Cultural Life and Events at the Costa Blanca

Alicante, Elche and Orihuela are very old towns and of cultural and historical interest: The Castillo de Santa Barbara, the castle on top of the hill in Alicante, is huge and offers fantastic views to the surrounding landscape.
In Elche you can visit the Baños Árabes, the old moorish baths, from the XII. century. Cartagena is in the province of Murcia, but near enough for an excursion to the old city and the now deserted mines of the La Unión area.

Nearly every village along the Costa Blanca celebrates the fiesta »Moros y Cristianos« (Moores and Christians) and »Semana Santa« (Easter holy week) with multicoloured processions, music and fireworks. The 24th of June, San John´s night, in Alicante they are burning big effigies in an night-long fiesta.
There are also many smaller local fiestas: for example for the fishermen´s towns the »Virgen del Carmen«, the »Fiesta de Mayo« in Torrevieja with typical spanish dances and finally the very amazing »Tomatina« in Buñol, where the people in the streets throw tomatoes.

During the whole year there are performances in the Teatro Principal of Alicante and in the Gran Teatro of Elche. In summer time you will find a wide range of cultural events all along the Coast. The flamenco festival called »Cante de las Minas« in La Union is very famous throughout of Spain and always shows best flamenco dancers and singers.

For fans of bullfighting, there are two big permanent arenas in Alicante and Murcia. And many villages in the area have portable arenas and celebrate bullfights during their local fiestas.