Alicante, a city on the Costa Blanca

Coming down from the mountain, the beauty of a whole city, Alicante, reaches the seaside. The Mediterranean colour, scent and flavour mix together in this privileged place, born to be a paradise for its inhabitants and for the thousands of visitors who decide to spend their holiday time at its beaches every year. Its climate makes it especially attractive for those who decide to visit this land, plenty of legend and history.

At present, Alicante has an area of 201.27 sq. km. and a population of nearly 280,000 inhabitants, with a population density of 1,391 inhabitants per square kilometre. It is 82 km. away from Valencia, 432 from Madrid and 544 from Barcelona. The city has excellent road, air and sea connections and measures up to the European standards.

History of a Mediterranean seaport

Alicante is a city with three thousand years of history. The first settlements in the area were centred around the slopes of mount Benacantil, occupied today by the castle of Santa Barbara, which combined the privileges of being close to the sea and high enough to offer a secure settlement. Although no remains have been found, Iberians are thought to have founded a village here.

Another settlement was located in the Benalua area, where the Roman city of Lucentum was built, which is the most immediate predecessor of the city that we know today. With the arrival of the Moors, the present-day city was built under the protection of the castle. The man who later would become Alfonso the 10th, known as the Wise, conquered the city in 1246 for the Castilian crown.

It was not until 1308 when Jaime I incorporated it into the Kingdom of Valencia. In 1490 Ferdinand the Catholic granted it the title of City. A hundred years later it was the natural port of Castile, which favoured an active sea trade.

Alicante has seen its share of wars and conflicts throughout the history of Spain, and due to its position on the coast, all attacks have been made from sea. In 1691, under the reign of Charles II, the French Armada bombed the city for seven consecutive days. With no time to recover from the bombing, it became involved in the War of Spanish Succession (1701-14). It sided with the Bourbons and suffered the bombardment and destruction of the castle of Santa Barbara by English troops. During the War of Independence (1804-14), known as the Peninsular War, it was the provisional capital of the Kingdom of Valencia.

In the 18th century Alicante began to recover after the disasters of recent wars, but it was really in the 19th century when its economy began to take off. With the arrival of the railway (1858), its connection to the centre of the peninsula guaranteed its leading role as a seaport.

Nowadays, Alicante is the second most populated city in the Community of Valencia. Capital city of the Alicante province and a relevant place in the Costa Blanca, tourism is one of the mainstays of its economy.

Alicante: A real monument

The Castle of Santa Barbara is the most emblematic monument in the city. It is located on Mount Benacantil, 166 metres above sea level. Most of its present rooms date from the 16th century. You cannot miss the Tower of Homage, the Rampart of the English, Santa Barbara's Chapel and the Room of Philip II.

Santa Maria's Church dates back from the 16th century and was built in a place previously occupied by a mosque. It has a gothic inside, but a baroque high altar and façade.

The Cathedral Church of St. Nicholas of Bari was finished in 1662. In renaissance style with baroque elements in the altar and communion chapel, it is considered as one of the most beautiful churches of Spanish high baroque.

The Town Hall is an excellent example of baroque civil architecture. It was finished in 1760. On the floor door, in the first step of the inner staircase, you can find the metal disc that marks the Zero Point used as the reference to measure the height above sea level for all Spanish places.

The Monastery of the Holy Face is located in the district of Santa Faz, eight kilometres north of the city, along the road Alicante-Valencia. It was finished in 1766. It belongs to the Renaissance style, with a baroque façade.

The Castle of St. Ferdinand is located on the Tossal hilltop, and is now completely dismantled, although it is also true that this fortress was never terminated, as it was begun just before the French invasion. The spacious platform is used for sports and leisure activities.

The Gravina Palace was built in the 18th century. Nowadays the building is accountable to the Provincial Council and houses the provincial Archives. Exhibitions and cultural activities are often staged here.

A visit to the museums

The Municipal Museum "Casa de la Asegurada" was built in the 17th century and throughout its history it has been used for several purposes. Today it houses a 20th Century Art Collection donated to the city in 1976 by the artist Eusebio Sempere.

The most important part of the collection is composed of works by major artists belonging to the Spanish generation of the fifties: Alfaro, Canogar, Chillida, Mompó, Saura, Tàpies, Zobel and Viola, and also includes some predecessors of avant-garde art such as Gris, Miró or Picasso.

The Provincial Archaeological Museum is located within the Palace of the Provincial Council. It owns such a large amount of collections that only a selection of the most significant pieces are on display for the public. The dowries from the Bronze Age, the collection of Iberian and Roman pottery and the Roman statues and epigraphy are worth seeing.

Must-see places

Alicante's Promenade and the 'Explandada de España', surrounded by graceful palm trees that offer shadow to the tourists. The views over the sea are fantastic.
The old quarters of the city, with six-century-old houses and streets that still preserve their original structure, such as Rambla Núñez and Calle Mayor.

'Carrer dels Llaurador' (Peasants' Street), that goes up along Mount Benicantil slopes showing houses built in a great variety of styles. The upper middle class used to live in this street from the 17th to the 19th centuries.

Beaches: Postiguet (bordering on the port to the south and on Grossa Hill to the north), L'Albufera, Cabo Huertas or Acodre (with a pretty lighthouse that is the natural border of Alicante Bay), Agua Amarga (which includes Saladares Beach). You must also visit the yachting harbour.

The Island of Tabarca is in fact a natural monument, and is the only inhabited island in the Community of Valencia, an erstwhile refuge of pirates and corsairs, now belonging to Alicante Local Council. It is eleven nautical miles from Alicante and three from Santa Pola. The waters surrounding the island are now listed as a Marine Reserve. It has an important fortified place (walls, bastion and doorways). The church (18th century) and the castle of San José are worth seeing. Tabarca was declared a Historical-Artistic Monument in 1964.

Alicante at night

There are hundred of places to have drinks and snacks, but you should particularly go round the old city centre, known as El Barrio. There you will find countless bars, taverns, beer halls, pizzerias or typical inns -every one of them with its own style and personality-, where the music never stops, from salsa to jazz, from rock to flamenco music. The area that can be considered the modern one (between Alfonso El Sabio and the Explanada) offers another kind of entertainment, with elegant pubs, haute cuisine restaurants, discos and dance halls, all of them with the most sophisticated decoratings. During the night summers, the fun moves to San Juan Beach, the ideal place to enjoy a Mediterranean atmosphere with your friends surrounding the bonfires.

The gastronomy in a city of fishermen

These people's gastronomy is linked to the sea. And to rice, of course, which is the heart and main base of their cookery. In Alicante, several rice-based dishes are enjoyed, all of them different and tasty. To enumerate some of these delicacies we must begin with the rice in the Alicante style, whose basic ingredients are chicken as base savour and seafood as accompaniment, seasoned with a touch of dried red pepper. Other outstanding forms to cook rice are rice in fish broth, rice with baked egg on top or the black rice (with squid in its own ink).

In the collection of recipes we should also mention the salted fish preparations, using tuna, cod, roe, dried octopus, anchovies and bonito. They are all good starters or snacks, usually offered on a little slice of toasted bread. For the main course you can choose from exquisite dishes such as stuffed squid, 'suquet de peix' (a fisherman's pot), vegetable stew or cold soup of grouper and shrimp.

To put a good final to such a good meal, apart from the excellent fruit (oranges, cherries, grapes, medlar fruit, pomegranates, figs, etc., depending on the season) and the ice cream, we suggest 'turrón' (nougat made of honey and almonds). The 'turrón', which has made Alicante famous, is manufactured in the nearby town of Jijona.

The province of Alicante also has excellent kinds of wine: the whites and rosés from La Marina, reds from Vinalopó and other fortified, sweet or dessert wines, some of which are very well known, such as the dessert wine 'Fondillón'.