Spain Property Guide - January 2022 Issue 7

ALICANTE –
lady of the seas
You couldn’t imagine a seaside city more
quintessentially Mediterranean and Spanish
than Alicante. It offers history, culture, culinary
experiences and authentic Spain while also
being at the heart of the Costa Blanca and its
endless beaches, coves and resorts.
A
little over an hour south of Valencia is Alicante,
the second-largest city of the autonomous
Community of Valencia. Midway between
Catalunya and Andalusia in culture, it is the elder
of the two cities, originating some 5000 years BCE.
This means the area has been an inhabited centre
for over 7000 years, and was already known when
Greek and Phoenician colonists began building their
trading port – long before Romans or Moors ever
set foot on these shores. Alicante has seen battles,
sieges, plagues, civil war, inundations and fire, but
survived them all, producing a city that is at once
rugged and beautiful.
It was the site of skirmishes between Moors and
Christians, and for a while found itself dominated
by Cid el Campeón, the famous Spanish warlord,
before settling down to become a more sedate
port city. The 1950s brought renewed importance as
the centre of an expanding tourist region, and this