Tourism

Among all of Castellón’s mountains, Penyagolosa Trails has the privilege of enjoying the one that gives it its name. The Penyagolosa, known as Gegant de Pedra (Giant Stone), is a peak 1814 meters high and located in the Penyagolosa Natural Park, with a land mass of about 1,100 hectares. It is a magical setting for the MiM and the CSP.

At the heart of the Penyagolosa stands the Ermitorio de Sant Joan de Penyagolosa, which is the destination of pilgrimages from surrounding villages, and which is enveloped by a myriad of stories and legends.

Surrounded by great natural wealth, the trail runs through a landscape formed by steep hills parallel to the coast, with deep ravines and wide swaths of shrub, holms and pine forests. Its significant elevation change affords a progressive change in vegetation, which has gradually adapted to the altitude and, therefore, to the mountain’s harsh continental climate.

The Penyagolosa wants to go one step further and, for that, they are working toward international recognition. Camins de Penyagolosa hopes to have the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to declare it a World Heritage site. To achieve this would be to recognize it as a site of exceptional universal value.

This place has significance. It is the sanctuary dedicated to San Juan Bautista and is located in the outskirts of the Penyagolosa. A symbolic sanctuary that has been the destination of pilgrimages that date back to the XIV century and to which routes originate from different municipalities.

Today, many of these routes have disappeared. But others have survived over time or have been restored through the commitment of surrounding villages. This is the case of Els Pelegrins of Les Useres or the pilgrimages of Culla, Vistabella and Xodos. Religious routes and historic means of communication await declaration as a World Heritage site in order to continue guarding it as an archaeological, architectural, ecological and ethnological heritage.