Pobles abandonats: Les Alberedes (Els Ports)

Les Alberedes or l'Albereda, located next to the Cuba river, the water marks the border between the Valencian Country and Aragon, it is located in Portell de Morella, in the Castellón region of Els Ports, it is one of the most complete depopulated and the beautiful times of the Valencian geography. Formed by approximately fifteen houses distributed in two parallel streets, it also consisted of a tavern, a fountain, houses with an oven and a mill, the hermitage of San Marc, in the Gothic style of the s. XIII-XIV still standing today and in good condition. Boys and girls went to school in the Mas de San Juan, located a few hundred meters away, although closer to La Cuba (Teruel), the closest proximity to this municipality than to the administrative center of Portell or other municipalities of the Ports made the inhabitants of the area have Spanish as their own language, despite being in a Valencian-speaking municipality such as Portell de Morella. There is evidence that Las Alberedes had about a hundred inhabitants but like many other towns, the living conditions and the closure of the Mas de San Juan school in the 1970s caused its depopulation. The last inhabitant left the town around 1990. It was said that in Les Alberedes not to pass, not even the civil war happened. Les Alberedes was the setting for one of the films that have been shot in Els Ports: Land and Freedom (based on George Orwell's book, Tribute to Catalonia), by the English director Ken Loach, 1995. Thirty Portellanos of all ages participated as extras.