In 2018, UNESCO added the art of dry stone walling to its list of the intangible heritage of humanity, a joint listing by Spain and several other countries. Anyone who has ridden the lanes around Albocàsser will understand why. Every slope is stepped with terraces, every field is edged with a wall, and the walls, built without a speck of mortar, have stood for centuries. Small huts with corbelled roofs, called barraques in Valencian, shelter farmers from sun and rain. It is a vast, unsigned work of art, made by thousands of people over hundreds of years, and the hillsides would wash away without it.
The Cingle de l'Ermità, the cliff of the hermitage, rises above the ravine about six kilometres from the village. Abric I, the first of a numbered series, carries painting in the Levantine tradition, protected by UNESCO as part of the rock art of the Mediterranean basin in Spain, and the ride links it to the Abric de la Tenalla. The painters used the same rock that the farmers later used for their walls, and the cliff face is a source of the stone.
Look closely at a wall, and you will see how it is made. The large stones form the base and face, smaller ones fill the gaps, and the top is capped with flat slabs. Lizards sun themselves in the crevices, and snails cling to the shady side. Almond and olive trees grow on the terraces, and wild thyme and rosemary seed themselves in the cracks.
The lanes through the terraces are narrow and twisting, with tight bends and a patchwork surface. Gravel gathers at the edges, and walls sometimes rise right to the edge of the road, which makes blind corners worse. A gentle pace suits the setting, and you will see more.
Albocàsser has fewer than fourteen hundred people, and fuel is best taken at Alcalà de Xivert, nineteen kilometres away. Catí, smaller, has a good cheese shop, and Les Coves de Vinromà has a few more services. Carry water.