History of Benidorm

Within the municipality of Benidorm, evidence of ancient settlements dating back to the Bronze Age and the Early Iberian period—from the 4th century BC onward—can be found at Tossal de la Cala, where a representation of the goddess Tanit (2nd century BC) was discovered. The ruins of a Roman castellum from the time of the Sertorian Wars (82-72 BC) have also been restored and brought to light. Andalusian remains have also been found in the Lliriets area.

Foundation of Benidorm

Benidorm was founded on May 8, 1325, when Admiral Bernat de Sarriá, Procurator of the Kingdom of Valencia on behalf of King James II of Aragon, granted a town charter before the notary Joan Cerdá in the city of Valencia. Benidorm Castle predates the town by a little (first referenced in 1321), and the town was established at Punta Canfali, protected by the castle.

From this document, which granted Benidorm self-government, the town was given unrestricted fishing and maritime trade rights. Thus began the town's history, centred on small-scale agriculture, dependent on meagre water supplies for irrigation and supply, alongside an intense fishing industry. This industry soon specialised in tuna fishing using various almadraba fishing methods, small-scale coastal navigation, and privateering, given the situation in the Mediterranean at that time, where the town was vulnerable to pirate raids launched from North Africa (the Barbary Coast) against the coastal settlements of the Christian kingdoms of the Iberian Peninsula.

The sea has always been fundamental to the life of Benidorm. If then an essential element of life, and today a source of leisure and entertainment, a longship also arrived by sea in 1740, bearing on its stern an image of the Virgin, patron saint of sailors. Today, she shares the patronage of the town with Saint James and is venerated as Our Lady of Suffrage. She is the perpetual mayoress and wears the Naval Merit Cross awarded by the Spanish Navy.

The beginnings of that 14th-century Benidorm were therefore difficult: at the mercy of the weather, piracy, and epidemics until well into the 17th century, when agricultural activity was strengthened by the new water supply through the Séquia Mare (1666) and the support of a new town charter, granted by Beatriz Fajardo de Mendoza, to attract more people to the town. This coincided with the beginning of the expansion of tuna fishing and privateering.

 

The Tuna Trap Fishing and Privateering

As early as the 15th century, the people of Benidorm began to establish themselves as captains (arràs) and sailors in the main almadrabas (tuna traps) of the dukes, first of Medinaceli and years later, of Medina Sidonia, generating lines of excellent captains throughout the Spanish Mediterranean, both coasts of the Strait of Gibraltar, and North Africa.

In parallel, they developed an intense activity defending the coasts and interests of the Crown through valiant privateers, distinguished by their military exploits, excellent crews, and fine ships. Forged over two centuries, the privateers of Benidorm rivalled those of the Balearic Islands in fame. Among the most distinguished privateers of Benidorm was Juan Bautista Pérez, “Batistilla,” who, due to his prestige and renowned valour, was entrusted with escorting the Holy Chalice to safety when Suchet's troops approached Valencia during the Peninsular War, and on its return. Batistilla gifted the town of Benidorm the bells of the Church of San Jaime and Santa Ana, cast from the cannons of an English ship captured in 1817.

The glorious era of Benidorm's privateering activities extended throughout the 18th century; in 1783, the city itself even armed privateering ships. The privateers of Benidorm would eventually be integrated into the Spanish Navy.

For its part, the almadraba activity continued throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, and reached the 20th century – the Benidorm almadraba closed in 1952 – and crossed the border of the 21st century, until 2023 when the last arràs of Benidorm died - Vicente Zaragoza Casamayor, of the saga of ‘La Sal’ – captaining of tuna Fishing Traps in Cádiz.

 

Coastal shipping, merchant shipping, and transatlantic shipping.

Backed by their knowledge of the sea and navigation, Benidorm's sailors also excelled in coastal shipping, becoming masters of transatlantic navigation, commanding sailing vessels that made the voyage to the Americas or travelled to China, the Philippines, or Japan.

Benidorm's captains and pilots were known throughout the world, as were their crews, experts in manoeuvring. By 1820, Benidorm boasted up to 230 fishing boats, coastal vessels, and large sailing ships engaged in intense trade with Barcelona, ​​Valencia, Marseille, Almería, Málaga, Seville, Huelva, Algeciras, Cádiz, Havana, Cebu, and Manila, where many Benidorm residents settled to enhance the commercial network.

In the 1850s, a new generation of captains and pilots emerged, specialising in voyages to the Americas and the Philippines. Benidorm, with a population of barely 3,000, had 1,700 members registered in the Mariners' Guild, and in 1890, more than 70 active captains on large ships.

When steamships replaced sail, and navigation was modernised, Benidorm's sailors once again rose through the ranks, taking on new roles as engineers, radio operators, pursers, boatswains, and any other position a large vessel like those of the Pinillos, Marqués de Campo, Naviera Gallart, Compañía Valenciana, or Compañía Transatlántica Española (The Spanish Line) might require. Up to 17 captains from Benidorm commanded the Spanish Line's large ships, the first in their ranks being Captain Antonio María Vives Orts, who, after retiring, was called upon by the Marqués de Comillas company to command the inaugural voyages of its new routes. In 1925, Vives, at the helm of the transatlantic liner ‘Cristóbal Colón’, broke a speed record crossing the Atlantic and was visited by King Alfonso XIII during a stay in Santander, where His Majesty uttered the phrase "Before a sailor from Benidorm, it is a duty to remove one's hat." And so he did.

With Vives and all those great captains from Benidorm, hundreds of Benidorm residents sailed all the seas of the world, which allowed new generations of open-minded and cosmopolitan Benidorm residents, knowledgeable about the world.

 

The commitment to hospitality and tourism.

Open and cosmopolitan minds, knowledgeable about the world, were crucial in Benidorm's new direction; minds and hearts forged especially during the 19th century to begin envisioning a new reality: tourism. Benidorm—the Mediterranean now freed from North African pirate pressure—began its journey in hospitality in 1865 with its first accommodation establishment Hostal La Mayora.

Benidorm was aware of its potential in a sheltered bay, open to the south, dominated by a centrally located and equidistant island, two immense sandy beaches—to the east and west of Canfali Hill, where the first Benidorm emerged—and a ring of mountains that protected it from the winds.

At the dawn of the 19th century, enlightened travellers like Christian August Fischer began to highlight Benidorm's characteristics (1803, Gemalde von Valencia).

And then came the hygienist principles of the new century, which extolled the virtues of the sun and marine environments, turning society's attention to beaches and coastal areas. Doctors began recommending these places—for the iodine in the sea breeze—and summer vacations took on a social dimension. Thus, Benidorm began to be recommended—in addition to relaxation—as a place for sea bathing: Aureliano Maestre de San Juan's New Guide for Bathers in Spain (1852).

The railway was crucial. In 1858, it reached Alicante, and the slow flow of travellers to coastal destinations began. Given its success, by 1893, tourist packages to Benidorm were being offered, allowing for organised 12-day stays at affordable prices, with arrival and return by train (18 hours from Madrid to Alicante, plus the subsequent carriage journey to Benidorm). These trips were made on the so-called "water jug ​​trains." Once in Alicante, the journey from the "La Balseta" Post Office to Benidorm took another four hours by stagecoach. This service operated until 1917, and it is estimated to have brought around 35,000 summer visitors to Benidorm.

And no less crucial would be road communication. Road access to Alicante materialized in 1860, and to Valencia in 1880. Until then, Benidorm was only connected by land to Polop, Callosa d’En Sarrià, and Alcoy.

Public lighting arrived in 1883. And from that year dates the first advertisement inviting people to spend their summers in Benidorm. Businessman Francisco Ronda Galindo advertised his spa: Grande Establecimiento de Baños de Mar Virgen del Sufragio (Grand Sea Bathing Establishment of Our Lady of Suffrage).

With the dawn of the 20th century, all of Spain awakened to tourism. Between 1900 and 1913, the country's tourism awareness developed under the lens of the "Foreigners' Industry," a concept that emerged after World War I. Following the war and until 1927, there was an intense period of planning, in step with the development of architecture and urban planning, which materialised from 1929 onwards in countless developments along the entire Mediterranean coast.

Benidorm couldn't be left out. And it was in the second decade of the 20th century, when the engines of ships were taking the tuna away from our shores, and our merchant marine was booming, that Benidorm's first hotel was built: the Hotel Bilbaíno (1926). Pedro Cortés, a steward on the ships of Navieras Bilbaínas, thus paid homage to the company that had allowed him to see the world and emulated the hotel that welcomed him when he arrived in Valparaíso (Chile).

The beginning of tourism planning

In the Roaring Twenties, Benidorm went further, embarking on a tourism plan focused also on beautifying the town. Between 1924 and 1927, the Plaça del Torrejó, the Plaça del Castell (with its iconic Ti Santonja balustrade), and the first Elche Park were renovated. This period saw the rise of villa architecture, with Alcoy businessmen building these villas shortly before the port's completion in 1929.

In 1931, the road to Rincón de Loix, now the Avenida de Madrid and Avenida de Alcoy, was opened, and the urban development of Levante Beach began, culminating in the 1956 General Urban Development Plan.

But there is yet another significant date: March 16, 1936. The Local Tourism Board was established. It was only formally established, but its spirit was revived in 1939, immediately after the war, by the Benidorm Pro-Beaches Commission, which eventually became the Gabriel Miró Association of Friends of Benidorm. Within this association, the ideas that would culminate in the 1956 General Urban Development Plan (PGOU) were conceived.

Following the planning trend initiated by the Ensesa family with S’Agaró urbanisation (1924), the tourism planning movement reached the province of Alicante from 1929 onwards. During these three years, projects for future summer resorts proliferated in Les Rotes (Denia), El Montañar (Jávea), El Portet (Moraira), l’Olla (Altea), Levante Beach (Benidorm), Dr Esquerdo Promenade (Villajoyosa), the Garden City of San Juan Beach (Ciudad Prieto), and the coastal developments of Santa Pola and Los Playas. Locos and El Cura (Torrevieja), with hardly any connection beyond a residential project.

But the early tourist development initiatives of the 1930s were interrupted by the Spanish Civil War.

After the war, Benidorm's tourism vocation resurfaced, and plans for Levante Beach were resumed, while Poniente Beach served as an idyllic natural setting for Columbus's landing in "Dawn of America." And this wasn't the first time Benidorm had been filmed; in 1926, the German director Reinhardt Blothner had already filmed "The Four Robinsons."

 

Planned urbanism: The 1956 General Plan

In the 1950s, when Pedro Zaragoza Orts became mayor, he planned to focus on the "tourist industry." Benidorm in 1950 was a rural town of 2,726 inhabitants—118 of whom were captains and pilots in the Merchant Navy—already receiving nearly 10,000 summer visitors and aspiring to attract even more. The development of the Levante Beach alignments began in 1951 and culminated in 1956 with the implementation of the General Urban Development Plan, which would serve as a test case for Spain's new Land Law. In 1953, Pedro Zaragoza, known as Don Pedro, commissioned the architect Francisco Muñoz Llorens to draw up building regulations for Levante Beach. Muñoz Llorens's task was to merge the plans of private developers in Levante (at least two) into a single organizing document that projected his vision onto the entire municipality.

The 1956 General Urban Development Plan (PGOU) was a commitment to the future; a very bold future. It maximised the development of land previously used for agricultural activities, respecting more than 60% of the municipality—which remains protected to this day—and used a grid street layout to support and define the expansion of the eastern part of town based on a garden city model, with single-family homes on minimum plots of 5,000 m2. It also included plans for development on Poniente Beach, in the cove, and in the northern part of the traditional town centre.

Benidorm planned its urban development and began to be a benchmark of success in Spain, innovating in tourism marketing with unparalleled campaigns: Operation BB/Benidorm-Bilbao, an embassy in Lapland, the almond blossom campaign for Scandinavia, and the European Days coinciding with the genesis of the European Economic Community. But without a doubt, the most successful was hosting the REM-CAR Song Festival, which immediately became the Benidorm Festival, launching charismatic names like Raphael (1964) and Julio Iglesias (1968) to musical fame. After 39 editions, the Benidorm Festival became the essence reflected in Benidorm Fest (2022), which, in partnership with RTVE, selects the song that will represent Spain in Eurovision.

Don Pedro defended his General Plan with a publication that is now a prime example of tourism marketing – “This is what Benidorm will be like” – without revealing its fundamental objective: bringing water to Benidorm, a long-standing issue that had always hindered the city's development. The drinking water supply network for Benidorm was inaugurated in February 1960.

The key to the 1956 General Plan is that the regulations that defined the implementation of a territorial planning model are still perplexing today due to their simplicity, and this, without a doubt, has been the secret to its enduring relevance.

The aim was to create a city designed for leisure, and it was achieved. There was no strict zoning for different land uses, which allowed for greater flexibility in future development. The city was left open to future tourism trends, which ultimately shaped the process. Special care was taken with the beaches, and the town's greenbelt was protected, preventing uncontrolled construction and the resulting deforestation.

With its 1956 General Urban Development Plan (PGOU), Benidorm planned for orderly growth and established exemplary regulations that defended its urban design and beaches like no other location on the Spanish coast. The 1956 General Plan underwent a significant revision in 1963, representing a qualitative leap forward in tourism-oriented urban planning.

The city of vertical blocks

In 1963, new Building Regulations were approved. These regulations promoted a new urban model, increasingly favouring residential and hotel development. This paved the way for the Vertical City, a departure from the original garden city concept. Everything changed. The new vertical city model was based on tall, freestanding buildings, allowing sunlight and light to enter from all sides and freeing up space for vegetation and swimming pools. This model was developed using the Matchbox Theory, which manages building volume on a plot of land. It permitted the construction of vertical blocks proportional to the plot's area, based on a volumetric coefficient that did not aim to increase the buildable volume relative to the existing one, but rather to arrange it freely. This construction phase, which began in 1963, is a product of the Modern Movement architectural current that emerged following the Athens Charter of 1933.

The 1963 Plan embodied the dream of urban planners from the 1930s: a city of vertical blocks amidst open spaces for community use.

Muñoz Llorens's innovation was to invert Le Corbusier's contemporary city by giving skyscrapers, originally conceived as offices, a residential use that dramatically increased population density. This was something that architect Minoru Yamasaki had already experimented with in Pruitt-Igoe, St. Louis (Missouri, USA) in 1952. And unlike Yamasaki's complex, demolished in 1972, Muñoz Llorens's Benidorm, despite sacrificing public spaces for swimming pools, setbacks, and hotels, has survived as a symbol of the mass tourism phenomenon.

Since 1963, Benidorm has been reinventing itself for sun and beach tourism, becoming a paradigm of the democratisation of holidays. The 1970s brought a remarkable expansion of its hotel infrastructure, and the Benidorm we know today began to take shape. Benidorm's evolution has been continuous, and the project has always remained vibrant because, then as now, Benidorm has possessed the same virtue and practised the same strategy: adapting to the demands of tourism. This is why Benidorm was successful in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 2000s, and in the 21st century. Benidorm reinvents itself decade after decade, maintaining its essential leadership in tourism.

In the 1960s, the first international tour operators arrived and began operating in Benidorm, taking advantage of the privileged climate and affordable prices. The first initiative to reduce the seasonality of tourism arrived immediately, a strategy that was consolidated on May 4, 1967, with the opening of El Altet Airport—now Alicante-Elche Airport ‘Miguel Hernández’—to national and international air traffic and the arrival of the first charter flights.

From the 1970s onward, Benidorm developed its planned tourism model and began to achieve outstanding national and international success and acclaim, garnering national and international awards for its efficient land management model and the efficient use and distribution of its drinking water network: sustainability.

The 1963 plan was updated in 1990, maintaining the fundamental principles of ecological preservation and the accommodation model.

 

Benidorm in the 21st century

At the dawn of the 21st century, in the autumn of 2015, Benidorm set itself a new goal focused on sustainability, universal accessibility, innovation, and technology to achieve better governance. In December 2018, it was certified as the world's first Smart Tourist Destination, testing the first standard of its kind on-site.

Like the rest of the world, Benidorm suffered the devastating impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. Its crisis management model was recognised as another success story. Benidorm worked to create a health and safety product and regain the confidence of the international market, where safety was the cornerstone of all its actions. Benidorm DTI+Safe was structured around three interconnected lines of work: health monitoring, through the Patti Recovery project; a commitment to quality with the COVID-19 ON and Benidorm Beach Safety protocols; and the management of public spaces. Benidorm demonstrated that tourism is the sum of travel and contact between people, and the key is to make these experiences safe. The value of Tourism Intelligence management is fundamental to this. Thanks to rapid organisation and access to real-time data, the city was able to safely and effectively mobilise its tourists. The Smart Tourism Destination (STD) model allowed Benidorm to react swiftly during a crisis, minimising the impact on the city's image as a safe destination. As a success story, it presented its Safe and Sustainable STD+ proposal to the OECD as an example of resilience.

Since then, leading the recovery, the Benidorm model has continued its successful trajectory and its history, linked and fully committed to the world of tourism and hospitality. After adding new distinctions in the last three years, Benidorm has received in 2024 the award for Most Sustainable Destination (Smart Travel News Awards), the Environmental Sustainability Award, Inclusive Destination and the EnerTIC Awards, starting 2025, the year in which it commemorates its seventh centenary since its founding, with the distinction, won in competitive competition, of European Green Pioneer of Smart Tourism 2025 of the European Commission.