This is one of the three fortress churches in the province of Alicante. It was built along with the walls around 1550. It has few windows, a single central nave and chapels between the buttresses. All this is typical of the levantine gothic style. In the 18th century the chapels of the Immaculate Conception and the Communion were added. The latter houses the image of the patron saint Santa Marta. In the tactile image on the facade you have the very simple baroque-classicist style main door, also added in the 18th century. It has two columns on each side and…

The Town Hall, or Council Chamber, has been here for centuries. In 1703, the jurors – or councillors – commissioned this portal from the stonemason Francés Agulló. He was charged with fashioning an arch similar to that in the home of captain Fernando Mayor in Calle Archivos and above is the coat of arms you can see. The coat of arms shows the patron saint, Santa Marta, dominating a monster (the Tarasca).  with blessed water from its pail.  At the bottom are the bars of Aragon and at the top the royal crown. This must have been the old coat of arms…

A ‘pal’ is a place where ropes are made and repaired. This street, and the alleyway below, the Callejón del Pal, were suitable for this activity due to their length. Traditionally, the fishermen’s wives did this work. In the picture you can see an old pal on Villajoyosa beach. In this area the sea there was the Sea wall, which was repeatedly damaged by attacks by the corsair. It can be found today inside the houses you see on the slope. The wall you see is not the defense wall, which is several meters behind it. The one you see…

June 29th is the Feast of St. Peter, ancient patron saint of fishermen. Traditionally, there was the ‘Porrat’ (which is a fair), ‘cucañas’ (games involving a greased pole) and felucca regattas. A felucca being a small fishing boat. In front of you is the fountain called Bací, which is reproduced in the tactile image. At the fair the water in the Bací was dyed red and then children tried to find coins in it. In 19th century, Villajoyosa was the port for the industry of Alcoy. The goods were transported in large sailing boats to overseas colonies, including Cuba. For…

In the early 19th C., the town gates – the Portal and the Portalet – were knocked down. A breach was also opened in the Travesseret to create a new entrance to the town. A path led down from here that crossed the river and the neighbourhood of Poble Nou. There it joined the Alicante road. This path replaced the old one, which followed the river upstream. Since 1868, Villajoyosa has been accessible via the N332 bridge. A ‘través’ was an access to the top of a wall, so surely in this place there were no houses and that is…

At this point there was for two centuries an important well that supplied Villajoyosa and gave its name to the street, 'Carrer la Bomba', a name lost over the years and which is remembered by this plaque. The Manises potter Leopoldo Mora was the author of the panel, placed in 2016 and made of tiles based on the only old photograph that we have left. The old Pump of the Beach already appears in texts from the early eighteenth century. On this date, as the danger of corsair attacks diminished, La Vila developed outside its walls, and the suburbs were…

Villajoyosa has a continuous coastal drop of 20 metres to sea level. The Costera or "slope" to the Sea has been the main way down to the beach for 3,000 years.  To its right are the walls that surround the old town.  These walls were built around 1550 in Renaissance style,  the previous walls having been destroyed by Berber corsairs in 1443. The base of the walls is angled to better withstand the impact of cannonballs. The tower of the Plaza de la Generalitat is the Baluard del Retor (Priest Bastion), because it was next to the abbey house. The…

Bernat de Sarrià, Conseller of King Jaime II of Aragon, founded Vilajoiosa in 1301. Vilajoiosa was a pobla nova, that is, it did not exist before. On this hill a castle was built next to the town. It had a rectangular plan with towers at its corners. This type of castle was called "domus maior" (larger house). It was habitual in the south of the Kingdom of Valencia and the lord of the town resided in it. Around the castle was a moat. Calle Vallet ("calle del Foso") is still in this park. In 1708, during the War of Succession,…