Conquered again and again

There are many beautiful hotels Alicante Spain has ready for visitors to stay in. This beautiful area is blended with modern swell and traditional roots as it runs along sandy beaches and buts up against some mountain ranges. The town has boomed recently with the influx of tourist activity especially along the beaches where one can find such a relaxing environment. There are many little traditional villages hiding in the mountains to explore. There are also many places to eat, drink and be merry. There is a blend of British, German and Nordic resident who more than likely came for a vacation and decided to stay.

There is some rich history to the area. Like most coastal towns in Spain, this port city was had been conquered a few times in a few hundred years. Some of the early inhabitants were more than likely Iberians who lived on the hilltop  of Benacantil. Today there is the Castle of Santa Barbara that was built to protect the land below. It was a perfect place to built it because it was close enough to the sea to watch over but was to high to destroy from the water. There is an area called Benalua, where the Romans built a city called Lucentum. It was the predecessor of what we know of as Alicante in current times. There have been other villages found in the Albufereta and the Serra Grossa that date back to the same Roman times.

Next came the Moors who left behind the beginnings of the city we know today. You can see it in the old architecture of some buildings. Alfonso X conquered the city in 1246 for the Castillian Crown. Jamie II took Alicante for the Kingdom of Valencia. Ferdinand the Catholic made Alicante the city charter in 1490 where it went on to become the natural port of Castile a hundred years later. This is when the trade business started to really go. This made the population grow considerably. There were many wars for the land that came and went. Now leaving some great monuments of history and the stories to be rediscovered.