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.

This building, a wind-powered flour mill characteristic of the Marina Alta region that dates back to the mid-19th century, is located at the western end of the Baños de la Reina archaeological site. The building has a cylindrical floor plan, which rises above the natural floor. It was constructed from worked natural stone and joined with plenty of lime mortar, forming a thick wall. Its various peculiarities will make this building surprise you.

In 1272, the king James I gave a consent to Guillem Ponç de Vilafranca in order to build a castle or tower on the ‘Peniella’ rock, with a territory between the castles of Alcoy and Penàguila dominions, inside the settlements of Penella and Forminyà. The architectural complex was built on a high point, very precipitous at the north and west sides. The buildings at east and south sides were built on a graded soil, while the tower and rectangular construction, that still stand, were built directly on the rock. The restoration of this monument, started in 2003 and finished in 2006 and has allowed the conservation of one of the rare witnesses of a convulsive and socioeconomical unsettled age.

The hill called of the ‘El Castell’ is located at the highest point of the mountain called ‘Penyeta Blanca’. This location has witnessed several settlements from the Iberian age, the Muslim Rule and the Christian conquest. Evidence from Iberian culture are just several archaeological pieces found on the ground surface. Although, from the Islamic period (11Th, 12Th, 13Th centuries) there remains a wall possibly related to the kind of city wall used to protect people and animals from those dangerous times. The Christian conquest reinforced the importance of this hill as a defensive position. The Muslim ‘Hûsun’ (castle) was converted in an emphatic gothic-military keep in the first years of the 14Th century, under the rule of Roger de Llúria. This building shows a square base, on an irregular surface. Inside, a permanent exhibition about its history is shown. From the same age some wall remains can be seen, on the high side of the hill. These buildings have been interpreted as foundations of other disappeared buildings. In the mid of the 15Th century the Earl of Cocentaina gave orders to build a round tower for accommodate defence and artillery. The raison d’etre of the overall architecture from the 14Th and 15Th centuries, is related with defense and communication with other needs of other fortifications as means to warn the population of enemy invasion,. The rectangular structure with ‘tapial’ walls (mud wall) called ‘Bassa del Moro’ (Moorish pool) located in the far south side, should not be part of the defensive system, as it was related with the irrigation system from the Muslim age.

Tower located on one of the small hills on which sits the town of Monóvar. Of square plant, with four decreasing bodies. Good example of exempt tower, without church, or attached town hall, dedicated exclusively to give the time. It is a type of construction unusual in the southern Valencian lands, but that can be related to the bell-towers exempt from Catalan Gothic. The clock tower was built in the eighteenth century, specifically the year 1734. It is an exempt tower whose construction is intended, by the civil authorities, to clearly indicate the signs of municipal power against those of ecclesiastical power. It should be noted that until the seventeenth century the clock that governed the life of the monoveros was installed in the bell tower of the previous parish church. The uniqueness of the Monóvar clock tower lies in the fact that it is an exempt tower whose sole purpose is to house the clock of the city and its bells. According to notarial document dated May 12, 1734, the tower was made in the place occupied by the zamoha, Castilianized voice of the Arabic "sauum'a" which means climbing and also serves to name the minaret. This is not strange if one takes into account the strong core of the Islamic population that existed in Monóvar until 1609, together with the conservation of the place name "zamoha" until well into the 18th century. All this leads one to suppose that the tower was probably erected on the same site where the minaret was raised. Being a place where the natural elevation of the land favors the distribution of sound in a larger area. The tower was completed in October 1734 and its total cost was 329 pounds. The same document contributes the author of the work: Manuel Terol, Alicante master stonemason member of the most important dynasty of stonemasons of the eighteenth century in our land. The clock tower is 18 meters high. It is square and consists of four bodies, decreasing in size as they rise. It is masonry except for the entry and start, where several courses of stone ashlars were placed. In the second body the sundial is arranged and, above, the mechanic. The last two bodies, pierced by arches, house the bells. In that area the angles are chamfered and reinforced with small buttresses. A simple decoration with balls, old scurialense roots, appears in the last body, which ends with the characteristic dome blue glazed tile and a weather vane.

Public fountains, found in the streets or squares of many towns, are a distinctive element of traditional society. When there was no drinking water service at home, the neighbors came to these places to get water, becoming places of meeting and sociability. The Fuente de la Peña has had several locations and denominations. Appears reviewed for the first time as a source of Calvary in 1761, located in this same place. In 1868 it was moved to the facade of the confluence of San Pedro and Ramón y Cajal streets, until in 1875 it returned to this place, where we are. At present the fountain has lost its original use as a supply, becoming an ornamental and distinctive element of our heritage. Adjoining this fountain was built in 1880 a house intended for the inn, and is where the Wagner Theater and the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium are currently located.

Adjacent to the Wagner Theater is the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium. It is an outdoor venue, with a 400 m2 stage and a capacity for 1,000 seated people, being the place chosen for the celebration of numerous events. It was inaugurated in 1998 by the tenor Alfredo Kraus, adopted son of the village of Aspe. Of its architecture highlights its white lintel arch, as well as a sculpture in tribute to a street dog much loved in Aspe, called "Tarzan".

In the 17th century, this building was built for the Consistorial House to direct the public life of Aspe, next to the Palace House of the Dukes of Maqueda and Marquis of Elche, who financed the work. The building, of Baroque style, is perfectly integrated into the urban fabric. It has a rectangular floor plan and its façade, made with sandstone ashlar, we can see its distribution on three floors: - Ground floor, which is accessed through a large portico formed by three arches. This space was used to carry out commercial transactions, hire day laborers, hold auctions and the market. Currently, this space is used to plant the nativity scene that every year the Association of Aspen Belenistas performs, an authentic artisan jewel made, year after year, by the members of that association. Of this plant highlights the lintel access door where we find as the main decorative motif, the shield of the town of Aspe. - First floor, where three large forge balconies are located, whose openings are framed with pilasters that are finished off with a thick ledge incurved in the center as a pediment, where plates of mixed profile are arranged on the lateral pediments, and a shield -cartela in the center. - Second floor, which has a gallery of square windows. The building is finished off with a small tower where the clock is placed and on it we find a bell. The latest reforms will take place in the XX, highlighting the expansion of the new City Council. For the construction of this new building the aesthetics of the historic were followed, using ashlars, arches, although in this case lintelled, and the clock tower was reformed using the same ashlars and following the same aesthetic. BIBLIOGRAPHIC AND DOCUMENTARY DATA: VV.AA.1998 Aspe. Physical environment and human aspects. City Council of Aspe

This important site, declared an Asset of Cultural Interest, was found in the process of opening Castillo Street, which was planned in this place and was rejected before the discovery. The Aljau Castle would be one of the fortifications of the town of Aspe el Nuevo, a site located on the plain in the second half of the 13th century, after forcing the abandonment of the Castillo del Río, known as Aspe el Viejo. For a time, the two urban centers survived as demonstrated by a privilege granted by Alfonso X El Sabio to Alicante, dated 1252, in which "Azpe el Viejo" and "Azpe el Nuevo" are repeatedly mentioned. The remains could be defined as a fortification Aragon plant, or quadrangular with towers in the corners, and central courtyard. The access, of which there are remains, seems to be organized with a corridor in a bend protected by a circular border that enables a corridor that surrounds the floor of the patio, without knowing where it ends. Without being discovered the end of the system, resembles the access of the main domus of the Castle of Castile, also dated in the middle of the XIV century. Next to this fortification the remains of a house with several rooms where the home and a jar embedded in the pavement have been documented. Although the state of conservation of these last remains is low, the structures that separate the rooms and the access door to it are distinguished. This house shows a somewhat later chronology, centered on the fifteenth century, which may correspond to an area of ​​extra-urban outskirts, located on the edge of the castle to guarantee its protection.

Original building of 1922 that was acquired by the City Council in the early eighties, when it was practically doomed to his disappearance. After several years of rehabilitation work, it was inaugurated on February 16, 1995. Since its inception, it has been distinguished by the diversity of activities carried out in it, with a program designed to meet the cultural demands of the citizens of Aspe. The interior has been completely reconstructed, but it respects the three own bodies that we find in all the theaters: lobby, hall and scene. It has a capacity of 550 seats distributed in 290 of patio, 63 of boxes and 197 of amphitheater. The theater lobby is equipped to host exhibitions.