Digital Tourism Costa Blanca Spain

04/06/2021

Sea Lovers

15/01/2021

Santa Pola, Alicante, Spain

The Chapel of "Virgen de Loreto", Patron Saint of Santa Pola, is situated in the King's Bastion tower, both secular and religious space going back to the Castle's very origins. It has always been very popular with the residents of Santa Pola and its visitors.

Traditional culture affects many aspects of the daily life of Santa Pola; the main features of which are both religion and popular literature. The result of a combination of history and fiction, realism and fantasy, legends and myths that shape the historic character of a community. In the case of Santa Pola, this is the miracle that relates to the arrival of our Madonna, the "Virge de Loreto", thus providing that magical ingredient for which any city can be proud.

The legend tells us that in 1643, in Puerto de Santa María (Cádiz), a Moorish revolt broke out that brought with it the plunder and destruction of churches and convents. Seeing this, Maria Guadalupe, a very devout woman who had an image of the Lady, fled with it to the port and gave it to a fisherman, wrapped in a cloth, to keep it safe. The fisherman took the picture and asked where it should be delivered to? to which the woman answered, that it should be handed in at the first port they dock.

Once at sea, the fisherman found the image and found it so beautiful that he decided not to stop until he would reach Villajoyosa, his town.

The trip came to an abrupt end when a huge storm broke up, which forced the sailor to stop at Santa Pola harbor. The fisherman asked himself whether he ought to fulfill his promise or not because he wanted to take the image with him. In the beginning, he hid the image, but every single time he tried to leave the port, the sea prevented him from doing so and this even happened three times, until he finally realized that the Virgin wanted to stay in Santa Pola. By doing this, the fisherman was able to get back to Villajoyosa safe and sound.

Patrona de Santa Pola, está ubicada en el Baluarte del Rey y constituye un espacio religioso secular desde los orígenes del Castillo.

15/01/2021

Santa Pola, Alicante, Spain

The aquarium is the oldest in the Valencian Community, and it includes 9 large glass tanks containing flora and fauna from the Mediterranean Sea.

Its facilities are dedicated to showing part of the fauna and flora of the Mediterranean Sea, being in this way an important educational and recreational tool that introduces our closest maritime surroundings (the bay of Santa Pola and the Island of Tabarca). The water comes directly from the sea, and after processing it is brought to the aquarium.

The idea of keeping fish in captivity is ancient. In Rome, Greece and above all in the Orient, some species were kept in coastal rocks, in ponds, lagoons or at the entrance of seas for leisure purposes or as food reserves.

Most of the species which the aquarium keeps were donated by the sailors of Santa Pola.

Es el más antiguo de la Comunidad Valenciana y posee 9 grandes acuarios.

15/01/2021

Santa Pola - Alicante, Spain

The Salt Museum is located in a former salt factory within the Nature Reserve. As well as learning about the salt extraction process and its history, this museum gives a lot of useful information on the Nature Reserve, from where a route can be followed to observe Flamingos, Marbled Teals, Common Shelducks, Little Egrets, Caspian Gulls, Black-winged Stilts…
This beautiful Nature Reserve, protected since 1988 and recognized as a “Special Important Birds Area”, has been included in the list of “North African and European Humid Areas”. Stretching over 2,496 hectares, this wetland managed to survive thanks to the setting up of salt flats at the end of the last century.

Salt extraction is the main economic activity in this area and, to a great extent, makes up the current ecosystem. The salt flats work this way: seawater flows into a circuit of ponds to get a gradual salt concentration as a consequence of evaporation. Mediterranean salt flats are of great biological interest owing to the fact that water flow doesn’t stop in winter. The ponds remain flooded all year through, so the ecosystem stays unaffected. Birds feed on fishes and invertebrates that go into the salt flats while salt production benefits from mineral richness brought by the birds’ excrements.

El Museo de la Sal se ubica en las instalaciones de una antigua factoría de sal, dentro del Parque Natural.