Atzeneta del Maestrat is a municipality located in Valencia, Spain with around 1,400 residents. It is known for its medieval walls and battlements, Renaissance-style parish church from the 17th century, and historic castle that now hosts pilgrimages twice yearly. Local celebrations include the Festival of St. Bartholomew in mid-August with bulls, dancing, concerts and sports. Traditional cuisine includes lamb, pastries like panquemao and pastissos, and sausages known for their long production tradition.

1. Atzeneta del Maestrat
Alicia Escrig Barberá

2. Localitation
Atzeneta is a municipality in the Valencian Community. It’s
located between Alcalatén and Alt Maestrat. It has 1400 people.
The Atzeneta term limits with: Culla, Benafigos, Vistabella del
Maestrazgo, Useras, Lucena del Cid and Chodos, all of them in
the province of Castellón.

3. Sights
This image is a medieval wall. It is in the street of the Order of
Montesa, in good condition. This is part of the wall that
surrounded the villa from the end of the eighteenth century. We
can observe battlements used to defense the population.

4. City council. It is a historic building,
which was the hospital
and Commander of the Palace
of the Culla Setena ,during the
sixteenth century.
This image is the Parroquial Church.
It’s of the XVII century,
with a Renaissance style.

5. The prison
Located in one of the entrances of
the town, the tower of the prison, is
of uncertain origin, but it had to be
part of the medieval walls
surrounding the villa.
At its door there is an inscription
with the date 1853. Inside stairs are
kept communicated with the upper
floors, windows and iron railings.
The building was an old gateway to
the town, collapsed during the 50 to
facilitate the passage of truckloads
of wood that served to fuel Alcora’s
factories.
It was used as a prison until the 60
year.

6. The Castle is an Atzeneta’s icon where pilgrimages are organized
twice a year to visit the fort and eat in their surroundings. "Among
the few facts that are known about Atzeneta’s Castle, Templars
appear as owners after the sale of the fortification by Guillem
d'Anglesola, although some ceramic findings have its origin in a
primitive Iberian settlement.

7. The “Mas de la Vila” is a small
village located in the Pla de Meanes.
The chapel, which served to give
religious service to locals, is a
modest and simple construction that
seems to have been built in the
eighteenth century.
The chapel is full of pictures of
people and wax images, because it’s
said that the Saints take care and
protect them, or people who have
made promises, because people of
my town are very religious.
This chapel worship only now in her
feast day, Easter Monday, when
celebrating Mass and distributed the
"panoli" for all people.

8. “Molí Salvadó”
This old flourmill, is the crown
of my family, it’s of my father
now.
It worked with the water that
was collected from a spring,
and it was moved by a donkey.
People brought wheat and
collected flour.
This was the base of the
economy of my ancestors for a
long time, until 1965, stopped
working, coinciding this year
with the birth of my mother.
Currently school groups and
people come to see it.

9. Local celebrations
The most important celebrations are the festival of San
Bartolomé and Holy Relics. They are from 15 to 25 August.
During these days the population enjoys
bulls through the streets, free dance,
theater, concerts, exhibitions, sports ...
The cavalcade is very famous in this town,
it’s a popular ride that shows costumes
and traditional music groups and parade
through the streets. They also make a race
in which participants leave town, run to the
castle and return to the village, where the
crowd rewarded for their effort.

10. San Antoni
The feast of Sant Antoni, is the
most popular of the rural
holidays, especially in the
northern regions of Castellón.
Each village has its own
customs and traditions, so that,
the same feast is celebrated in
each place differently.
At the end of the round the fire
riding horses, people eat
"prims" and "pastissos" that
are typical sweets of my town.

11. Football
In 1947 the club has already existed, but in many towns
there were only friendly matches in local festivals or in
specific dates. From 1993 to the present team is the
same as now. U.D. Atzeneta of Castellón. Clothes are
red and black if they play at home, on the football field
"Porrejat" and white and black if they play out.

12. Gastronomy
The "Maestrazgo lamb" is recognized as a quality food, great
prestige since medieval times.
Tradition has sweet pastry: "panquemao", "pastissos", "rotllets
d'Aiguardent", "mantecaos” and "figues albardaes“.
Nougats and marzipan are unique and their sausages, because they
have a long tradition in its elaboration.

13. The collected oil from their
millenarian olive trees is of high
quality, but some years ago
there was a fire and it burned a
lot of these olive trees. The
honey produced by bees of this
land is of high quality too.

14. You come to know my people.
THE END