Vilafamés, located 25 kilometers from Castellón de la Plana, is a town you discover on one of those aimless drives along the Castellón roads. A typical scene, with the castle perched above. The houses below, stacked on the hillside with that deliciously chaotic logic that only medieval towns have, are understood beyond the concept of “how to live on a slope without falling into the void.” Perhaps that’s why Vilafamés has belonged for more than a decade to the club of the Most Beautiful Towns in Spain, and we had to uncover why.
The Legend of the “Red Buttocks”
Having parked the car, we take Font Street from the car park; our first stop is Font Square. It is small, with a fountain that seems eager to lean against the wall. This spot lets us outline from below the well-known Muslim quarter of Quartijo. The streets narrow, the layout becomes irregular, and the slopes toward the castle defy gravity, but not excessively. In other words, the walk does not turn into tightrope walking, as happens with towns in the south.
But we are taking the other path, along Font Street toward the castle. A few meters from the square appears on the left flank of the street one of Vilafamés’ emblems: the Roca Grossa. About 2,163 metric tons of rodeno wedged in the middle of the street, without anchors, held only by their own weight. It could have been a Titan who placed it there in earlier, more pagan times; and indeed, it would have been a treat for any mythological chronicler. But all evidence points to its formation millions of years ago when humanity was probably not even a destiny project.
