Santa Bárbara Castle

Few cities have a castle as present in everyday life as Alicante does. Santa Bárbara Castle rises in the very centre of town, crowning Mount Benacantil, and you need only look up from almost any street, or from the sand on the beach, to spot it. Climbing up to it is the best way to understand the city: from the top you can take in the whole of the Bay of Alicante and much of the surrounding land.

That panorama is no accident. The rocky mass on which the castle stands reaches 167 metres above sea level and runs right down to the edge of the Mediterranean, a privileged position that explains the enormous strategic value this site has always held. Whoever controlled the summit could keep watch over both the sea and the overland routes, something visitors grasp the moment they look out from its walls.

Before heading up, it's worth pausing on the beach for a moment and taking a careful look at the mountain. Its silhouette resembles a face in profile, which is why the people of Alicante call it «the Moor's face», an image that has become one of the city's great symbols and features in countless photographs and souvenirs.

The name of the mountain has a story of its own, too. Some historians trace it back to bena, an Arabic transcription of the Latin pinna, meaning «rock» or «crag», and laqanti, an adjective formed from Laqant, the name the Arabs gave to Alicante. It would therefore mean something like the rock of Alicante, a definition as simple as it is apt.

Its heritage value was officially recognised in 1961, when it was declared a historic-artistic monument, which today makes it a Site of Cultural Interest in the monument category. An essential visit for anyone passing through the city.