Skip to main content

Castellon de la Plana, Spain

The Costa Azahar, the “Orange Blossom Coast,” is an appealing stretch of beaches on the Iberian shore of the Mediterranean. Castellon is a 13th century city with plenty to show visitors, including its reconstructed Gothic co-cathedral of St. Mary, the octagonal 15th-century bell-tower known as El Fadri, and the 17th-century Hemp Exchange where ropes and cloth were traded. The basilica of Santa Maria del Liedo houses a statue of the Virgin found by a farmer plowing his fields in 1366. The original 14th-century church was extended to its present baroque form in the 16th century. And, of course, there are beaches.