Torremanzanas

Torremanzanas, mountain Costa Blanca just above Alicante

Torremanzanas, or la Torre de les Maçanes in Valencian, is an inland village in the province of Alicante, sitting at around 790 metres in the foothills of the Carrasqueta and the Aitana range. It lies about 40 kilometres from the city, a little under an hour by mountain road, yet the pace here belongs to another world: barely seven hundred and fifty residents, clean air and summers that stay cooler than on the coast. This is the Costa Blanca few people picture, the one of closed valleys, almond trees and quiet.

Mountains, woodland and trails

The municipality unfolds across a narrow valley cut by the Torremanzanas ravine, among slopes of pine and holm oak. From spots such as Els Plans and El Rentonar the views run out towards Aitana, Puig Campana and, on clear days, the sea. This is walking country: paths climbing to the ridges, old tracks between farmhouses and open night skies where the stars come out far brighter than down below. For anyone after nature close to Alicante, this corner delivers.

The Aitana range from Els Plans, Torremanzanas. Photo: bladimiro / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 3.0)

The tower, the ice and the stone

The village takes its name from the Casa Alta, an Almohad tower from the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that still watches over the old quarter. Beside it, the church of Santa Ana, built in the late sixteenth century, anchors the centre with its bell tower. Higher up in the sierra stands the Pozo de la Nieve, one of the old snow wells, or neveras, where winter ice was once stored to be carried down to the city. Steep lanes, whitewashed houses and bare stone round out a place best explored slowly.

The church of Santa Ana at the end of a village street. Photo: 19Tarrestnom65 / Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Festivals and country cooking

Life here follows the calendar of the fiestas. San Gregorio in May, Santa Ana in late July and the Assumption in mid August fill the streets with music, fireworks and old friends. The cooking is mountain and dryland fare: almonds, olive oil and whatever the gardens and the hills give, with local sierra honey as a small treasure. People eat unhurried and talk in the square, which is already half the party.

Getting there and around

You reach Torremanzanas by mountain road, with Xixona as the natural gateway towards Alicante and Alcoi on the far side of the range. A car is your best ally: in under an hour you are in the city, at its airport or on the beaches of El Campello and San Juan, and coming home means a quiet village waiting. That double life, mountains to live in and the coast within reach, is much of its appeal.

Buying in Torremanzanas

Here we have a country house in the Barranc de l'Horta area, for anyone who wants land, stone and a wide horizon without straying far from Alicante. If a village or country home in the Alicante mountains appeals to you, and you are looking around here, let's talk.