The capital of the Marina Alta has been attracting visitors from abroad for millennia!

Denia is the largest town in the Marina Alta area in the north of the province of Alicante in terms of both permanent population (43,000) and, very nearly, land area (66 square kilometres), but its true importance as a keystone of the identity of the Costa Blanca is not reflected merely by the fact that more people live within its boundaries than in any of the other 32 municipalities.

For centuries if not millennia, Denia has been the capital of the Marina Alta and at times of far larger areas of the south-east of Spain, and its position at the forefront of the area has been consolidated since the advent of mass tourism in the 20th century. A study produced by Spain’s central statistics unit in 2013 concluded that of all the municipalities in the country with populations of under 50,000, Denia is the one where the population increases most significantly during the summer, reaching over 200,000: this is due to the massive influx of visitors both from elsewhere in Spain and, of course, from abroad. 

The most important of Denia’s multiple attractions for tourists is, without doubt, the fact that it is blessed with some of the most spectacular beaches and the clearest water in the Costa Blanca. It is located on the northern side of the headland of Cabo de San Antonio, where migrating whales and dolphins are not an uncommon sight as they make their way to other destinations, and the southern end of the Denia coastline is an extremely popular destination for scuba divers (although permission to dive is required as the water off the headland has been declared a marine reserve). 

This southern end of the shore is known as “Las Rotas”, and contains stony and rocky beaches in the shadow of the Montgó, the mountain which rises to an altitude of 753 metres just half a kilometre or so from the Mediterranean. On a clear day it is possible to see the island of Ibiza, almost 70 kilometres away, from the peak of the Montgó, as well as the large extent of the plain of Denia which lies to the north of Montgó.

Further north along the 20 kilometres of shoreline, which contains no fewer than four marinas, the beaches are longer, straighter and covered in fine sand, meaning that for lovers of swimming, diving, snorkeling and water sports Denia has a little of everything. Two of the beaches in the “Las Marinas” area, Los Deveses and Punta del Raset, are also among the most popular in Europe for windsurfers all year round. 

If the beaches and water sports are top of the list in Denia’s attractions, though, the local cuisine and gastronomy are not far behind, with the best known speciality being the red prawns which are caught in the strait between the Costa Blanca and Ibiza and brought ashore in the local fishing port. Not for nothing has Denia been designated a city of gastronomic creativity by Unesco, and over 200 restaurants provide sufficient variety for even the most demanding of gourmets!

On top of this, the last few decades have seen the development of numerous residential areas which attract northern Europeans looking for holiday and retirement properties in sunnier climes, and there are now various golf courses within little more than the distance of a good 3-wood, including La Sella five kilometres from the centre of Denia. 

For modern-day visitors, though, another of the most important aspects of Denia is that they are by no means the first to appreciate the beauty of the location. The town and surrounding countryside are full of reminders that the Romans built an important town here, with the well-preserved walls of “Dianium” easy to see in the town centre, and before them the Iberians also lived in this area. The Romans were followed by the Visigoths in this part of Spain, and under them Denia grew still further to become one of the most important towns in south-eastern Spain, before during the centuries of Moorish occupation enjoying what was arguably its first “golden age”. 

It was the Moors who built the castle of Denia, which can still be visited on the hill behind the town, and although there was a long period of stagnation after the Reconquista in the 13th century (from which three small churches still stand) the coastal location saw it flourish again in later centuries. 

Nowadays, the rich history of Denia is apparent not only in its wealth of monuments and in the archaeological museum (there are also museums devoted to toys and ethnology), but also in the calendar of fiestas which punctuate the year. The most important of these are the Fallas, which are held from March 16 to 19 and are only slightly less spectacular than the parallel event in Valencia, the Fiesta Mayor, which occurs in early July and features the well-known “Bous a la Mar” event, and the Moros y Cristianos, which commemorate the combat between the Moorish and Christian forces in the 13th century. 

At present the expat community in the municipality of Denia numbers over 5,000 residents, around half of them Germans and UK nationals, and it is not hard to see why they have chosen to purchase homes in this area. Add to these the huge numbers of visitors from northern Europe who come to Denia every year, and the result is a thriving and cosmopolitan community which, while resisting the scale of development in Benidorm, has come to depend on tourists and visitors for a large part of its economic activity, with fishing and other activities having been relegated to secondary roles. 

DENIA