In the area, there are vestiges from Iberian and Roman settlement. In the 8th century, following the Muslim invasion, the Omeya emirs of Córdoba commissioned the Berber lineage of the Banu Qasi to govern the Province of Santaver, which encompassed the current provinces of Guadalajara, Cuenca and Teruel. Other branches of this lineage also ruled a large part of the Ebro Valley. To control the road that connects Teruel with the Mediterranean, they fortified the borders of Alpuente, which is the most impregnable place to dominate this strategic mountain pass.
Since the year 1009, Nizam al Dawla, local leader of the Banu Qasi, turned Alpuente into the capital of a small Taifa kingdom which also included the Rincón of Ademuz. The BanuQasi, who also ruled in Tudela, Tarazona Ejea de los Caballeros and Nájera, controlled numerous territories from the North peninsular to almost the Mediterranean. From Alpuente, they came to control a more western territory, that had been the Province of Santaver, traditionally dominated by that family. Possibly because of its geographical distance and its small size, Alpuente was one of the Taifa kingdoms that lasted more years, not being conquered by the Almoravids until 1106. Then it was the Almohads who controlled the area.
The Cid took the city in 1089, defeating Abdallah ibn Muhammad, known as Nizam Al Dawla, the fifth and last king of Alpuente. Alfonso VI of Castile gave him the permanent and hereditary lordship of all the lands that the Saracens could conquer in eastern Spain. He gave Abdallah a tribute of 10,000 dinars and remained in the village for a long time, until he returned to his camp in Requena. When the Cid died, the territory was controlled by the Almoravids and then the Almohads. It was then ruled by Zayd Abu Zayd from Valencia, being one of the strongholds that remained loyal when he lost power in the capital.
Towards 1236, Zayd Abu Zayd ceded control of the fortress to King Jaime I; The latter declared it a royal villa and replaced the Muslim inhabitants with Christians, declaring 365 square kilometers of jurisdiction. It would then depend on the Diocese of Segorbe. The administrative importance of this place and the fact that it was close to an accessible passage between the kingdoms of Aragon and Valencia determined that in the years 1319 and 1383, the courts of the Kingdom of Valencia would gathered there.
During the First Carlist War, it was one of the main strongholds of the army commanded by Ramon Cabrera, the dreaded “Tiger of the Maestrazgo” leader. It would be one of the last places to fall into the hands of the government on May 2, 1840, after a week of bombing. Practically all of the castle was turned into rubble. A few weeks later, the war would end.
In 1938, it would again be at the front of a war, with fights between the Republicans and supporters of Franco. Wineries and and tourism are now the main income sources for the economy.