We arrived at the first stop of our year-end Andalusian tour, the city of Alicante, by plane, and immediately picked up our rental car at the airport. The local restaurants impressed us with their fresh seafood and traditional Spanish flavors that exceeded all our expectations. We walked a lot on the city’s famous palm-lined promenade, the Explanada de España, and then climbed up to the huge Santa Bárbara castle, from which we had a breathtaking view of the entire bay. During the days spent in Alicante, we also visited nearby Torrevieja, where we admired one of the special phenomena of nature, the lake with vibrant pink water.
Alicante’s history dates back several millennia and the fate of the city has always been closely intertwined with the sea and its strategic location. The area was inhabited as early as the Neolithic Age, but the first significant settlement was founded by the Carthaginians under the name Akra Leuka. Later, the Romans took over, naming the city Lucentum and developing it into an important commercial centre. After the fall of the Roman Empire, the Visigoths and then the Moors conquered the area in the 8th century, and they built the foundations of the fortress that stands on top of Mount Benacantil.
During the Middle Ages, Christian armies retook the city in the 13th century and Alicante became part of the Kingdom of Castile and later of Aragon. The city’s economy flourished thanks to maritime trade, especially the export of wine, wool and salt. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Alicante endured several sieges and wars, but the construction of the railway and the modernization of the port finally brought an industrial boom. Today, the city has become one of the most popular tourist destinations in Spain.
