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 . (190o) 16,o68 . Villarreal has a station on the light railway between Onda and the seaports of Castellon de la Plana and Burriana . Under Moorish rule, and up to the expulsion of the Moriscoes in 1609, it was the headquarters of a flourishing trade, and in modern times its industries have revived . 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 . There are extensive orange-groves, watered by the irrigation canal of Castellon, which is a good example of Moorish engineering skill . The local industries include manufactures of paper, woollen goods and spirits .