Castellón de la Plana
Castelló de la Plana, or simply Castelló, is the capital city of the province of Castelló, in the Valencian Country. It is located in the east of the Iberian Peninsula, on the Costa del Azahar by the Mediterranean Sea. The mountain range known as Desert de les Palmes rises inland north of the town.
According to the 2018 census, Castelló has a population of 170,888 inhabitants, ranking as the fourth most populated city in the Valencian Community. The Prime Meridian, or Greenwich Meridian, intersects the 40th parallel at Castelló de la Plana and is commemorated with a monolith in Meridian Park located at the exact point where this occurs.
History
The first known building in the area was the Moorish castle of Fadrell, near the Alqueries de La Plana. The town proper was officially founded in 1251, after the conquest of the Moorish Kingdom of Valencia by King James I of Aragon in 1233. James granted royal permission to move the town from the mountain to the plain on 8 September 1251, and tradition claims that the move was completed by the third Sunday of Lent, 1252. During the Middle Ages, the city was protected by moats, walls and towers, and a church was built, later becoming a cathedral. In the 16th century the town was one of the last strongholds in the Revolta de les Germanies. It also supported Archduke Charles of Austria in the War of the Spanish Succession, but was later taken by the troops of Philip d'Anjou.In the 19th century, the city walls were torn down and it slowly began to expand, a process interrupted by the War of Independence against Napoleon and the Carlist Wars. In 1833 Castelló became the capital of the newly constituted province. In the second half of the 19th century, the city again began to expand, marked by the arrival of the railway, the enlargement of the port and the construction of representative buildings and parks.
In 1991 a university was established, set upon a modern campus. The local economy is based on industry, tourism and craft-work.
Main sights
Most of the historical buildings are located in the diminutive old town, around the Plaça Major. These include:- The Concatedral de Santa Maria, built in a Gothic-style in the 13th century and reconstructed one century later after destruction by fire. The present building is another reconstruction after the demolition ordered by the council during the Spanish civil war.
- The Ajuntament, erected at the beginning of the 18th century. It features a Tuscan-style façade rising up over a colonnade.
- The free-standing bell-tower of the procathedral, known as El Fadrí, built in the 15th century.
- The Llotja del Cànem, built during the first half of the 17th century to be used by traders in hempen cloth and ropes, a very important activity in the area at the time. Today the building is used by the University for cultural events and temporary exhibitions.
- On the northeast edge of the town, at the end of a broad avenue decorated with orange trees, stands the Basílica of Santa Maria del Lledó, a basilica devoted to an image of the Virgin Mary found in 1366 by a farmer when he was ploughing his lands. The original 14th-century chapel was extended to its present Baroque form during the 16th century.
- Espai d'Art Contemporani de Castelló, Museum for Modern Art
- Teatre Principal
Events
The city is notorious for its music festivals, among which we find: early in February the Tanned Tin music festival for alternative music and experimental music, in July the Festival Internacional de Benicàssim, at the beginning of August there is the Arenal Sound and during the middle of that same month, we can find the Rototom Sunsplash Festival, known for its reggae music.
Sports
The city has the professional basketball team AB Castelló, which plays in LEB Oro, Spanish second basketball division.The local professional football club is CD Castelló. However, despite having a 15,000 seater stadium, the club financial problems and unstable history brought it to play in semi-pro and amateur regional divisions, not playing in La Liga since the 1990–91 season. On 21 March 2018, Castelló beat the record of seasonal tickets in the fourth-tier division with 12,701, and is considered a giant amongst minnows. Currently they play on Spain's third league. The presence of Villarreal CF in the adjacent town has created a fierce rivalry for geographical reasons. The success of Villarreal in the last decades, with a stable presence in La Liga since 2000 and including several European qualifications, is turning more and more supporters to its side.
The city is host to futsal club CFS Bisontes Castelló, which under the name Platges de Castelló was one of the best Spanish and European futsal clubs in the late 90s and early 2000s, having won the premier professional futsal league in Spain twice in 2000 and 2001, and the UEFA Futsal Cup three consecutive times in 2001, 2002 and 2003.
Education
was founded in 1991, and in 2014 there were approximately 15,000 students enrolled who share a single campus.Twin towns
- Châtellerault, France
- Târgoviște, Romania
- Ube, Japan
- Lleida, Spain
Notable people
- Sergio Aragonés, comics cartoonist.
- Joan Barreda Bort, Rally raid motorcyclist.
- Roberto Bautista-Agut, professional tennis player.
- José Luis Ballester, Olympic butterfly swimmer.
- María Egual, poet and dramatist.
- Sergio García, professional golfer.
- Pablo Hernandez Dominguez, footballer, formerly with Valencia CF.
- Roberto Merhi,, driver.
- Matilde Salvador, musician, composer and painter artist.
- Miguel Angel Silvestre,, actor.
- Xavi Valero, professional football goalkeeping coach.
Climate
The Köppen Climate Classification subtype for this climate is "BSk".Transport
The small Castelló Airport offers charter and general aviation services, as well as scheduled passenger services to London, Bucharest and Poznań. The new Castelló-Costa Azahar Airport is designed to support large international jet flights and was completed in 2011. It has become a symbol of the wasteful spending prior to the 2008–13 Spanish financial crisis. Valencia Airport is about south whilst Alacant Airport is another 185 km further down the coast.The city is served by the Castelló de la Plana railway station. The Euromed railway line links Alacant to Barcelona.
Nowadays, this city has a new public transport called TRAM de Castelló which is a trolleybus. There is just a line Línia 1, but authorities are planning to build the second line.