VILLARREAL, a town of eastern Spain, in the province of Castellon de la Plana; 4 m. from the Mediterranean sea, near the right bank of the river Mijares, and on the Barcelona-Valencia railway. Pop. (1930) 18,982. Villarreal has a station on the light railway between Onda and the seaports of CastellOn de la Plana and Burriana. Palm-groves, churches with blue-tiled cupolas, and houses with flat roofs and view-turrets (miradores) to some extent preserve the Moorish character of the town. Under
Moorish rule, and up to the expulsion of the Moriscoes in 1609, it was the headquarters of a flourishing trade. There are extensive orange-groves, watered by the irrigation canal of Castellon, which is a good example of Moorish engineering skill. There are manu factures of paper, woollen goods and spirits.