This church in honor of St. Lawrence Martyr Romanesque style dating from the sixteenth century, one of the oldest in Alicante. It is one of the oldest and best-kept town architectural elements. It is located in the center of the urban core , and the side of the building, the Plaza de José Pico, which houses the Town Hall building is configured. The church was built before 1596, in two or three distinct phases, and involved several architects. It is rectangular, with aisles between the buttresses. Inside two domes appear; the lower, circular plant develops on scallops and drum, reaching one arm of the transept, in the chapel of the Communion. On the cruise is the largest dome, also settled on scallops and drum. In 1816 it suffered a fire and was restored the central dome. Finally, the right aisle and chapel of the communion, was neoclassical. At the top, there was an organ that was installed by Fermín Usarralde. The main facade , built a factory not decayed stones, is solved by a desornamentado plane on which stand two elements . On the one hand the cover , executed blocks where the access opening is framed between two pillars that support an entablamento. This one templaria composition develops two pillars giving rise to a new entablamento, this time holding a triangular front. Another unique feature is the tower , a square, topped with a hip roof and has holes that make a slightly arc shape horseshoe.
It is installed in a stately building built in 1857. It has the uniqueness of having some curious arcades in the ground with a corridor that serves the small square "dels Portxins".
This baker’s attests to the importance of bread as a staple in the time when it was constructed. It is of Arab origin and medieval characteristics documented as far back as the beginning of the 16th century. It is said to be one of the oldest in all of the Valencian Community and is a true architectural gem. Nowadays it is still fully functioning. It is well-known for its typical Jijona buns such as tonyetes (almond, flour and cinnamon), doblades which are only made for All Saints’ Day, cupcakes (madalenas) and tortadas (almond tortes) as well as a long list of other puddings and sweet dishes. The local bakers and confectioners make buns, sweets and other delicacies for all the visitors who would like to try the traditional Jijona confectionary.
The ancestral home of the Rovira family (17th & 18th Centuries). The family crest is to be found on the façade on the top floor. The crown was removed from this crest during the Second Republic. The Rovira family originally procedes from Catalonia and came to the Kingdom of Valencia towards the end of the 12th century. There are records of this family in Xixona going back to 1421. Throughout modern times family members have been leaders in local civic life. However, some of the more exalted members of the family moved to the neighbouring town of Alicante. With the passing of time some of those in the family who resided in Xixona adapted to the changing times and became active in the growing cottage industry, turrón (nougat) making. At the end of the 19th century several companies had been created and were destined to play a major role in the economy of the town at the beginning of the twentieth century.
At the entrance to the Parque de L´Aigüera a very different monument greets visitors: The new Town Hall, colloquially known as the ‘floorscraper’. The unique structure has aroused the interest of many architects and a lot of people come to visit it. The building is like a bridge which acts as a doorway to the green zone ‘L´Aigüera’ park. It juts out horizontally and you can walk underneath it. This 'horizontal skyscraper' is supported by four pillars. The glass façade is covered with thick slats with the names and surnames of the over 60,000 inhabitants of Benidorm from the year when its construction was finished.
The Portalet is the name that is known to the door that leads to the square of the Church from its back side. Constitutes the second entrance of the square, besides the Church-street. This door was one of the entrances to the walled core upon which was built the first village, surrounding the Church.This space was in medieval times a walled enclosure conformed by slopes of the highest ground, the walls of the temple and the back of the houses. Walking from the square through the Portalet, it becomes a beautiful viewpoint seeing the Montgó, the Cape of Sant Antoni, the Bay of Xàbia and the hills that rise to the Puig Llorença.
The auditorium was designed by Francisco Mangado and is a contemporary-style building. It was officially opened in 2011. This sleek building has concrete walls with a south-facing façade that overlooks the sea and is faced with blue ceramic tile. The Auditorium stands at the highest spot in Teulada and affords views over Moraira town centre on the coast and a stunning landscape of terraced vineyards. It hosts an extensive variety of different cultural events throughout the year.
The remodeling of the Windmill to provide it with all the necessary mechanisms for its perfect operation, is a unique opportunity to know one of the most characteristic buildings of the Spanish East, since most of them are in a ruinous state. Its traditional façade and the natural environment that frames it, on a small hill, form a unique picture that makes the visitor go back to the days when their blades turned with the wind to grind the grain and obtain the flour that supplied the whole town.
Moraira Castle was built in the 18th century both for defensive purposes and as a lookout tower. It stands at the end of the l'Ampolla beach. It is a traditional "ox bow", shape and has a semi-circular south-facing façade. There is a Bourbon emblem over the entrance, consisting of the date on which it was finished 1742. In the past there was a moat and drawbridge which protected the occupants of the tower. The sloping walls are ten metres high and are made of stone, faced with tosca stone slabs hewn from the fossilised dunes that surround it. The roof is protected by a small wall, with seven openings that form battlements where the cannons were positioned. There are thick dividing walls that separating the inside of the building into a central nave with two smaller rooms to the side. The inside measures 200 square metres. It is lit by three small windows that look south, with a fourth window over the entrance door. There is a small chapel opposite the door to the fortress and a small cistern a few metres to the east. This is from the same period and was used to store water for consumption by the occupants of the tower. There is a themed installation inside explaining the watchtowers of the Valencian coastline.
The bay of Calpe with the vigilant rock of Ifach has been a landscape admired and appreciated by the different cultures that have been part of this land since ancient times. The Roman site of Baños de la Reina in Calpe is an exceptional coastal enclave. Located in front of a bay with calm waters and sheltered by the Peñón de Ifach, it still submerges its rocky arms in the crystalline waters of Mare Nostrum today. The sea and salt were the basis and the sustenance of the ancient Roman colonists, giving rise to fluid commercial exchanges that there is evidence of. This activity produced a small population who built their houses on the coastal dunes, resulting in selective and diversified urban planning. After the passage of time and centuries of neglect, the popular imagination inherited the ancient legacy, identifying the pools as the “baths of the Moorish queen”, which is how the site got its name. The existence of some drainage passages, now closed, adds to the myth: these were the tunnels that reached a mysterious palace which the “Moorish queen” used to get to her coastal bath. This popular belief is also an important part of the cultural heritage of the site. The Baños de la Reina site consists of three parts: 1. Roman Vicus The Roman site of Baños de la Reina is a coastal enclave that is known for its magnificent architectural design and its mosaics, one of the most important collections of its kind in all of Roman Hispania. Although only 25% of its surface has been excavated so far, it is enough to discern the magnitude of this Roman villae fitted with all kinds of luxuries 2,000 years ago. The pools carved out of the coastal rock, used to supply fresh fish, led to the name of the enclave which is still used today. During the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, they constructed the first homes, a small thermal complex known as the “Muntanyeta thermal baths”, and an industrial area which features the construction of a unique waterwheel carved out of the rock that supplied drinking water for the area. At the end of the 3rd century AD, a luxurious villae with a circular patio was constructed, fitted with an extraordinary private thermal complex. Finally, it is during the 5th and 6th century when traces of conversion to Christianity appear in this key navegation point with the construction of a modest church with a baptistry with a Greek cross and an adjacent cemetery. 2. Muntanyeta Thermal Complex As a result of the remodeling of the coastal breakwater in 1993, the remains of this small 500 m2 thermal complex, known as the “Muntanyeta thermal baths”, were uncovered. Among the discoveries documented during its excavation, various pools had survived, as well as a natatio with cold water (frigidarium), which was accessed using three steps. Next to this were various ovens responsible for maintaining the appropriate temperatures in the hot rooms (caldarium) and warm rooms (tepidarium). The heating system developed by Roman engineers used hollow floors elevated by columns of bricks (pilae) and walls with air chambers made from ceramic tubes (tubuli) that facilitated the circulation of heat through the different rooms and kept them heated. Joining these areas was a room with a floor formed by spikes (opus spicatum), as well as other complementary spaces intended for recreation, which were richly decorated with grey marble plates from Algeria. 3. The Roman Fish Farms of Baños de la Reina The existence of large basins in the sea, carved into sandstone known as “pedra tosca”, and popularly known as the “baths of the Moorish queen”, led to the naming of the entire archaeological site. The complex, carved from the same coast, consists of a large rectangular tank with an area of 165 m2. Its interior was subdivided by natural stone walls, creating six pools with an opening in each one to connect them. Sea water entered through four canals, also carved from the rock, which allowed the free flow of water to all of the pools. These canals were covered with perforated gates, which allowed water to flow while preventing blockages and the escape of the fish inside. While these fish farms or piscinae are associated with the farming of live fish, we cannot rule out its possible use as an aquatic garden in order to observe marine beauty, just like other Roman villae in the Tyrrhenian Sea, where these facilities, which were expensive to build and costly to maintain, represented the power and social prestige of their owner.
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