The Archpriestal Church of the Assumption (Arxiprestal de l'Assumpció) is the architectural centrepiece of Vinaròs — a large fortress-church in Renaissance style, built between 1583 and 1596 at the height of the town's prosperity as a wine-trading and shipbuilding centre. The exterior has a deliberately austere quality typical of late-16th-century Spanish ecclesiastical architecture, broken only by the spectacular Baroque portal added in 1698–1702: a cascade of columns, carved stone ornamentation, and religious imagery that is among the finer examples of Churrigueresque-influenced work in the province.
The interior is spacious and relatively plain, with a notable altarpiece. The church serves as the visual anchor of the old town centre, and the square in front of it is the social heart of Vinaròs on warm evenings. Entry to the church is free during opening hours.
story: > The church was built on the site of a mosque that had stood since the Moorish period — when King James I of Aragon captured Vinaròs in 1233, the mosque was consecrated as a Christian church. The current building replaced that structure three and a half centuries later, when the town's wine exports and shipyards were generating enough prosperity to fund an ambitious new edifice.