Costa Blanca is popular. This is nothing new: Throughout history, many peoples and kingdoms have thrived and left their mark on the White Coast. Most conquerors arrived by ship, others came overland from different parts of Europe. A number of cultures have helped shape this country and helped create the Spain that meets us today.
The Iberians
The Iberians are the oldest people traced in what today constitutes the Province of Alicante. A number of archeological sites from the Iberian period have been unearthed, among the most important is the fortress La Serreta near Alcoy. In La Serreta, archaeologists have found the oldest known inscription in Iberian.
“What is Iberian?” you might ask. Linguists do not know. Iberian is admittedly mentioned in both early Greek and Roman sources, but it is not similar to any of these languages. Findings may indicate that it is related to Basque, but there is no established agreement on which language family Iberian should be placed in. It is certain that Iberian was gradually replaced by Latin and died out as the Romans became interested in and established themselves in the Iberian Peninsula.
If you have been to the National Archaeological Museum in Madrid, you may have seen the beautiful bust that is often referred to as the Lady from Elche. The limestone figure from the 4th century BC is probably the most famous archaeological find from the Iberian period on Costa Blanca. Experts believe the lady is influenced by Greek art. The Greeks, who were also a great power in the Mediterranean region at this time, stayed mainly along the coast north of today’s Alicante city.
Similar sculptures, also carved in local limestone, have admittedly been found in a few other places along the Spanish south-eastern coast, including Guardamar. Dama de Guardamar is strikingly similar to Dama de Elche and, as the former, has an eye-catching, wheel-like earring.
Greeks and Phoenicians
The Iberians established relations with both Phoenicians and Greeks as early as around the year 1000 BC – the two contemporary superpowers in the Mediterranean region. By the way, Iberia and Iberians are names the ancient Greeks gave the country and the people they met here.
The Greeks and Phoenicians established lively trading centers in several places along the south coast of present-day Spain. While the Greeks early took an interest in coastal areas north of Alicante, the Phoenicians had primarily their ports south of the city of Alicante. Guardamar is an example of a Phoenician port city on the Costa Blanca. Cartagena, today the second largest city in the Murcia region, was also founded by the Phoenicians. Cartagena simply means “new Carthage”. Carthage, in present-day Tunisia, was originally a Phoenician colony that developed into the capital of an empire that came to dominate the Mediterranean region during the first millennium BC.
Like the Vikings, Greeks and Phoenicians knew about ships and sailing. The entire coast along the Costa Blanca offers several excellent ports that can accommodate even today’s ship traffic. It is not without reason that Cartagena is a center for shipbuilding and for the Spanish navy to this day.
Around 330-320 BC, the Carthaginian / Phoenician general Hamilcar Barca built a fortress on the Costa Blanca called Akra Leuka, which translated means the white mountain. (Hamilcar is by the way the father of the more famous Hannibal, who at the outbreak of the Second Punic War realized that using elephants to get across the Pyrenees to conquer the Roman Empire would be a great idea). Hamilcar’s fortress was located on the site believed to be the start of today’s Alicante.
Romans: Hispania
Around 150 BC, the Romans burned Carthage to the ground and conquered its colonies, including the Iberian Peninsula, which was now named Hispania. The Romans would stay a long time in Spain: almost 700 years. Under the Romans, the province of Alicante began to attract far more people, and larger cities developed. Among other things, the Romans founded a city they named Lucentum, the forerunner to modern Alicante. (The name Alicante itself comes later, under the Moors.)
The influence of the Roman Empire in this part of the Iberian Peninsula was strong. The Romans were effective empire builders who knew how to establish infrastructure that could hold a large and diverse empire together. The main road Via Augusta, contributed to the efficient transport of people, troops, goods and information between the Roman metropolises. Aqueducts ensured significantly greater efficiency in agriculture.
Elche, called Augusta by the Romans, achieved the status of “colonia”. A Roman colony was originally a Roman outpost established in conquered areas, but later became a name for cities of the highest status in the empire. It is also the origin of the modern concept of colony.
The Moors are coming!
The Roman Empire disintegrated both because it fell apart from within and because of invading ethnic groups from elsewhere in Europe. In Hispania, Germanic Visigoths from the north took over from the Romans for a time. However, their rule was not to last and no local forces were strong enough to resist the Muslim conquerors, the Moors, who came across the Mediterranean from North Africa in the early eighth century. Muslim forces had expanded extremely rapidly from Mecca and Medina in the years after Muhammad’s death in 632 AD. It took the Moors only five years to conquer Spain. The areas around Alicante were now named Medina Laqant or Al-Laqant, very close to present-day Alacant / Alicante. The Muslim conquest was stopped North of the Pyrenees, but the Moors ruled large parts of Spain including the province of Alicante for hundreds of years.
During long periods of Muslim rule, Spain experienced a relatively stable period of tolerance and development. Not even the Vikings could change that despite frequent voyages to the Iberian Peninsula and sailing further into the Mediterranean. We will return to how the Vikings advanced on these journeys in later posts, so stay tuned.
Reconquista
The Christian areas in the north began in as early as 718 AD a re-conquest of the Iberian Peninsula. The Reconquista admittedly took time: more than 700 years – it was not completed until 1492 under King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella. But Muslim rule over the Alicante region did not last that long.
In 1246, the King of Castile, Alfonso X, recaptured Alicante from the local Muslim rulers. In 1298, King Jaime II of Aragón conquered the area. Alicante was given the status of Vila Reial, a royal village, and for the first time was allowed to send representatives to the parliament of Valencia.
1492 not only marked the end of a long line of conquests of Spanish territory. The year should prove to be a time of change in several ways. In 1492, Columbus set out on his expedition to find the sea route to India. As you may well know, he landed on some Caribbean islands, and “discovered” America. 1492 marks the beginning of Spanish colonization of other parts of the world. From then until the decolonization was completed in the mid-1970s, it was Spain’s turn to conquer – but that’s a different story.
(Columbus Day is celebrated on October 12 every year – the day is a national holiday. The local celebration in Los Montesinos is worth a visit.)
Today, fortunately, conditions are peaceful on Costa Blanca. And, at least until the pandemic hit, cities were growing, the economy had improved significantly since the financial crisis and many from Spain and other countries come to visit. The climate is still the best in Europe, the food is fantastic, the people are pleasant – and the history is diverse and interesting.
Harry B., Find Your Spain!
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