|
|
 |
Spain Travel Information
Travel City Guides - Alicante - Valencia Region
Alicante, Costa Blanca, Spain
all in all a maritime city
If diversity is what you are looking for, you will find plenty of it in Alicante, Costa Blanca region. Alicante combines classicism and modernity, leisure and business, fun and studying and even the mountain and the beach.
The richness of its history is preserved through the archaeological remains dating as far back as the third millennium B.C. and on through to the later Iberians. At the beginning of our era, the Romans conferred Alicante with the rank of “city” and named it Lucentum.
The wonderful beaches and mild climate all year round make Alicante one of Spain’s most important tourist areas.
The beauty of the monuments added to the charm of the various festivities and cultural events held throughout the year increase the appeal of Alicante.
Alicante is an economically active and dynamic city, immersed in a process of expansion.
All in all, Alicante is a maritime city, with its beautiful beaches, its walk along the coast, its restaurants, cafés and discotheques, its nautical club and its harbour, from which boats leave for the island of Tabarca — a surfer’s paradise.
Alicante, in the Mediterranean Cost, is dominated by the two castles of Santa Barbara and San Fernando. From the top of their rocky peaks, they seem to keep an eye on the city, whose houses are spread over the hills, gently sloping towards the sea, the harbour, the beaches and the coves: San Juan, the Albufereta, Cocó, Postiguet and Saladar beach to the south.
Very few cities can boast of such fine, white sand beaches with such pure water.
Alicante offers you both the hubbub of the coast as well as the calm of the inland countryside. The city is surrounded by beaches as well as by many first class tourist centres. We should not forget the smaller villages in the region of La Marina with towns like Benissa, Javea, Dénia or the white Altea. Castles, fortresses and towns like Elche and Orihuela embellish the fertile inland, full of orange and lemon groves.
The city of Alicante runs lengthwise along the coast, gradually moving inland, with neighbourhoods such as San Blas and San Blas Alto or the Altozano quarter to the West; the Benalúa or Babel quarters to the South, or the San Antón and Carolinas quarters to the North, among others. Thus, the city forms a kind of semicircle facing the sea.
Click on the map to enlarge.
Around 300,000 inhabitants.
Alicante is a prosperous city, attracting people from different regions in Spain and Europe.
Alicante has grown a lot thanks the continuous expansion of
its dynamic services sector.
There are train and bus stations, a harbour and an international airport. Alicante is located 185 Km from Valencia, 60 Km from Elche, 515 Km from Barcelona and 422 Km from Madrid.
The A-7 toll motorway connects Alicante to all the Mediterranean coast cities. There is also a highway to Madrid.
Bus and train lines link Alicante to all these cities.
Airlines offering both regular and charter flights connect Alicante with the main European cities.
More information on how to come to Alicante.
If you go up the top of the hill of the Santa Barbara Castle, you will discover an unforgettable panoramic view of the most important monuments in Alicante: the church of Santa Maria, the Cathedral, the Town Hall façade, the monastery of Santa Faz, the San Fernando Castle and much more. Seeing all these magnificent monuments from above will invite you to go down the hill and walk among them.
Along the streets, you will come across large and small palaces, as well as traditionally painted white, yellow and pink houses. Everything is illuminated by the blue light of the Mediterranean Sea and encourages you to continue walking around and discovering places. You can find the old Mercy House, the Asegurada House, where nowadays the Contemporary Art Museum is situated, the Marquis del Bosch palace, the Quijano Pantheon, with its romantic garden, the House of the Witches or the Alberola House.
The widest avenues, such as La Rambla or Doctor Gadea will lead you to Alfonso X el Sabio (Alfonso the wise) Street with the Luceros (Creole fish) on one side and the Central Market on the other, just in front of Zador School of Spanish. This area, including Maisonnave Street, is the most commercial part of the city, where you will see many people shopping.
After so much walking, you will be ready to sit at one of the many outdoor cafés. You can also relax on the beaches of the oceanfront promenade or sit on the chairs in the Explanada (forecourt) de España and watch the masts of the boats in the harbour, the constant movement of the waves on the beach, the people going to and from...
Castle, Churches, Monasteries, Museums, Archaeological sites... and much more to see in Alicante during your stay.
Here you have a short description of some interesting places and monuments.
 |
This is one of the Europe’s biggest medieval fortresses. It is located on the peak and hillside of the Benacantil Mountain, so, from its privileged position, you can see the entire Bay of Alicante. It has three areas, differentiated by the stages in its construction, from the 11th to the 18th century. You can enter the castle either by a pine-tree lined road or using the lifts that have been dug into the mountain. You can get on the lifts at the end of the tunnel, opposite the Postiguet Beach.
More information about Santa Barbara Castle. |
| |
|
 |
It was built throughout most of the 17th century over the remains of an old mosque, although it also preserves traces of a 15th century cloister. It is of late Renaissance style, and therefore, it is sober in its external aspect. Inside, the Cathedral is spaciously proportioned with a delicate dome; the altars of the patrons of Alicante, San Nicolás of Bari and the Virgin of Remedio are on the lower and upper sides of the presbytery. The cloister dates from the 15th century, and the baroque rear main fronts are outstanding. The baroque style comes to its highest splendour in the Communion Chapel, dating from the 18th century, as well as in the organ.
|
 |
This is the town's oldest preserved civil building. It was built in 1685 by the Municipal Council as a corn storehouse. However, throughout its life, it has been used for a variety of purposes: it became the Town Hall headquarters while the present one was under construction; it has been a prison and a storehouse for artillery during the Peninsula War, a secondary school, a business school…
One the most important contemporary art collections was donated by an important sculptor from Alicante. |
|
The Archaeology Museum is located in the old Hospital of San Juan de Dios, and its exhibits span the Palaeolithic to the Modern Age, with a special emphasis on Iberian art.
Discover Alicante's past and origins, the legacy of the different civilisations that left their imprint on the province and its ways of life. Take a walk inside caves and around archaeological sites, where you can learn about excavation and restoration techniques. Visit a sunken Roman ship and tour its holds full of amphorae and treasures. These are only some of the many activities on offer at the MARQ, a place that brings history to life in a new way. It received international recognition as the 2004 European Museum of the Year for the "originality and intelligent approach" of its exhibits. Through room after room, we can travel to remote prehistoric times; to the Iberian culture and later Roman invasion of these Mediterranean lands; to the Middle Ages; and finally, moving on, to the modern, contemporary Alicante we know today. This trip through history is complemented by spectacular
|
 |
Baroque-style building from the 18th century, whose magnificent 49-metre façade is flanked by two unique twin towers. At the foot of the main staircase is set the "zero mark", which served as reference for measuring the height over sea level of the whole Spanish geography. |
 |
Built in 1847 following the Neoclassic style, it presents a façade with a six-columned porch. |
 |
Peculiar building showing Moorish influence conceived by civil engineer Próspero Lafarga at the beginning of the 20th century. Nowadays, it serves as a spatious and well-equipped Municipal Exhibition Hall. |
|
|
|
|
