The village of Chulilla was populated very long ago, arqueology has documented the existence of settlements with a chronology near the first millennium b.c. and had its importance during the medieval period, as the capital of a barony dependent on the bishop Valentino.

Those times left a clear print on the current village, which has kept a centre defined by the castle, an Islamic construction, the church; the old mosque, with baroque style and a number of rural chapels spread all over the territory, only 2 of them remain standing, but above all a urban structure genuinely medieval.

Two could be the written documents giving way to our village’s nature.

1. September the 17th of 1260 king Jaime I stablish the population conditions that muslims are going to have after the conquest:

“Noverint universi quod nos.Iacabus, Dei gratia rex Aragonunm, maiconcarum et Valentie, Comes Rarchinone et Urgelli, et Dominus Montispesulani, per nos et nostros concedimus et indulgemus vobis universis et singulis sarrracenis de Xulella, presentibus et futuris, in perpetuum quod de tota laboratione quam feeritis in bega sive regadivo quod est in termino de Xulella...”

2. February 8th of 1341, Ramon de Gastló, bishop in Valencia, grants the population letter to the village, to populate with a 100 christian families, after expelling the muslims living there until that moment:

“Noverint universi quod nos, Raumundus, miseratione Divina Valentie Episcopus, et Capitulum eiusdem sedis, considerantes locum nostrum de Xulella, nunch populatum existere perfidis sarracenis...”

Chulilla is situated in a territory vertebrate by the turia river, and this river was the one to mark its historic evolution; the choice of the population’s settlement based on the importance of strategic and control elements. It was the hydrography with its double side as economic resources and defensive strategies provider, the one that stated Chulilla’s history. The widespread autarchic and isolating character by the end of the old empire began to mould the territorial structure which would divert the Muslim district of the Islamic castle in Chulilla, this had territorial continuity after the barony’s conquest in the XIII century.

The Castle – Guadalaviar river will establish the domestic axis of inhabitants in the Islamic period’s “alquerías”, gving rise to, if it wasn’t given in the roman period, the irrigation system in the valley, starting from the “azud del salto”, also known as “charco azul”.

Chulilla appears amongst the donations that the Muslim king in Valencia Abu Zayd made tho the bishop from Segorbe in 1236. In 1248 “Jaime I” gives it to “Pere Escrivá” for life “castrum et villam de Xulella” but this donation won’t be definitive. After this break from military gets back to de church when established in 1274 as the Barony of Chulilla, on the old muslim district territory and given to de bishop from Valencia.

Until 1331 population will be mostly muslim and in 1340 it’s written the population letter by “Raimon Gaston” and it’s council, receiving the document the representatives for the 100 Christian inhabitants: “Miguel Silvestre” and “Arnaldo Guernica”

XV,XVI and XVII Centuries

During this period, after a family names study, it’s noticed a substitution of the first lineages arrived in XIV century by the ones that then formed the contemporary settlement. ThIs period can be called “the esparto grass age”, not only for it’s economic importance but for the way it ruled the communitarian regulations.

XVIII Century

An announced break-up takes place: the barony’s territory which had remained barely modified since the last millennium, will tear apart and new villages will rise, “Villar” and “Losa”.

XIX Century

It’s a century of change and expansion: liberation from the Bishop, construction of new wind mills, refurbishment in the “Balneario”, introduction of new growing cultivation, and also the “carlistas” wars when the castle was taken by the “general Cabrera” with the subsequently reconquest by the “tropas isabelinas”. By the second half of this century the population was affected by this facts, this together with the marginal situation regarding to the developments axis in the region, will make it keep its rural character in this century.

XX Century

Will bring the beginning of the urban transformation and modernization and emigration of the inhabitants seeking new horizons. Will say goodbye with the fire in 1994, and others, long before the civil war, such as the cockroaches epidemics and the flooding in year 57.

XXI Century

Shows itself with a renewed vocation as a village with a services economy, and no longer as a primary traditional economy, where goes for its monumental, natural and historic patrimony strengthens the quality of life for both local and foreign people.