Alicante's City Hall and its square are located in the neighborhood of Santa Cruz. It is an emblematic 18th century baroque palace and a unique building with towers and divided into three floors. The ground floor has five openings, where the central, larger, is the main access. On the main floor the balconies have double windows, except in the towers where there is only one window, all of them topped by curved split pediments. The last floor maintains the same disposition as the previous one in terms of openings, although it has individual balconies. The facade is finished with a balustrade, behind it you can see the dome that covers the inner staircase. Inside the building, the Blue Room stands out, with portraits of all former Alicante mayors. At the foot of its staircase you can find the Cota Cero, a point of reference throughout the country to measure height above sea level.

It is located on Mount Benacantil, rocky mass of 166 m. of altitude bordering the sea, which gave it a paramount strategic value as you can see the entire bay of Alicante and its surroundings. This rock was given the name Banu-lQatil by the Muslim geographer Al-Idrisi (s.XII), there are historians who date the origin of its name in the words ""bena"", transcription to the Arabic of ""pinna"", rock in Latin, and from ""laqanti"", adjective that comes from ""Laqant"", Alicante's name for the Arabs. Archaeological remains from the Bronze Age, Iberian and Roman times have been found on its slopes, although the origin of the current fortress has to be sought at the end of the 9th century, during the Muslim domination. This castle acquires the name of Santa Bárbara because on the day of its feast, December 4, 1248, the infante Alfonso de Castilla, future king Alfonso X ""el Sabio"" (the Wise), took it from the Arabs. In 1296, Jaime II, who ordered its remodeling, took possession of the entire site and the crown of Aragón. Almost a century later, Pedro IV the Ceremonious ordered the enclosure to be rectified and King Carlos I ordered its fortification at the beginning of the XVI century. Until the reign of Felipe II, the great reform of the castle did not take place, with the construction of the rooms that we can still contemplate nowadays. The works lasted from 1562 to 1580, according to projects of Juan Bautista Antonelli and Jorge Palearo ""El Fratín"". The bombings that Alicante suffered in 1691 by the French squadron and the war actions carried out against the castle during the period 1706-1709, during the ""War of Succession"", when it was in the hands of the English, seriously affected the whole site. It suffered the last military action in 1873 when the armored frigate ""Numancia"", led by cantonalist rebels from Cartagena, launched its projectiles to the town and its castle, which would be dismantled twenty years later. Until 1963, when it was opened to the public, it was in a situation of abandonment. It was in that year when the two lifts were inaugurated, going up inside the mountain 142.70 meters and which can be accessed by a tunnel of 204.83 m. of length that is located in the Avenue of Jovellanos, in front of the beach of the Postiguet. This castle is divided into three well-differentiated enclosures: The first of them is the tallest, it is known as ""La Torreta"" (The Tower), since the old Homage Tower is in it, and it has the oldest vestiges of the whole fortress, some foundations from the 11th to the 13th centuries. We can contemplate, among others, the so-called ""Baluarte de los Ingleses"", as well as other dependencies: Parque de Ingenieros, Sala Noble, which was a hospital, the Governor's House, etc. The highest esplanade is known as ""Macho del Castillo"" and there was the old citadel. The intermediate enclosure corresponds to the most important dependencies concluded in 1580: Felipe II Hall, former Troop Corps in front of the wide ""Patio de Armas"", behind which are the ruins of the hermitage of Santa Bárbara, Guard Corps, Baluarte de la Reina, etc. The third and lower part was built on the 18th century, the ""Revellín del Bon Repós"", which is currently car park and where the monument to the illustrious military man from Alicante, Felix Berenguer de Marquina, who was captain general of the Philippines and viceroy of New Mexico, is located. The large white marble shield (18th century) on the access door to the second enclosure was in the Royal Consulate of the Sea, a building destroyed by an explosion.

In order to store and maintain the snow for the production and commercialization of ice, used for various purposes (therapeutic, culinary, preservatives, etc.), during the seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, many deposits were built in Spain, called "neveros" or snow pits. The Gran cava is one of them. The description of the property extracted from the public property deed says:   "Rustic. Covered and paved well called the "Nevera Grande" (big fridge), with the right to collect snow (to fill it) in an area of ​​land of over one hundred days, equivalent to forty-nine hectares, eighty-six areas and fifty-six hectares, located on the Mountain range of Mariola, term of the town of Agres, departure of Cova Grande. Linda everywhere with inheritance lands from which it comes. "   A hundred years ago, with the revolution that in the ice industry was assuming the artificial production of cold, the snow deposits fell into disuse and were abandoned. The Cava Gran stopped being used and its owner agreed to the dismantling of its roof for the recycling of certain construction materials. We know that bricks, tiles, ashlars and wooden structural elements, coming from the cellar, were reused in repairs of the convent of Franciscans, on the roof of the Sanctuary of Agres and in a house in the town (Vicedo Martínez and Ramírez Gosálvez, 2004) . After the dismantling of the tile roof, the magnificent arched structure that supported it was exposed, and the Cava Gran was acquired by the other name by which it is known, Cava Arquejada. This fact, the dismantling of the roof, also favored the installation of plant species on the construction remains of the nevero, among which include an invasive colonization of ivies, highly destructive to building materials, and the presence of a specimen of Yew rooted in the bottom of the glass of the nevero, next to the shade side. Photography has given us invaluable information in recent times, because through a snapshot taken possibly in the 1920s, we can know exactly how the Gran de Agres cava was covered. This image, today the oldest preserved of the Cava Gran, we can find it displayed in the Library Room of the MARQ during the period that the exhibition is maintained thanks to the temporary cession of its owner, family of Pascual Revert. La Cava Gran is a protected cultural asset. It is classified as a Property of Local Relevance by the Fifth Additional Provision of Law 5/2007, of February 9, of the Generalitat Valenciana. The Cava Gran was built for the storage and conservation of snow. It was configured as a covered well, partially excavated in the rock and embedded in a slope of the summits of the Sierra de Mariola with slope to the southeast. The reservoir tank has an inverted frustoconical volume, with a circular section in the interior and a hexagonal façade on the upper part. The structure of its roof is a pointed ribbed vault, formed by six semi-arches of ashlar masonry. It is topped by a pinnacle of more than three tons of weight. Acquired by the Provincial Delegation of Alicante in December 2008 for the amount of € 152,000, since 2010 various works have been developed for its value. Restoration and musealization works are currently underway, planned and directed by the Department of Architecture of the Provincial Council, whose completion is expected in the month of July 2015.

Almudaina is located at 587 metres above sea level in the mountainous area of El Comtat, inland of Alicante. Visitors who come to this tranquil and pleasant place can now discover the historic Almudaina tower. It is a sign of the town’s identity, and was described as rough and square, by Gabriel Miró in his novel Las cerezas del cementerio (Cementery cherries) (1910). Built in the Medieval Islamic period, the towe formed part of the fortified stronghold (the cortig) of a small hamlet. The settlement was known from then on as `al-Mudayyina’: the citadel, from which today’s name Almudaina comes from. Restoration work carried out on the tower and its surroundings has uncovered a number of marks on the walls. These are evidence of the curious technique used in the tower’s construction and the sequences of changes that it went through in its 800 years of history. Entering through the threshold of the tower’s small doorway, visitors are able to explore inside the fortification. Here, display panels submerge visitors in the history of the tower and of Almudaina. Along with the tower, Gabriel Miró Posuna* has a great deal to offer travellers. *Posuna is the literary name of Almudaina.

Illeta dels Banyets is one of the most known and earliest excavated archaeological sites of Alicante. Call and ask for guided tours. It is located in the municipality of Campello, about 9 kilometres away from the city of Alicante. Illeta del Banyets is an old peninsula, which an uncertain time ago was torn apart from the coast due to an earthquake. As a consequence of this earthquake, the part that kept it to the soil was eroded and destroyed. In 1943, it was linked again to the soil, becoming thus part of the natural finger pier. In order to achieve this, dynamite was used, destroying a large part of the prehistoric necropolis. Currently, Illeta dels Banyets is a narrow and long promontory with a surface of 10,000 square metres, 4,000 square metres of which make up the archaeological site, which reaches its peak point at a height of about 7.8 metres above sea level. In spite of its reduced extension, this site is of great importance due to its huge cultural blend, because it hovers remains of the Bronze Age, prior to those that constitute an Iberian site, where remains of a Roman town can be found. Furthermore, remains of Islamic constructions tell us about a temporary occupation during the Medieval Ages. All these proves that Illeta dels Banyets was an important commercial port, from which it was possible to dominate the maritime ways as well as those ways which permitted to penetrate into the interior. The first evidences that prove an occupation go back to Prehistory, more precisely by the end of the Neolithic, during which the inhabitants lived in oval shaped cottages, which some have remained until our days. Subsequently, during the Bronze Age, two large underground tanks partly excavated in the rocks, around which entombments and housing structures were built. Inside the tombs, metal punches and knives, marble bracelets, knobs and buttons and some ceramic glasses have been found. The following level is the Iberian Age, which reaches from the 4th century to part of the 3rd century B.C., during which a very important township developed. Only a small part of this township has been excavated. On both sides of a street that stretches along the length of the island, the visitor can see: two temples, storage houses and housing estates, some of them of great architectural complexity. Due to these buildings' singularity and their rich variety, this core can be interpreted as an emporium, an important site of commercial exchange. On solid ground, next to the tower dating from the Modern Age, a pottery has been discovered destined to produce Iberian amphorae, where several ovens have been excavated. The highest level is constituted by the Roman Age, dating from between the 1st and the 2nd century. On the foundations of the abandoned Iberian township, a Roman city was built, with annexing thermal baths. Not many remains have been preserved, although it is possible to distinguish the residential area of the owner (pars urbana) and another area related with agricultural activities (pars rustica). A very simple thermal building has been found, which is located in a narrow warehouse. Inside of it, the oven, the hot lounge, the tepidarium and the frigidarium - apodyterium are aligned. The remains of a series of fish bins, which were cut in the rocks and connected to the sea through a number of trap holes date also from this age. The fish bins. One of the most important activities developed in this part of the Roman Empire was the exploitation of the sea resources, and more specifically the fish preserving and stock ponds. Several fish preserving facilities are known in the province, the most important is the one located in Portus Ilicitanus. The fish bins that still are preserved on La Illeta dels Banyets, have suffered much erosion by the sea. They are constituted by four pools, which are connected to each other. The dimension of the largest is 8.7 x 3.10 metres and seawater pours in through two channels located on each side. The other three pools, smaller that the first one, are aligned at right angle to the largest. They are connected to each other by vertical slots, which are cut in the rock. This mechanism was simultaneously used to facilitate the opening and locking of the gates.

El Tossal de Manises is the site of the Roman town of Lucentum, the ancient city of Alicante. It is located on top of a hill (tossal) near to the coast and at a height of 38 metres above sea level. It is in the La Albufereta area of Alicante, about 3.5 kilometres from the modern day city centre. The entire urban area of Lucentum (around 25,000 m²) has survived today and is surrounded by a perimeter wall, some 600 metres long. Since 1961 the site has been declared a Monument of Historic and Artistic Importance. The origins of the site date back to the end of the 5th or beginnings of the 4th century BC, although little of this early occupation is actually known. However, at the end of the 3rd century BC significant changes occurred to the site. Fortifications were built which completely surrounded the site with towers and in some stretches, an antemural. This fortification would change the nature of the settlement site forever, and would determine its physical characteristics and extent of later building work and the Roman town. This first urban phase was destroyed around 200 BC and el Tossal went through a long period of abandonment and decline. This began to change at the end of the 3rd century BC which is indicated by the evidence of a new period of construction in which the town walls were rebuilt. From the middle of the 1st century BC important building works were begun, during which time the entire urban street plan was restructured. During the rule of Augustus, the first Roman Emperor, the town acquired the status of municipium which meant that it governed itself and had its own magistrates and institutions of a clearly Roman nature. This is when the name of Lucentum is first recorded epigraphically and historically. At the end of the 1st century BC and throughout the 1st century AD the town enjoyed a prosperous period which is represented by various building works. These included the forum, two public bath houses, a new port, the sewage system, at least one temple, and the extension of the urban area outside the town walls. At the end of the 1st century AD the first signs of decline appeared. This was the beginning of a period which would culminate with the abandonment and disappearance of the town in the 3rd century AD. After a period of various and sporadic use during which the site was used as a source for building materials, the area was once again occupied. Between the 8th and 10th centuries AD the site became a maqbara or cemetery, defined by Islamic funerary rites.

The Carbonell House was built in 1925. The Alicante architect J. Vidal designed what symbolizes the architecture of his first epoch in one of the greatest constructions of the beginning of the 20th century bourgeoisie. The building occupies a complete block, overlooking the sea and has a facade with a sublime quality. All thanks to an urban reorganization that was possible because the city market moved to a different place. It is built in front of the Caa Lamagniere building that Vidal himself designed in the previous decade. The distribution of Casa Carbonell is divided into two double cores of stairs that serve two houses per floor. These turn to two interior patios that give natural light to the homes described. The main façade is where the living rooms and the bedrooms are located, and the domestic rooms are located at the opposite side of the house. The composition of the main façade is symmetrical and bounded by the viewpoints at the ends, with the advanced bodies of the dining rooms located on the access gates and topped by the domes. The whole is dressed with a large cast of historicist motifs. The noble materials used (sandstone in the socle, marble in the foyer, iron and glass in locksmiths and canopies, or the simulated cover slate) and the eclectic mastery of the formal repertoire, define its image of bourgeois and cosmopolitan architecture. Even today this building captures the attention of those who come to the Explanada (promenade) of Alicante. Enrique Carbonell, who ordered and financed the construction of this building, was one of Alcoy's textile industrialists who were enriched by the First World War, due to the strong demand for textile cloths to standardize the French army. Said industrialist had the intention of spending long periods in the city of Alicante, because this climate was better for his sick daughter. It is said that on one occasion, a mishap during his trip from Alcoy to Alicante made Carbonell arrive very dirty in the capital, so, with the intention of cleaning and staying, he requested a room at the luxurious Hotel Palace. The hotel denied his entrance, because of his appearance, and they say that in revenge for the treatment received, the proud Carbonell had a building built next to the hotel but much more magnificent, eclipsing the image of the hotel that underestimated him. The same year the works were completed, Casa Carbonell was also news because a seaplane from Algiers crashed into the terrace of one of its domes, which sank a floor and cost the lives of the two crewmembers of the aircraft. Currently, this building is still one of the most striking ones in Alicante, and is photographed in a large number of tourist postcards of the city, next to the Explanada, the Port and the Castle of Santa Bárbara.

Mandatory visit in the city of Alicante, the "Mercado Central" (Central Market) is built on a metal and brick structure, with its main facade dominated by a large staircase, framed by two protruding bodies. Both to buy fresh food (meat, fish, fruits, etc.) and to participate in the "tardeo" from Alicante (people in Alicante usually go out during the afternoon, starting in the noon, and having drinks and tapas in different places), it is a place of reference.

This involves a large canal cut and excavated on the local “toscar” sandstone quarry which was used during the Roman age to facilitate the entry of saltwater, to form a saline zone known as the “Saladar” (Salt Marsh). Over the centuries, a waterwheel ("noria") was included, a mechanism with a large vertical wooden wheel that was turned by an animal.

The castle of Petrel is located in a mountainous elevation located in the eastern part of the urban area of ​​the city of Petrel, Alicante, Spain. From here you can see the entire Vinalopó valley. Originally from the late twelfth or early thirteenth century, it is a Muslim castle, probably built on a previous watchtower. It is of polygonal shape, and its factory is masonry with ashlar masonry on the edges of its sides. It is crenelated and its interior is covered by an embankment. The outer wall is formed by two canvases separated by a central tower and cubes at the ends. Its most outstanding element is its large square tower, with two floors and a basement that was a cistern in the Islamic period. Later it would be used as a prison. It also has a large hall, a stage for feudal lord parties, which is currently dedicated to chamber concerts held on the occasion of the Week of the Guitar and the celebration of civil weddings. Its function was eminently strategic and dominated the territory, controlling the passage between the Castilian plateau and the Mediterranean coast. It was taken by the Moriscos during the revolts of 1265; to recover it, king Alfonso X of Castile resorted to the help of Jaime I of Aragon, who soon reconquered it. The reconstruction works were completed in 1982, and new works were undertaken during 2010, currently presenting an impeccable appearance. In its tower of the homage exhibitions are realized and it is Historical-Artistic Set of National Interest from 1983.