The Island of Tabarca is the only inhabited island in the Valencian Community and is located in front of the city of Alicante and near the Cape of Santa Pola.The waters of Tabarca are marine reserve of the Mediterranean for its excellent quality and the biodiversity of its flora and fauna. The typical visit duration is usually one day. There are multiple departures, with more or less regularity depending on the season, from the port of Alicante on a comfortable seafront of approximately one hour. It can also be accessed from Santa Pola, or Benidorm. Once on the island, visitors can enjoy coves and beaches with transparent waters and a picturesque seaport, with an excellent offer of restaurants, with the possibility of tasting the traditional ""caldero Tabarquino"" (cauldron), the typical dish of the island. It is recommended to walk through the urban nucleus and visit the island's museum. The visitor can stay on the island itself due to the opening of accommodation establishments over the past few years.
This beautiful town surprises even before reaching it. One of the most photographed panoramas by tourists is usually the view of its old town located on a hill, which can be seen just past La Nucia, since they are only 2 kilometers from both towns. The architecture of its historical nucleus is clearly of Moorish style and its situation, formerly with strategic aims, is currently a tourist attraction for the spectacular views with the bell tower of its church as protagonist. Its origins go back to the Iberian era. His castle, located on the highest point of the hill, has been a strategic military enclave for all the cultures that have passed through it.
The first thing that draws the attention of Torrevieja is its surroundings, which include two salty lagoons, one pink and one green, which make up the Natural Park of Lagunas de La Mata and Torrevieja. Between the two they occupy a total of 3,700 Has., No less than 52% of the local territory, and collect a huge biological wealth recognized both nationally and internationally. For this reason, we must speak from the beginning of a singular tourist municipality, where the environment stands as an important tourist asset. The origin of Torrevieja is no less curious. Everything begins with the fishing activity, back in the 18th century, when the fishermen and sailors began to use the Torrevieja coast to take refuge in the days of "bad sea". From that time, at that time, people began to welcome sailors from different origins, especially Neapolitan and Genoese emigrants, something that is easy to see in Torrevieja, where Italian surnames like Parodi, Zechini, Boracino, Fortepiani stand out. , etc. By the way, do you know why Torrevieja is called Torrevieja? To speak of this city is to speak fundamentally of two things: salt and sea. Salt first, because it is the true origin of this town. Since ancient times, the torrevejense space has been a favorable place for the exploitation of the salt generated in the Torrevieja Lagoon, which led to the administration of Royal Salinas, located in the nearby hamlet, in Torrevieja in 1803. of La Mata. This has been the true origin of the city, by allowing population fixation. This is how the torrevejenses began to develop a town whose name comes from the old watchtower, or Old, located in the Eras de la Sal, the old salt jetty. It is in these moments when different activities are developed, among which will be highlighted the maritime trade of salt with destination in various ports of the Caribbean. This precious mineral was exchanged for exotic products such as sugar cane, mahogany wood, etc. As a result of those round trips, the habanera was born, the torrevejense song par excellence, which the sailors adapted as a way of expressing the experiences they had during their long journeys.
Years of Iberian, Roman, Arab and Christian history have shaped the character of this town called Benisa (en valenciano, Benissa). If we go back millennia, different discoveries suggest the development of certain prehistoric activity of Benissa: the discovery of small cave paintings as well as coins, amphoras, etc., also indicates the passage of the Romans for our lands. However, the origin of the place name that gives its name to our population, Benissa (Banu-Issa), is considered Arab. Also today, most of the rural parties of the term retain their Arabic name. This confirms the historical thesis that indicates the existence of an important nucleus of Arab population when Jaume I the Conqueror arrives in 1.248 to Benissa. After the expulsion of the Moors (1609), our geography was repopulated by people from the Pyrenees, Catalonia and Aragon. From this period date the walls that surrounded the town, whose remains are still small vestiges. To visit Benissa is also to know it through its flavors and smells. The gastronomy of the Valencian cuisine is offered here reinforced through original and tasty dishes, of species, products of sea and countryside, and a special mime that makes the dish at the table a delicacy.
In the North of Alicante, in the beautiful Natural Park of the Sierra Mariola, its famous pilgrimage sanctuary has in its environment some unique hydraulic works of the Muslim period, as well as some unique medieval festivals. It is a perfect isolated place to rest and active tourism in the park. Stoneware belongs in the Comtat region. It is located north of Sierra Mariola, and the province of Alicante, its term borders the towns of Bocairente, Alfafara, Ontinyent, Agullent, Muro and Cocentaina. Agres is located at a height above sea level of 722 meters and its population is about 650 inhabitants. The population of Agres is traditionally dedicated to cultivation and for a few years especially to tourism, especially to the hospitality industry. View of Agres from MariolaThe town of Agres is located approximately in the center of its term, and is located within the Sierra Mariola and therefore within the Natural Park of Mariola, it can be said that Agres is the most natural access and more known to this natural park and this mountain range. Likewise, its urban area has an elongated and sloping shape, due to the situation of the town that is in the foothills of the sierra. Its etymology can come from the Latin "Àger" field or from "agger", which means height or elevation. The term of Agres was inhabited by man from the most remote times. The archaeological sites of the Beneito Cave, the Solana, Carbonell, the Covacha El Emparetà, the Moro cave, the Pilares cave, the Muela de Agres, the Pico de la Águila, the Cabeço de Mariola and the Covalta, have been discovered remains of Paleolithic man, 40,000 to 30,000 years before Christ and the Neolithic, 500 years before Christ. The year 76 BC, coinciding with the time of the Roman Emperor, Cesar Augusto, confirms the presence of the Romans in these lands, an example of the romanization of the Valleta de Agres is the archaeological site of Cabeço de Mariola, in which They have found various Romanesque ceramics, as well as coins from the 1st century.
Perched on a rocky canvas that serves as shelter and defense we find one of the most visited municipalities in Spain reflecting its scenic, historical, cultural and urbanistic peculiarities. History: The Castell de Guadalest, already existing in the Muslim era, after the Christian conquest (13th century), retained an abundant Islamic population under the lordship of different Catalan-Aragonese nobles. King Jaime II donated the Castle of Guadalest to Bernardo de Sarrià in 1293 and here begins a period of 42 years, during which the castle and the whole region belong to the Sarrià family. In 1335, the Castle goes to the Crown, who sells it to the Infante D. Pedro and from this he passes his son, the first Royal Duke of Gandía and the death of the last Royal Duke of Gandía, to the Cardona family. The kings Dª Juana and Don Carlos, granted to D. Sancho de Cardona for himself and his successors perpetually the title of Marquesses de Guadalest in 1543. The Cardona possessed titles, among them the dukedom of Cardona and the Admiralty of Aragon. D. Sancho de Cardona marries María de Colón y Toledo, granddaughter of the discoverer of America. The last Cardona, Marqués de Guadalest, died without descendants in 1699 and this provoked a series of problems that ended when the marquisate fell on the person of the Marquis of Ariza; The marquisate continues and its power declines in the 19th century. During the Cardona era, there is another family that acquires great relevance, it is the Orduña family. The linking of the Orduña to El Castell de Guadalest dates from the 16th century, they were perpetual alcaides from 1669 and reached nobility in 1756, upon joining the Order of Santiago, Pedro Antonio Buenaventura de Orduña y García. In the nineteenth century, with the suppression of the manors, the Orduña acquire power and influence over the inhabitants of the valley and also over the Marina region, as its members hold the positions of President of the Diputación de Alicante, civil governors, deputies and senators in the Spanish courts. D. Carlos María de Orduña y Ciscar was the patriarch of a large family. His political ambitions were inherited by D. Joaquín de Orduña and Feliu and since he had no offspring, it was his brother-in-law D. José Atanasio de Torres Ibars de Povil and his son D. Antonio Torres de Orduña who continued a political career outside the limits from the valley. D. Joaquín was Civil Governor of Alicante and D. Antonio deputy. In 1934 the last Orduña dies, D. Carlos Torres de Orduña, without descendants, passing his possessions to collateral branches. While these two families became part of the history of El Castell de Guadalest, other unique events changed the face of the municipality. In 1609, the Moriscos, the majority population of the valley, were expelled, creating a large demographic vacuum that was attempted to be filled with the Puebla Charter of 1611. On June 22, 1644, there was an earthquake that destroyed the Castle and in December of the same year, another earthquake of great intensity was repeated. In 1748 and in 1752, new earthquakes take place, but less important than the previous ones. During the War of Succession, in 1708, the Castle of San José suffers a blast that will seriously affect its west wing and the Orduña House is burned down. The Bourbon army, victor in the battle of Almansa advanced to Valencia, assaulted and destroyed Játiva and a part of it reached Alcoy and El Castell de Guadalest. The Austrians killed the Bourbon defenders, but in the end they had to leave the municipality. Already in the twentieth century, El Castell de Guadalest undergoes a series of important changes: In 1953, the construction of the reservoir that will be completed in 1971 begins. Tourism begins to discover the charm of El Castell de Guadalest. In 1974, El Castell de Guadalest was declared a historical - artistic complex. The Walled Enclosure is subject to the decree of Generic Protection of the Spanish Castles of April 22, 1949. In 1980, El Castell de Guadalest receives the Bronze Badge for Tourist Merit and in 1981, the Third Prize of the National Tourism to the Beautification and Improvement of the towns of Spain. In 1994, the municipal purchase of Casa Orduña was agreed upon and it was rehabilitated to be transformed into a Municipal Museum. The law 13/1985, of June 25 of Spanish Historical Heritage and the law 4/1998 of June 11 of the Generalitat Valenciana, of the Valencian Cultural Heritage, establish that the regime applicable to the singular elements of the whole of El Castell de Guadalest It is the property of the Cultural Interest. (BIC). In 2015, after overcoming a series of audits, the municipality is part of "The most beautiful villages in Spain" and in 2016 it enters the Federation of the most beautiful villages in the world.
It is located northeast of the region of the Marina Alta, in the pre-coastal depression north of the Valencian pre-Hispanic. The foothills of the Sierra de Segaria, in the north of the area, are the only elevations of its territory, otherwise quite flat. It crosses the ravine of the Fusta and the rivers Verde and Girona that begins to build its delta downstream of the town. The main urban nucleus is 4 km away. of the Mediterranean coast on the banks of the river Girona. Its municipal area (without access to the coast) is practically flat, with the exception of the Sierra de Segaria (370 m.), Located in the northwest part of the municipality. Its municipal term limits with those of Beniarbeig, Benimeli, Denia, Pedreguer and Vergel. It has a typically Mediterranean climate, with mild winters and hot summers, with an average annual temperature of 18 ° C. The first vestiges of human settlements near Ondara are located in the caves of Colom and Corb (paleolithic medium) and cave Fosca (eneolítico) in the Sierra de Segaria, and on top of it, with an Iberian settlement. On the different theories that would explain the ONDARA place-name, it seems that Professor Manuel Sanchís Guarner's is the most rigorous. According to him, it would come from ONDAR, an Iberian word meaning sand. Special interest, due to its proximity to the current urban area and linked to the arrival of Roman settlers in Dénia, the appearance of several villas, necropolis and Roman ceramics in the games of Pla de la Font, Pujades and Vinyals, where they have recovered many vestiges. Both the town (called then Ondia) and its castle are of Muslim origin. There is documented evidence that the Cid Campeador temporarily occupied the castle, where he threatened in 1089 the city of Denia, which belonged at that time to the king of Lleida of the Al Mundir al-Hayib dynasty. Later, it was attacked by Alfonso I the Battler in the course of his military expedition through Andalusia in 1125. However, it is King Jaime I of Aragon who entered the place on June 6, 1244 and annexed it to the Kingdom of Valencia. During this time, the town belonged, sometimes to the kings, others to different particular gentlemen, like Berenguer de Pablo, Pedro Episcopal, etc. In the year 1323, King Jaime II gave his son Pedro, Infante de Aragón, population and term. At the beginning of the XVI century, Ondara will be the scene of some warlike passages of the war of the Germanías (1520-1523). There were Vicente Peris, leader of the agermanado movement, and the Marquis de Zenete, brother of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, viceroy of Valencia, on the other side. The population remained predominantly of Islamic religion until the expulsion of the Moors in 1609, after which the population increased from 1,000 to 200 inhabitants. New settlers from other places in the region and the Balearic Islands then came to fill the demographic vacuum produced. The seventeenth century will be a period of slow demographic and economic recovery, with some outbreaks of bubonic plague, until the War of Succession, where his active participation in favor of the Archduke Charles of Austria, it was, after the defeat, a revenge by the Bourbon troops. Ondara was burned and looted. The cultivation of the raisin was the engine of the urban growth of the 19th century, which was interrupted by the epidemic of phylloxera at the beginning of the 20th century; this ended the local economy and condemned the waverenses to emigration, especially to Argentina and the French Algeria. Monuments and Places of Interest Clock tower. It is the only tower that remains standing of the four that counted the old Muslim castle of Ondara. It houses the town clock, with an impressive mechanism from the beginning of the century and an artistic bell tower. Town hall. The building, erected in the first half of the seventeenth century by the Franciscans minimum on a plot given by the Marquis of Guadalest, is square, with a central cloister, and is the convent, properly speaking, or house of the friars. Convent. It is a building that dates from the seventeenth century, of an undefined and simple style. Historically referred to as Convent of the Immaculate Conception, in reality it is the church of the adjoining convent, today City Hall. At present it keeps the image of the Virgin of the Solitude, employer of Ondara. It was founded by the order of the minimum Franciscans, who occupied it until the disentailment, in the middle of the 19th century. Parochial Church. It is the headquarters of the Parish of Santa Ana. Building built in the second half of the 16th century, it has been recently rehabilitated. It does not have a defined style. Bullring. It was built between the end of the last century and the beginning of the current one with some elements of arabesque style and with a solid structure of masonry and mortar. Inaugurated on October 28, 1901, it was almost completely destroyed in the Spanish Civil War and rebuilt in 1957. The Azud. It is a small stone dam, of Muslim origin. Cool place in summer thanks to the elms that cross the edge of the ravine, and leisure for the little ones. It has been repopulated with birds such as ducks, geese and geese, although currently they are not seen often. Public Park Segaria. Municipal recreational area of 94,000 m² located in the Sierra de Segaria. Built with European funds in 1996, it has the essential elements to spend an ideal day outdoors. Access is through a rural road, to the right of the local road from Puente del Vergel to Beniarbeig. Parties: Festivities. The second weekend of July is celebrated in honor of the Virgen de la Soledad. It is the most important religious festival of the town and of great renown in the region. Saint James They are popular festivals and the most participatory. They are organized by the City Council. The main acts are the bull entrances, from the Calle Mayor to the Plaza de Toros, and the bull bolted. Currently most activities are oriented around the rocks and quintadas, organized in gambling dens.
Calpe is an invitation for your senses. Awake. You start a new day. Forget about time. You are submerged in the Mediterranean. The blue of the water. Sun. The sand on your feet. Breathe Calpe smells of salt. Travel through our streets They are routes of fishermen who have our stories. Find our natural space. Calpe is a haven for your trip. The Rock of Ifach guards our cultures. Discover their paths Find your treasures. There is silence. The earth tells its legends. The lost voices of the Rock demand our attention. You are already part of our history. Make our legacy your best trip. How long have you not had everything? In Calpe you can observe the footprint of the passage of different civilizations while you travel its typical seafaring streets with frescoes. The tradition is combined with creativity in a unique environment where monuments and museums keep great treasures to discover. The monuments will be scattered throughout the municipality, as is the case of the hermitage of San Juan, the "Baños de la Reina", the "Villa de Ifach", etc. However, you can visit the different museums during the old town tour.
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