Castillo de Santa Bárbara

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.