About 25km inland from Benidorm is the enchanting town and
castle of Guadalest. If you’ve never been there, it’s really worth a visit, as
it has one of the most photogenic views in the Costa Blanca area. You can get
there by car or an organised coach trip, travelling past lush and fertile
valleys originally terraced and irrigated by the Moors. The best view of the
craggy fortress and village is from the almond terraces and olive groves on
either side of the twisting road.
Hundreds of people go time and again, and yet it never seems
overly crowded; I’m speaking from experience, we take our visitors regularly,
and they never seem to tire of the place. Its popularity is understandable when
you realise that Guadalest is the second-most visited place in Spain for
tourists, after Madrid’s Prado Museum - over two million visitors in all.
Strangely, if you watch the film My Life in Ruins, which is set entirely in Greece, you’ll catch
some views of Guadalest, and other nearby parts of the Costa Blanca!
The water used in Benidorm’s many hotels actually comes from
Guadalest; one of its main attractions is the breath-taking idyllic reservoir viewed
from the castle walls.
By rights Guadalest should be an expensive tourist trap,
with plenty of shops selling the whole spectrum of keepsakes and ornaments,
from the ridiculous to the sublime. Yet it’s still magical and the prices,
surprisingly, are better than you will find on the coast.
Like an eagle’s nest on a pinnacle, Guadalest stands out
like no other Spanish town. There are countless attractive mountainside
villages, and both Ronda and Cuenca are spectacular in their own way, but Guadalest
is one of a kind.
Surrounded yet not dwarfed by the Aitana, Serella and Xorta
mountain ranges, Guadalest has been named as a ‘Monument of Historical
and Artistic Value.’
Way back in AD 715 the Moors settled here, endowing the
place with its name. They didn’t plunder or molest the inhabitants in the area
but lived alongside them, as was their way for hundreds of years until the
Christian kings in the north started to fight their way south to eject them.
Jaime I conquered Guadalest in 1238 but it wasn’t actually
occupied until 1245. There were ongoing battles with the Moors until their
leader’s expulsion in 1275 and the ruling that no Moor could change his
dwelling-place without the permission of Christians. Yet more uprisings of
Moors occurred – even after their final expulsion in 1492 – by those who had
stayed on. One of the bloodiest and last uprisings was as late as 1609; these
battles are celebrated boisterously and noisily every year, particularly in
nearby Alcoy.
In 1644 and 1748 Guadalest suffered earthquakes. The ground
here trembled yet again during the War of the Spanish Succession when the
town’s powder reserves blew up – whether accidentally or deliberately isn’t
known – which prompted the place to be abandoned as a stronghold in 1848.
In its day it was quite formidable, the local population
living within the castle walls, with only the single access through the gate of
St José. The narrow streets are typical, providing shade in the sweltering long
summer months and shelter in the blessedly short cold winters. The two hundred
inhabitants devote their lives to tourism and agriculture.
Wend your way through the quaint shop-filled streets up the
steps and through the St José Gate and immediately opposite is the entrance to
the Orduña House which charges a modest entrance fee. Here you can view
original and interesting furniture, paintings and kitchen utensils. Perched on
and overlapping the rock edifice, the house offers some spectacular panoramic
views. The library is perhaps the most attractive feature, with over 1,200
volumes. The house also provides the only access to the castle above, which is
definitely worth venturing for the added perspective the viewpoints provide.
Next to this house is the church where scrolls were found
mentioning the baptism of 190 Moors. The watch tower – Peñon de Alcalà – perched
on the top of this rock could only be reached by a rope-ladder. The town square
has the small but imposing town hall and below it a twelfth century dungeon,
which is open to the public. You will also encounter several museums, ranging
from modern sculpture to designs on pin-heads, from belens to torture chambers!
There are plenty of cafés and restaurants where you can stop
and eat, all reasonably priced, the favourite meals being paella, stuffed
peppers, rabbit in garlic mayonnaise and oven-cooked vegetables. The shops
offer an amazing choice – beautiful local handicrafts, ponchos, shawls, stoles,
china, porcelain and fine lace-work. These colourful shops stretch from the
lower, outer part of the town all the way up to the high square, some 590
metres above sea-level.
The Guadalest dam is 73 metres high and 270 metres long and
was built between 1953 and 1964. Nearby, and usually part of any organised tour
to Guadalest, is the Algar river and waterfalls, both of which are refreshing
and attractive and most certainly worth a visit while you’re in the area.
Strangely, I haven’t included Guadalest in my fiction yet.
This is clearly an oversight. I feel that Leon Cazador will be called to
resolve one of his cases here soon.
Spanish Eye - first 22 cases of Leon Cazador, Private Eye
due out from Crooked Cat Publishing 29 November 2013
NB – ‘belen’ – nativity tableau
