This was the name given to the means of doing justice in the villages. The Pellerich or Pelleric is a large octagonal stone that is installed on the edge of the town square. The pelleric (pillory in Spanish) was a place of public scorn where thieves with minor thefts or wrongdoers were mocked by the neighbors.
It is a large stone where the condemned were tied around their necks with an iron necklace (pelleric), attached to the stone by a chain, being exposed to the mockery and humiliation of the townspeople. Almost always, on the condemned person, or next to him, a writing was placed indicating the crime he had committed.
The pellerics originated in the Middle Ages and were a sign that the place had administrative autonomy and criminal jurisprudence. Most of the pellerics of the peninsula disappeared after the Cortes of Cadiz declared in 1811 the abolition of the exclusive, privative and prohibitive privileges of the seigniories, vestiges of the old private courts.
Memories of the Pellerich family are preserved in neighboring Mirambel, Olocau del Rey, Culla and Vallibona, the latter three in the province of Castellón.
