The archaeological sites at El Tossal de La Cala, the steep headland at the far end of Poniente Beach, are proof of human presence within the municipal boundary during the Iron Age. The remains which have been excavated provide information about an Iberian settlement that existed between the third and first centuries B.C., with a cemetery next to it. Studies carried out there indicate that this was a tribal settlement based on fishing - vestiges of nets have been discovered. The Phoenician-Carthaginian culture from Ibiza had a considerable influence on the social organization of the Iberians, as is shown in the beautiful terracotta head of the Punic goddess Demeter-Ceres (better known as Tanit) found in the excavations. Rome also left signs of their rule in this area as the remains of a Roman villa in the Partida del Moralet testify. Evidence of their presence is also provided by the existence of fragments of Punic and Roman ships wrecked in the bay of Benidorm. The location of present-day Benidorm has its origins in the medieval defences that were needed on the eastern coast of Spain. Jaime I, the Conqueror, King of Cataluña and Aragón, took the territory of Benidorm in c. 1245 during the Christian reconquest of land on the Iberian Peninsula that had been held by the Moors since 711-712 A.D. The geographical area of Benidorm was inhabited by Moorish families, that is Moslems who continued to live in the places where they were born after they were conquered by the Christians, - families that formed a network spread over the countryside and who were inclined to rebel against the new Christian authorities. There was an important Islamic settlement (a type of farmstead) in the Partida de Lliriets. Jaime I distributed the conquered manors in the Kingdom of Valencia among those who had collaborated with him in his military campaign and the greater part of this district became the property of Admiral Bernat de Sarrià. On 8 May 1325, a key date in the history of the city, Admiral Bernat de Sarrià granted its Town Charter to Benidorm and by this act the noble lord created the castle and town of Benidorm. The purpose of the aforementioned document was to set out the boundaries of the new town and also to attempt to bring about the establishment of an exclusive community of Christian families, stipulating the rules which would govern the social, economic and political relationship between the feudal lord and his future vassals.



This is why Benidorm came into existence in its present situation, on a rocky promontory that divides its two important beaches, and since then has formed part of the Kingdom of Valencia. Strategically the town owed its origin to the prevailing fear of the higher number of Moors who were at that time living in the area, under the control of the Christians, and of possible alliances between them and the Moors in North Africa. Economically it had to endeavour to make the land productive to fill the coffers of the feudal lord, an objective which did not depend solely on the work of the Moors. Starting in 1335, when Prince Pere of Aragón and Anjou was lord of the territory, the serious development of the town began and was continued by his son Alfons of Aragón and Foix. In 1356, when the Earldom of Denia was created, Benidorm became part of it and later it belonged to the Duchy of Gandia. In 1430, Prince Joan (the son of Fernando I, King of Aragón and at that time also King of Navarra) who was the lord of Benidorm then, sold the territory to the noble Ruy Díaz de Mendoza because financial difficulties, caused by the wars in which his father was involved, forced him to part with many of his feudal estates.

The difficulties in keeping the Christian town alive were enormous. The surrounding area was still occupied by those who at that time were called infidels, pirate ships were always close to the coasts and, if that was not enough, year after year, there was the constant problem of the shortage of water for agriculture which limited the crops to those for dry farming. With these premises we can understand why Benidorm’s population declined and this becomes more obvious when we consider that, at the same time, the military fortress, constructed on the orders of the town’s founder, had to be maintained. In those days, fishing, foretelling the town’s constant historical dependence on the sea, was the pillar of the local economy.




















The town suffered two terrible attacks by pirates, the first one c.1410 and the second in 1448, which destroyed the town and the castle. From 1448 onwards Benidorm’s population declined. We know that in the 16th century the castle was repaired and extended, to be precise in 1530, 1563 and1575. However the little town appears to have continued to suffer a total depopulation in this period because the Blessed Joan de Ribera wrote in 1574 that there only existed a small number of fishermen’s families, not large enough to form a permanent settlement.

Little by little, with the improvements to the defences on the coast and the development of fishing, the town of Benidorm became stronger as part of the so-called Barony of Polop. The key move in Benidorm’s progress in evolving into an established town was brought about by an initiative encouraged by the aristocrat Doña Beatriu María de Farjardo Mendoza, - the construction, starting in 1666, of the Rec Major de l’Alfàs i Benidorm, an irrigation channel that by 1701 was bringing small but vital streams of water from the interior of the district to the coastal area. The work meant that crops needing irrigation could be grown and this, in its turn, attracted more people to the district. The aristocratic initiative was endorsed by the granting of a Town Charter which set out rules for social relationships – for example, in this document it laid down that 40 families had to live within the town’s walls. In 1715 the town already had 216 inhabitants. In about 1740 the present Church of St. James (Iglesia de San Jaime) was built from which we can deduce that the population was increasing rapidly so much so that by 1794 there were 2,700 inhabitants registered in the town.

This increase was partly due to the art of fishing with the almadraba - a sort of enormous labrynth of nets fixed in the sea by which tuna was caught during their periods of migration. The almadraba made Benidorm famous. This skill had been practised in the town from ancient times (the 14th century) but from the 18th century onwards the fishermen of Benidorm earned a name throughout the Mediterranean as expert technicians in the art and the almadraba set up at Rincón de L’Oix was known as one of the most efficient. The captains were called “arraixos” in Valenciano and “arráeces” in Castilian. The King granted the Dukes of Medinaceli the exclusive right to exploit this industry and they leased concessions to administrators.



During the Peninsular War, the Napoleonic troops were in the southern part of the Kingdom of Valencia from January 1812 and left Valencia in 1813. French soldiers desecrated the cemetery in Benidorm and British warships destroyed the castle. Attacks by the Liberals dealt a death blow to the feudal system and Liberalism in this district led to the disappearance of feudalism. In the years following the war, smuggling became widespread along our coasts with local men scheming with smugglers from Genoa, Malta, Dalmatia, Gibraltar, etc. We must also stress that, at the beginning of the 19th century, there were local men too who were active as privateers confronting the pirates and smugglers. An outstanding figure among these was Joan Baptista Pérez, captain of the ”Hijo de Trueno” (Son of Thunder), who donated the cannons from an English ship he had captured to be melted down to make bells for the church. On the subject of privateers, in 1826 King Fernando VII authorized the arming of two Benidorm ships, owned by Miguel Orts García, to hunt down smuggling vessels and this led to the creation of the Orts and García Coastguard Company. After several years this company owned 6 ships, the most important of which was a frigate with 18 cannons. The company provided excellent training for local sailors and the education and experience they received was instrumental in them forming the nucleus, not many years later, of the qualified professionals in the Spanish Merchant Navy, some of them passing from sailors, through boatswains and later radio operators, to ships’ captains. As well as fishing and agriculture, navigation was an important source of income for the people of Benidorm, although it meant that many wives had to spend long periods without their husbands. From this we can deduce two significant aspects indicative of the town’s past: the important role played by women in the local economy and the open outlook of Benidorm men who were accustomed to travelling halfway round the world. In 1857 the town had 3,720 registered inhabitants.

The improvement in communications allowed the beginnings of a new source of revenue: - Tourism. In the second half of the 19th century (c.1870) the Virgen del Sufragio Spa opened its doors. The construction of the Silla-Alicante highway and the arrival in Alicante of the railway from Madrid helped this new industry to prosper, albeit slowly. The first summer holiday-makers came from Alcoy and Madrid, and from 1914 had at their disposal a narrow-gauge railway – the popular Trenet de la Marina – which originally linked Alicante with Altea and so with Benidorm as well. However, the other local economic sectors were going through a bad period as, to give just one example, the Merchant Navy suffered a crisis with the loss of the last overseas colonies (1898: Cuba, Puerto Rico and the Philippines). Shortly after this, the boom in the cultivation of vines (for wines, raisins and sultanas) was ruined when phylloxera reached the region (1900-1914). In 1920 the number of inhabitants in the town dropped to 2,976 because many people emigrated to Cuba, to the maritime district of Barcelona and to the coast of Cadiz.

In about 1925 the first chalets were built along Levante Beach. During the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) the town formed part of the rearguard in the Republican area and the trade unions profited from the winds of change of the period by confiscating the Almadraba at Rincón de l’Oix, among other enterprises.

After the war the socio-economic activities slowly recovered, with fishing being obviously the most productive industry. However, in the ‘50s, steps were taken to bring about a real transformation. On the one hand, in 1952, the Almadraba at Rincón de l’Oix was closed because the profit from the catch was low and this was traumatic for the many families who were dependent on it, while, on the other hand, the Town Council approved the urban development of the town to create a larger one conceived with leisure for tourists in mind which would have well designed streets and wide avenues following the contour of the beaches. The progressive growth took years due to changes that took place in the economic legal system, leaving the primary sector (fishing and agriculture) and giving support to the tertiary sector (tourist services). In ten years, from 1950 to 1960, the population increased from 2,726 inhabitants to 6,259, that is an increase of 129%. The growth in the offer of hotel places paralleled this increase, generalizing changes in the type of clientele as Spanish tourism began to share the space with visitors from other parts of Europe; the first of these arrived in their own vehicles but then, after the airport at El Altet opened in 1967, an important number of foreigners came on charter flights. The town underwent a spectacular increase both horizontally, as buildings spread to occupy areas within the town’s boundaries, and vertically, with the construction of high-rise blocks. In 1970 the number of inhabitants rose to 12,003; in 1981 to 21,544; and in 1997 to 50,176. Originally the new immigrants came mainly from Andalusia and Castilla but in recent years there have also been foreign citizens. Two figures from 1995 illustrate how exceptional Benidorm is – the existence of 31,686 hotel beds and 4,495 places on campsites.

During the ‘90s the hotel offer in Benidorm managed to consolidate a landmark in tourism, - with an influx of visitors all the year round. At the present time the city maintains a high level of occupation in its hotels all the time, not only in the summer which was always the general practice in our recent past, but now in winter too, a new phenomenon brought about by retired people coming as tourists. At the beginning of the 21st century there was an important economic project promoted by the Generalitat Valenciana, the government of the autonomy, - the opening of a large theme park.

If we can be allowed to finish with one thought, it would be to affirm that throughout its history the men and women of Benidorm have known how to work out their modus vivendi from the natural geographical conditions, that have not always been benevolent or adequate, with an exemplary tenacity.

Francesc X. Soldevila