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Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain.
The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital (Castelló de la Plana). Villarreal is separated from Castelló de la Plana by the Millars River. It has 51,367 inhabitants (2010 data), most of them living in the urban area that covers about 10.7% of its comarca's 55.4 km2 surface. Ranked by population, it is the second-largest city in the province (after the capital), and fifteenth in the Valencian Community.
The town was founded with royal status by King James I of Aragon in 1274 during his campaign to regain Muslim territory in present-day Valencia during the Reconquista. It later became an agricultural centre for orange cultivation, and more recently a centre for the ceramics industry.
The city is the birthplace of Francisco de Asís Tárrega y Eixea (1852–1909) who was a Spanish composer and of the Romantic music period. He is also the composer of Gran Vals, an excerpt of which was used in a popular Nokia tune. In modern times Vila-real is well known for its Villarreal CF that bears the city's name, a club that, in spite of the city's small size, has won the Europa League, reached the semi-finals of the Champions League (twice) and has since finished amongst the top clubs in Spain on several occasions.
On 27 February 2006, the municipal corporation voted the Valencian name to become the exclusive official name for the municipality. The agreement was thus published in the Boletín Oficial del Estado in January 2007, and the dual official name Villarreal/Vila-real removed.
Inhabitants of the city are known as vila-realencs (male) or vila-realenques (female) in Valencian, and villarrealenses in Spanish.
The original town was surrounded by walls, but expanded outside these limits beginning in the 14th century due to an increase in population. The demographic and economic imbalances which characterise the 15th century carried on into the beginning of the 16th with constant conflicts between the Christian population and the Mudéjars (Muslims who still lived in Christian majority Spain) who lived in the area.
During the 16th century, productive farm land was extended and enhanced by drilling wells to obtain water and convert dry land into irrigated fields, making it possible to begin commercial agriculture in the 17th century. After the city's disastrous participation in the War of the Spanish Succession, in the second half of the 18th century, the first industries were established, mainly for textiles. Also during that time, the city became involved in various revolts and wars which changed Spain's political make-up.
In the 19th century, the cultivation and trade of oranges was introduced, which gave the town great economic progress, led both by businessmen and by farmers' associations or "cooperatives". After the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939), the earnings obtained from the orange trade allowed several entrepreneurs to build ceramic tile factories as a way to diversify their industries. Ceramics has continued to expand up to the present day, and is now Villarreal's main economic activity.
It hosts 4 of Spain's 500 largest businesses, all of which trade in the ceramic tile industry. Other industries in the city include financial services, bricks and other clay products, and basic metals.
Villarreal CF full-back Joan Capdevila played in the Spain national squad that won the 2010 FIFA World Cup in South Africa. Capdevila and Villarreal teammate Marcos Senna played in the Spain national squad that won UEFA Euro 2008.
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