The majority of ports in the Mediterranean arch that spread from Perpignan to Alacant were the arrival spots of pilgrims that, originating practically from the whole Mediterranean area, were on their way to “Santiago de Compostela”. Many were walking to join “Camí Jacobeu de l’Ebre”. Those that disembarked in the south of Catalunya or north of Valencia were heading for Tortosa, from where they followed the route to Mallén, approaching Navarra and continuing through Low Rioja and end up in Logroño where they joined those coming from the mountain ports of Somport or Roncesvalles in the Pirinees. Scattered along this path to Mallén there were many possessions owned by “l’Ordre de San Joan de Jerusalem”, what we now know as “SOBERANA ORDRE MILITAR” and “HOSPITALARIA DE SANT JOAN DE JERUSALEM, RODAS I MALTA”, within the “Castellania de Amposta”, where the first capital was Amposta and, later on, Zaragoza. In Terra Alta, just past the town of Gandesa, in the mountain range, and where there stood the emblematic “CREU DE SABOGA”, many pilgrims followed the path across Vilalba dels Arcs, the capital of “l’Encomienda” of this name, and the vines of which were producing excellent wines, they were provided with in order to continue their pilgrimage, complying thus with the saying “with bread and wine the pathway is walked “ (amb pa i vi es fa el camí).

Today, placed right in the middles of “CAMI DE SANT JAUME DE L’EBRE”, in the outskirts of Vilalba dels Arcs, CELLER LA BOLLIDORA can be found, where exquisite wines are elaborated originating in the vines that “drink from the excellent stones and from the brilliant sun” where they root and get lit. The same stone that first the Templario Knights, and then, the Sanjoanistes, built the church and the castle, and the same sun under which they shone as if made of gold. CELLER LA BOLLIDORA wants to bring back this old “Encomienda Sanjuanista de Vilalba” that from century XV directed and administrated the possessions that Ordre had in La Pobla de Masaluca, Ribarroja d’Ebre and Berrús, with others in the Aragón region. Within their products the outstanding wines were protecting pilgrims on their way to Santiago de Compostela, Rome or Jerusalem, the three great pilgrimage centres of “forgivingness” in the medieval Cristianity.

The cross of eight arms, white under the red tile, adopted by “ORDRE DE SANT JOAN DE JERUSALEM” in the beginning of century XII, is still today an identifying sign, and corresponds to the cross in the coat of arms of Vilalba dels Arcs, added with the wall which makes reference to its condition of “Encomienda” .