History of Alcalà de Xivert and its Templar castle

The district of Alcalà de Xivert has been inhabited for millennia. The Cova dels Diablets yielded Epipalaeolithic stone tools — around 9000 BC — and Neolithic pottery, while the Cova de la Torrera produced Eneolithic remains. Egyptian scarabs and Phoenician and Greek ceramics show that this coast was part of Mediterranean trade routes long before the castle existed.

From the Iberian period there are the settlements of El Palau and El Tossalet and, above all, the La Solivella necropolis, dated to the 6th–5th centuries BC and considered one of the oldest in the whole Iberian world. Then came Rome: tombstones, coins and settlements mark the route of the Via Augusta through the municipality.

The fortress we see today was born in the Islamic period. Between the 10th and 11th centuries the hisn of Xivert was raised, a refuge-castle within the coastal defence network, with its alcazaba at the top, a large albacar to shelter people and livestock, and cisterns cut into the rock to withstand a siege. The Almohads later reinforced it, and its walls still keep an Arabic inscription that the castle’s official leaflet dates to the 13th century, reading al-fatih Allah (“the one who grants victory is God”).

The civilian population lived at the foot of the fortress, in a settlement that made Xivert a district with a life of its own. That pairing — castle and village — is what makes Xivert one of the best-preserved Islamic castles and settlements of the old Kingdom of Valencia.

Xivert was Templar land before it was Christian. In 1169, Alfonso II of Aragon granted the fortress to the Order of the Temple — on condition that they conquer it themselves. The promise took more than sixty years to come true: in 1233, James I confirmed that donation, in the middle of the campaign through the Maestrazgo on the way to Valencia.

So Xivert is not “a castle with a Templar legend” but a documented Templar commandery: the order was its effective lord for almost a century.

The castle did not fall by assault. In April 1234 the surrender charter of Xivert was signed between the Templars and the local Muslims, represented by their alfaquí and the community elders. It was a negotiated capitulation, and its terms are known in detail: the inhabitants kept their religion, customs and property, but had to leave the castle enclosure and move to the hillside, where they formed a fortified aljama or Moorish quarter.

The arrangement was clear: the Templar brothers above, in the fortress; the Andalusi population below, in the village. Settlement charters for Christian colonists followed shortly after: Alcalà in 1251 and Alcossebre around 1261, already under the order’s rule.

The Templars did not simply occupy Xivert — they rebuilt it. Theirs are the great ashlar works that stand out today above the Islamic rammed earth and masonry, in particular two imposing circular towers on the flank of the alcázar, a church with sacristy built in the space of the former mosque, and a large vaulted cistern measuring some 10.65 × 5.20 m inside.

That contrast is the best part of the visit: on a single hilltop you can read, wall by wall, the shift from an Andalusi hisn to the Christian fortress of a military order.

The official leaflet splits the visit into three enclosures, and knowing which one you are standing in changes what you see:

• The alcazaba, at the top: the entrance, the west tower, the wall walk, the north tower, the twin Templar towers, the south tower and the chapel.
• The albacar, the large enclosure that sheltered people and livestock: its entrance, the east tower, the Slafia wall, the semicircular towers and the cistern.
• The Morisco village, on the western slope: the north and south entrances, the large buildings, the dwellings and the street that organises them.

From the Andalusi period there survive part of the alcazaba — masked by later alterations — the albacar wall and the cistern: building the alcazaba itself destroyed much of what came before. And what you can walk today is the result of 21st-century archaeological recovery work.

After the Order of the Temple was dissolved, in 1319 the lordship passed to the Order of Montesa, created precisely to inherit Templar property in the Kingdom of Valencia; Alcalà became the head of the commandery. The 16th century brought everything: the Germanías revolt (1521), a Barbary raid repelled in 1547, the granting of town status in 1580 and, by the end of the century, the incorporation of the Montesa mastership into the administration of the Crown.

The end of the castle village was written by a decree: the expulsion of the Moriscos in 1609 emptied the aljama. An attempt at Christian resettlement in 1616 failed and, by around 1632, Xivert was definitively depopulated and annexed to Alcalà. The castle stopped being a village and became a monumental ruin.

With the castle empty, life concentrated on the plain, and 18th-century Alcalà de Xivert allowed itself something grand: the parish church of St John the Baptist. It was decided in 1734, the foundation stone was laid in 1736 with the Valencian architect José Herrero, and it was blessed in 1766, by then under master Joan Barceló. Textbook Valencian Baroque.

Its bell tower came later, between 1784 and 1803: an octagonal tower some 68 metres high, between Baroque and Neoclassical, the tallest in the province of Castellón and one of the tallest in the Valencian Community. You can see it from half the region — and from much of the coast. Church and tower have been listed as a Cultural Heritage Asset since 2007.

The town also keeps the Col·lecció Museogràfica d’Alcalà de Xivert, with temporary exhibitions — in 2026 it unveiled the gothic altarpiece recovered from calle Sant Roc — and a tradition that only makes sense with this tower in front of you: the campionat puja-baixa al campanar, the race up and down its stairs held during the festivals.

Xivert Castle has been a listed Cultural Heritage Asset since 2001 and has undergone consolidation works on its walls and albacar. In summer the Town Hall runs free guided visits: in 2026, from 14 August to 16 September, to the castle on Wednesdays and Fridays at 8:45 and to the Santa Lucía hermitage Thursday to Sunday, 8:30 to 13:30. They change every season, so confirm them on alcaladexivert.es and alcossebre.org.

From Alcossebre it is just over fifteen minutes by car (through Alcalà de Xivert and then along a forest track to the foot of the hill; the last stretch calls for a high vehicle and is easily walked). There are also waymarked routes of 7 to 22 km: the classic one is described in the route to Xivert Castle, and the rest of the town’s heritage in the guide to what to see in Alcossebre and Alcalà de Xivert.

If your plan mixes history and coast, it pairs with the history of Alcossebre — watchtowers, 18th-century warehouses and the Santa Lucía hermitage — and with the nature guide to the Serra d’Irta Natural Park. To sleep nearby, see the accommodation guide.