One of the smallest villages in Maestrazgo is La Cuba, with just 6.51 km² of municipal area and about 43 inhabitants. It borders Mirambel and the Castellón municipalities of Portell and La Mata.

In the architectural complex of La Cuba, next to the Town Hall, there is a curious heritage element. It is the Pilliric or Pellerich, an octagonal stone on a flat octagonal base. With this shape, similar to the molas of the monumental crosses, it is unique in Aragon. In the Maestrazgo region no more are preserved, although there is memory of others in Fortanete or Mirambel and in Olocau del Rey, Culla and Vallibona, the latter three in the province of Castellón.

The pelleric or pillory served to apply corporal punishment and to exhibit guilt. The most serious punishments such as murder or theft of women for the Baylías (a territory that corresponds in part with the current Maestrazgo region) ended in hanging, garrotting or quartering. The lightest were economic fines. Between the first and the second, in the pelleric the penalties consisted of whipping stipulated according to the crime, hours tied to the sun, and other physical punishments. The Fueros required that the sentences be carried out publicly in crowded places, as in the case of La Cuba in front of the council houses and that, in full view of everyone, the bailiffs would announce their crimes. Those tied up in the pelleric carried a placard showing why they were being punished.

In the center of the stone there is a quadrangular hole that could be used to fit a wooden rod to tie the prisoner. Although it is not known exactly how it must have been used since it must have lost its function in the 18th century.

The pellerics (picotas in Spanish), 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.

So, when you visit La Cuba, be sure to get to know this curious element where you can imagine the punishments that were inflicted in the past. We invite you to take a walk through its streets, visit the Church of San Miguel, the refrigerator, the Esparto Interpretation Center, where they talk about the industry of the town in the past, and where you can also find the recreation of the old school, and the House Museum of Bishop Alfonso Milian.

More information about the pellerich in the Virtual Museum of Maestrazgo.