Els Ports, to the north and in the extreme interior of the province of Castellón, is one of the Valencian regions with the most pronounced personality. Faced with the Levantine topic of a large flat fertile land lavish with sweet vegetables, the rough mountains of this northern nest are the last refuge of shepherds and unrepentant masses. In total there are less than 5,000 inhabitants, spread over 14 municipalities. The center of this small empire of the interior is Morella, whose tourist strength tends to overshadow the rest.
Els Ports (whose name refers to the abundance of mountain passes) forms a great magic basin that houses the spirit of a water that was. This mountainous redoubt constituted the container of a formidable ocean, withdrawn towards the East in the Upper Cretaceous. Absent the waters, we only have the strict lithosphere. It is the apotheosis of the stone. Vázquez Montalbán was quite right when he wrote that Els Ports, more than a region, is a dimension. A stone dimension where the strict landscape's homage to crucial geology is silence. Over time, the lithogenic medium has found an adequate response in its inhabitants: dry stone architecture, world heritage since 2018. This technique is a metaphor for man's fight against entropy and in favor of order, his desire to emulate a God on a very small scale. It is a pure and primal creative act: pick up stone, pile it up, build. They make walls, houses or huts, cisterns, monuments. The men and women of this territory also gained, over time, a characteristic patina, dull and reddish, calcareous and rough. It is a way they have to blend in with the terrain. It is a collateral effect of that so aided: the humanized landscape. In Vilafranca there is a complete Museu de la Pedra en Sec, where you can delve into its techniques and landscapes.
To speak of Els Ports is to speak of Morella and Vilafranca, but also of other charming municipalities. Morella is a small walled city and a tourist giant —at least until this atypical summer—, like its huge gates are also huge, one of which has been enabled as a paleontological museum. Temps de Dinosaures, in fact, collects testimonies of remains found between the Upper Jurassic and the Lower Cretaceous. The best known local saury is the Iguanodon ("iguana tooth"). Other of its charms are the archpriest church of Santa María, the castle or the aqueduct of Santa Lucía. And the prehistoric caves in Morella la Vella, about six kilometers from the city, with samples of Levantine rock art, also a world heritage since 1998 (although they are temporarily closed).
Vilafranca, the other most populous municipality in the region, used to add the tagline "del Cid", although the good Sidi passed through here long before the town was founded ... Many place it wrongly in the Maestrat, and is characterized by the presence from the Marie Claire textile factory, the last of its lineage in Europe. The stockings and socks made here were the strongest incentive against depopulation. With the pandemic, the production of masks and other sanitary materials has been reoriented.
Delicious slopes
Following the Bergantes river, the visitor can approach the Balma, a charming rock-cut sanctuary that celebrates a massive festival in September. Not far from here are Forcall and Todolella. Forcall is located at the confluence of three rivers and has a remarkable prehistoric past; The nearby La Moleta dels Frares site is an Ibero-Roman walled city. Their dances and the celebration of the feast of San Antonio Abad are famous. In Todolella there is a recently recovered medieval castle-fortress for its inhabitants, some of whom claim to hear inside the groan of a baroque organ.
The region provides the perfect climate to cure a good ham and aerate juicy sausages. Its cuisine, of medieval origin, is rich in meats (veal, lamb, pork, wild boar, partridge ...), cheeses and curds, and also in mushrooms, truffles and nuts. Recipes have been passed down from generation to generation, such as truffled stuffed lamb, rabbit with snails, partridge with stuffed cabbage or pig's trotters with almond sauce. In Morella, the flagship of local restaurants, they pride themselves on unique croquettes with bull meat and a triangular shape, a consistent Morella soup or the Masovera pot. In the sweet chapter, we must not forget the traditional flaó, a mountain delicacy whose recipe already appears in Mestre Robert's Llibre del coc, from the 16th century. His secret: quality cottage cheese as the main ingredient.
Without leaving Morella, you can taste these and other delicacies in classics such as Vinatea (restaurantevinatea.com), Casa Roque (casaroque.com) or Mesón del Pastor (mesondelpastor.com). For palates looking for more contemporary proposals, you have to choose Daluan (daluan.es), with a traditional background cuisine but current airs. For the luxury of consuming good fish and fresh seafood, in Vilafranca there is La Taverna del Forn, a centuries-old medieval oven (one of the oldest in Europe) where its owner, Joan Forés, prepares to offer excellent meats of pure breed of beef and ox raised by himself. Without forgetting El Faixero (elfaixero.net), in Cinctorres, an establishment founded in 1978 that has an attached hotel and its own catering service . An irreplaceable classic.
Joan Garí is the author of 'The perfect pantry. Miquel Barrera's kitchen '.
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