Arcaded street and a walk round the walls

What it is

Morella is enclosed by about two kilometres of wall, with seven gates and ten towers. Inside, the streets climb in terraces towards the castle, and the main one, Blasco de Alagón, runs beneath arcades: this is the arcaded street, the social heart of the town, with shops, restaurants and bars. The weekly market is held here on Sundays. It is what you see without paying an entrance fee, can be done at any hour and is what stays longest in the memory.

A walk of an hour and a half

Enter by the Sant Miquel gate, between its two fourteenth-century octagonal towers, and follow the arcaded street to the town hall, the Casa de la Vila, a fifteenth-century civic building with Gothic rooms. From there, the slopes climb towards the basilica of Santa María, with its Gothic doorway, and on the way back you descend through the former Jewish quarter. This is, broadly, the route followed by the weekend guided tour, which adds an explanation of the castle from the Estudios tower; if you prefer to be told about it, it is a good option.

To see the wall from outside, leave by any gate and walk the path that runs round it: the tourist office suggests it as one of its two urban walks, along with the Alameda. Its general listing gives no distance or duration, but from below you understand the whole town, with the castle on top of the rock and the gates one after another. If you want to climb onto the wall itself, the Sant Miquel towers let you walk a stretch of the wall-walk as far as the Nevera gate.

With a dog, children or a pushchair

It is a walk along public streets and paths, so you can bring a dog, on a lead. Inside the walls there are steps and steep stone slopes; with a pushchair, the outer walk around the wall is more comfortable. Children like peering into the gateways and counting towers; in Plaza de Sant Miquel they also have the Dinosaur Museum.

Where to stop and how to get there

Under the arcades is the Hotel Cardenal Ram, and a few steps away there are Morella-style eateries such as Casa Roque or La Fonda Moreno. If you come by car, leave it outside the wall, in the Paseo Jaume I car park, and enter on foot through the Sant Miquel gate. Without a car, the bus from Castellón runs Monday to Friday.