Santa Bárbara Castle: a thousand years atop Mount Benacantil

When you look up from any street in central Alicante, there it is. The pale stone mass cut against the Mediterranean sky, walls that seem to grow out of the rock as if they were part of it, flags fluttering 167 metres above your head. Santa Bárbara Castle is not a detail of the Alicante landscape: it is the landscape. And it has been so for a thousand years.

Leaning over the balcony of the Macho del Castillo and looking down is hard to describe. On one side, the entire bay with Postiguet beach traced in golden sand. On the other, the old quarter of Santa Cruz hanging from the slope, its steep streets and white houses stepped up the hill. Behind, the sierra. Ahead, the open sea all the way to Tabarca. Mount Benacantil, Miocene calcarenite and marl, makes this one of the best natural watchtowers along the entire Spanish coast.

A thousand years of stone

The origin of today's fortress is to be found in the late 9th century, when the Muslims who ruled Al-Andalus raised an alcazaba here. The choice was pure geography: from the Benacantil any incoming fleet can be spotted miles away, and the southern wall of the mount makes a frontal assault from the sea practically impossible. The fortress kept growing through the taifa and Almohad centuries, until 4 December 1248, the feast of Saint Barbara, when Infante Alfonso of Castile (the future Alfonso X the Wise) took it from the Muslim garrison. From that day comes the name it still carries.

Three enclosures, three centuries

Walking through the castle is moving through layers of time. The fortress is organised into three enclosures at different heights, each built in a different era.

The highest enclosure is La Torreta, where the old Tower of Homage once stood and where the most ancient remains, from the 11th to 13th centuries, are preserved. One step below sits the Macho del Castillo, the main esplanade, corresponding to the buildings completed in 1580 under Felipe II: the Felipe II Hall, the former barracks facing the great Plaza de Armas, the Bastion of the Queen. It is the part that visually dominates the ensemble. And finally, the lower enclosure, from the 18th century, houses the Bon Repós Ravelin, today repurposed as a parking area.

The mine that split a castle in two

Of all the episodes the castle has lived through, none marked it like the War of Spanish Succession. In 1706 the English fleet, allied with Archduke Charles of Austria against Felipe V, landed in Alicante and took the castle. They held it until December 1708, when the French knight D'Asfeld, sent by Felipe V, recovered the city and laid out a methodical siege to recover the fortress as well.

What D'Asfeld devised was almost the stuff of a novel: he ordered the digging of a mine 29 metres deep under the Benacantil, to be filled with gunpowder. The work ran from December 1708 to 28 February 1709. In the early hours of 4 March, the mine exploded. The blast was terrible. The English governor Richards, twelve of his officers and forty-two soldiers literally disappeared, devoured by the deflagration. The English held out until 20 April 1709, the date on which they abandoned the castle and Alicante became the last Valencian stronghold to free itself from the Archduke's side. Today you can descend into the Cueva de los Ingleses, the galleries of that mine, now turned into an exhibition room of the MUSA.

The Moor's face, seen from Postiguet

Look at the Benacantil from Postiguet beach in side light, sunset or sunrise, and you will see a human profile carved into the rock. Nose, forehead, lips, chin. The legend says it is the petrified face of a Muslim chieftain, father of Cántara, a princess in love with a young Christian named Alí. When the lovers were discovered and the youth executed, Cántara threw herself from the top of the mount. The father, eaten away by grief, was petrified by Allah as eternal punishment, and his face was left marked on the slope.

From the names of the lovers, Alí and Cántara, popular tradition says the city's name comes: Alicante. It is romantic etymology rather than rigorous (the toponym descends from the Latin Lucentum and its Arabic transformation Laqant), but the legend is beautiful enough that any local will tell it to you tenderly the first time you look at the mount from the sand.

A museum nested inside a fortress

Since 1963 the castle has been open to the public (it was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural in 1961, through Decree 2078/1961 of 13 October) and for years now it has housed the MUSA, the Museum of the City of Alicante. Its five rooms are spread among the old military buildings: the Engineers Corps building (visitor reception centre), the old Hospital, the Sala Larga, the Cueva de los Ingleses rooms devoted to the 1709 mine explosion and the Governor's House. A Renaissance cistern closes the ensemble. The Felipe II Hall, with capacity for 350 people, today hosts dinners, concerts and temporary exhibitions.

How to climb up

There are three ways. On foot, along the Senda del Macho rising from the Santa Cruz neighbourhood: about an hour of demanding climbs, but with views that reward every metre. By car, up to the Bon Repós car park, in the lower enclosure. Or by the lift that starts opposite Postiguet beach, on avenida Juan Bautista Lafora: a discreet entrance carved into the rock, a horizontal tunnel and a cabin that lifts you to the heart of the castle. It costs 2.70 euros per trip at the standard rate and is free for those over 65, children under 5, and members of the security forces on duty.

Entry to the castle itself is free. Opening hours change with the season: from 15 November to 27 February, 10:00 to 18:00; from 28 February to 16 June, 10:00 to 20:00; from 17 June to 4 September, 10:00 to 23:00; and from 5 September to 14 November, 10:00 to 20:00. The last lift ride up is 40 minutes before closing and the last ride down 20 minutes before. In January 2026 the lift was closed for five days for maintenance (12 to 16), an annual pause worth checking on castillodesantabarbara.com before planning the climb.

The most visited monument in the Comunitat

In 2024 the castle received 950,210 people, a historic record up 17% on 2023 figures. 63.17% entered for the first time, and nearly seven out of ten visitors were between 18 and 55. The most represented nationality was British (10.38%), followed by French (10.25%), then Polish, Italian, German, Dutch and Norwegian. The peak month, August, with 100,203 visits. Santa Bárbara Castle is the most visited monument in the entire Comunitat Valenciana, and it is so while remaining free. That coincidence, the most coveted fortress of Alicante with the cheapest entry in Spain, is still one of the small civic victories of this city.

Going up at sunset and seeing it all from above (Tabarca to the left, the sierra at your back, the old quarter at your feet, the sun falling over the sea ahead) is one of those moments in which you understand why the people who arrive in Alicante stay to live here. The stone has watched a thousand years of this. And it promises a thousand more.

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