Today, it is a parish church, whose origins – in the absence of complete excavations that determined its greatest antiquity – date back to the first centuries of Islam.
Dominating the natural exit, through the gorge formed by the Pop or Jalón river from Castell de Castells and Benichembla, its strategic location was an obligatory step for communications between the regions of L’Alcoià and La Marina. Pop was very possibly rebuilt by the Cid Campeador in his rambles through these lands, according to the Gesta Roderici Campidoti, who spent Easter 1090 together with the Christian community that exists here. Señorío de los Martorell, until its exchange with the Señorío de Xaló, later became the property of the Dukes of Gandía and Counts of Oliva. In the 16th century, piracy and attacks by the Barbarroja corsairs, who set the parish temple on fire, determined the Dukes of Gandía to give up the castle to enable it as a parish church, which greatly modified its old appearance.
The recent works in the temple allowed to bring to light some of the elements of this old fortification (receptacle of the counterweight of the drawbridge of its main access, well for the collection of water from the source located on the foot of Mount del Caballo Verde, pits family and common people inside the temple …). The fall of the bell tower, on May 1, 1990, located on one of the two twin towers of the castle, made it possible to rebuild it and return the monument to its original appearance.
