for a fiesta. They are the same type of giant as we'd seen at the Benicassim fiesta, but being up close and personal really gives you a good idea of the size and scale of the things, and they are HUGE. A passing French couple kindly took our pictures and we of course returned the favour.


Onwards & upwards (many, many steps upwards) to the basilica of Santa Maria – an impressive frontage gave way to a relatively austere nave, but there were 2 eye-catching things there, the first being the spiral stairway to the Choir gallery. It was decorated with elaborate painted carvings of biblical scenes, and I decided then & there that the nativity group would feature on our Christmas card for this year. We had an English translation of the guide leaflet, which described it as the “snail staircase”, much to our amusement.


The other thing with the WOW! factor was the altar area: unlike the plain nave, this was completely over-the-top with gilt work, and the walls and ceiling were in shiny yellow gold liberally sprinkled with pink naked cherubs. It shows the Virgin Mary escorted by angels in a “beautiful gothic canopy” (from the leaflet), and although it has been restored, it was constructed in the 15^th century and is extremely impressive.


Hunger had set in by this time, so we climbed back down all the steps onto the main arcaded street and had a very nice lunch in a restaurant for €11.95 each. We were fascinated to watch the barista making a coffee for another client: alcohol was introduced, then she set fire to the cup, a process repeated at least 3 times before it was deemed ready for drinking.


It was now time to visit the castle which so dominates the skyline as you approach the town, so it was back yet again up all those steps to the monastery of San Francisco, which is the entry point. The cloister, although partially in ruins, is beautiful, with wall paintings of the Dance of Death from the 13^th century; it also gives great views of the castle.


The path curves upwards at quite a steep angle, so we took it steadily and finally arrived through the arched gateway. This castle, built by the Arabs during the Moors occupation of Spain in 950-60, has been destroyed & rebuilt by Iberians, Romans, Arabs and Christians and is supposed to have been rebuilt by El Cid in 1084. Don Ramon Cabrera took it as his headquarters in the 19^th century, a fact celebrated by his statue as you enter, and its final conqueror was General Franco in the Spanish Civil War of 1938.


The castle itself is a real mixture of ruin and extremely neat restoration – we thought the ruins actually looked better than the renovations as they make it look too modern. We virtually had the place to ourselves (only mad dogs & Englishmen all that) and the occasional information boards describing the use of various parts all added to the interest. The higher we ascended, the better the views over the town and the warmer the weather got until we had blue skies, but it was extremely windy & blew us all over the place.


We paused by a large canon, relic of one of the many wars the castillo saw, then continued upwards via an extremely steep staircase. Health & safety has a low profile here, as the handrail was a flimsy metal rod, but we made it to the top with no problem. From the large courtyard the views were stunning (a good job, as you could pretend to admire them whilst fighting to get your breath back, but in truth no pretence was needed): the pantiled roofs of Morella, the bullring, the Roman aqueduct and the hills and terraced vineyards of the surrounding countryside, with roads winding through them. Stunning.




Going down was of course much easier than going up, and as we arrived at the car park we were greeted by all the afternoon coaches disgorging their passengers for a bit of Morella’s culture – how lucky we were that (by accident) we had avoided the crowds, then our journey back to Benicassim took us through mile after mile of olive groves set in orange-coloured sand. All in all it was a lovely day.