Benicarló

Sister cities

• Ladispoli
• Saint-Pol-de-Léon

History

There are several places that either were inhabited or had a relationship with the Iberian population. The most important set is the Village of the Puig de la Nau, located at the foot of the hill of the same name. It is a site that has six phases of occupation, between 700 and 400 BC, of which part of the urban structure is preserved. The excavations found the Kylix of Penthesilea, an Attic cup, or the tresoret, a group of ornamental utensils. Currently, the findings are divided between museums in Castellón de la Plana and the Mucbe, located in Benicarló. At the foot of Puig de la Nau was the necropolis of the settlement, where several funerary remains were found. In addition, in the sea and at the mouth of the Riu Sec, an enclave known as Les Pedres de la Barbada, there is a submarine site, corresponding to the ancient Iberian port. The Puig de la Nau village was abandoned due to the decline of trade with the Greeks and Punics. In the following century, a new village was established on the hill of La Tossa, today between the municipalities of Benicarló and Càlig, which was also later depopulated. Although in the past the toponym Hystria (country of vineyards, named in the Maritime Ora of Rufius Festus Avienius) was attributed to the Village of Benicarló, this hypothesis is rejected today, as is the existence of a continuum between the Iberian and Muslim populations of the Middle Ages: after the depopulation of La Tossa, the current municipal area would have been occupied by modest Hispano-Roman estates. The first reference to the present-day Benicarló appears with the Arab farmhouse of Beni-Gazló or Bani-Gazlun. The scarcity of remains and documentary sources only allow us to sketch this enclave. It would be a small urban area, surrounded by a palisade, with a…

Geography

Located on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea, the municipality is located on a plain with orographic features of little relief, such as the Puig de la Nau (166 m), on the northern boundary of the municipality, and the Tossa (168 m). The rivers of the municipality have a perpendicular course to the coast: the Aiguaoliva to the north, the Rambla de Cervera (Riú Sec), in the center, and the Alcalà (Barranquet) to the south. It has the beaches: Mar Xica, Morrongo, Gurugú and Caracola.