Archaeology & Roman Sites of the Costa Blanca

The major sites

Iberian Costa Blanca

Before the Romans, the coast was Iberian — a sophisticated indigenous culture (6th–1st century BC) that left fortified hilltop villages, sculpted limestone figures and inscribed lead tablets. The Dama de Elche, discovered at L'Alcúdia in 1897, is the masterpiece of Iberian art (now in Madrid). MARQ in Alicante displays the related Dama de Cabezo Lucero and several Iberian sanctuary reconstructions.

Roman Costa Blanca

• ✦Lucentum (Tossal de Manises) — the Roman city that gave Alicante its name; forum, baths, defensive walls.
• ✦Allon (Vila Joiosa) — important Roman trading colony; well-preserved baths and the Torre de Sant Josep funerary monument.
• ✦Termas de la Reina at Calpe — Roman fish-salting baths next to the harbour.
• ✦Dianium (Dénia) — Roman seaport, fragments visible in the modern town and castle museum.
• ✦Ilici (just outside Elche) — Roman colony Augusta Ilicitana, excavated within L'Alcúdia.

Moorish & medieval Christian

After the 8th-century Moorish conquest, the coast became part of Al-Andalus for almost 500 years. The fortresses of Guadalest, Villena, Santa Bárbara (Alicante), Dénia and Polop all show original Almohad construction with later Christian additions after the Reconquista (1245–1296). The 13th-century Pobla Medieval at the base of the Peñón de Ifac is a rare excavated Christian frontier town, free to visit.