Dénia (city)

Dénia municipality
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Valencia
Province :	Alicante
Comarca :	Marina Alta
Coordinates	38 ° 50 ′ N , 0 ° 6 ′ E Coordinates: 38 ° 50 ′ N , 0 ° 6 ′ E
Height :	22 msnm
Area :	66.2 km²
Residents :	42,166 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density :	636.95 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	E-03700
Municipality number ( INE ):	03063
administration
Mayor :	Vicent Grimalt ( PSOE )
Website :	www.ayto-denia.es
Location of the municipality

Dénia (in Valencian and officially Dénia , unofficially Spanish Denia ) is a city on the east coast of Spain . It is located between Alicante and Valencia in the north of the Costa Blanca .

After a history as a Roman naval base with the name Dianium and as the seat of a Moorish Taifa kingdom and a Spanish margraviate, Dénia is now the capital of the comarca Marina Alta and a popular holiday destination strongly influenced by tourism.

history

The Roman port city "Dianium", located in a natural harbor, has been around since the 1st century BC. Demonstrable; initially as a naval base, during the Roman Empire as a municipium . After the relatively short rule of the Visigoths in the 6th and 7th centuries, Dénia was conquered by the Moors in the 8th century .

During this Arab rule, the city experienced a cultural and economic heyday in which it became the capital of the Taifa kingdom of Daniya in the 11th century under the Ṣaqlabī al-Muğāhid al-'Amirī, who was the general of the Amirids here after the collapse of the caliphate of Cordoba became king. After his death, the kingdom, which also included the Balearic Islands , was conquered by the Banū Hūd .

In 1244 Dénia was recaptured by King James I of Aragón during the Reconquista and made a county and later a margraviate . Francisco Gómez de Sandoval y Rojas , 5th Margrave of Dénia, Count of Lerma and Prime Minister of the Spanish King Philip III. , finally achieved the appointment of Dénias to the city.

As a result of the Spanish War of Succession and the Napoleonic Wars , Dénia lost its importance from the 18th century.

After the Second World War, the city was a refuge for numerous Nazi criminals. So lived John Bernhardt , former employee of the NSDAP Foreign Organization , until his escape to South America in 1953 undisturbed in the Finca " El Tosalet " in Dénia. Until their death u. a. SS-Hauptsturmbannführer Anton Galler , battalion leader of the 2nd Panzer Grenadier Regiment 35 in the 16th SS Panzer Division , which was significantly involved in the massacre of Sant'Anna di Stazzema , SS-Sturmbannführer Gerhard Bremer , SS-Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny (liberated 1943 Mussolini in Abruzzo) and the SS doctor Aribert Heim in Dénia.

Culture and sights

Castle of Dénia

Museums

Archaeological Museum. The Archaeological Museum gives an overview of the history of the city - from its Iberian beginnings to the 16th century. It is located in Castillo de Dénia.
Ethnological Museum. The Ethnological Museum is mainly dedicated to the 19th century.
Toy museum. The toy museum shows Dénia's toy making industry from 1904 to 1960.
Centro de arte "La Estacion". This is an art center that shows temporary exhibitions.

Buildings

The castle was built by the Moors in the 11th and 12th centuries over an earlier Roman complex and was continuously expanded and rebuilt in the following centuries. The complex was partially destroyed in the War of the Spanish Succession. The garrison that was housed in the castle was disbanded in 1859. Today the castle houses the Dénias Archaeological Museum.
Church of the Assumption (Iglesia de la Asunción), a Baroque building from the 18th century.
Church of St. Anthony (Iglesia de San Antonio) from the first half of the 17th century.

and display information about the image

Panoramic view of Dénia Castle. Left towards the harbor, right behind the old town.

Nature and leisure

Tourists appreciate the 20 km long sandy beach, which turns into a rocky and stone coast at the level of the Las Rotas district. The Montgó nature reserve is suitable for hikers , named after the local mountain Dénias of the same name, a typical layered mountain that rises lonely into the sky and ends in Cabo de San Antonio . In the vicinity of the city there are Roman, Moorish and Spanish ruins and in the neighboring town of Javea, which is worth seeing, the Cabo de la Nao , from which you can enjoy a view of Ibiza when the weather is clear .

The beaches are - due to a system of clean interaction with nature - equipped with the certificates ISO 14001 (gestión medioambiental) and ISO 9001-2000 (gestión de la calidad). There are two zones of beaches, Las Marinas and Las Rotas.

The Zona Marinas has very sandy beaches: Les Deveses, L'Almadraba, Els Molins, Les Bovetes, Les Marines, Albaranes and Punta del Raset.
The Zona de las Rotas is characterized by its numerous bays (most of them with stones) and by its long coastline: Marineta Cassiana, El Trampolí, La Punta Negra, Les Arenetes, La Cala.

Economy and Infrastructure

View from Dénia Las Rotas to the city center

economy

The production of raisins brought Dénia an economic boom in the 19th century - in the years from 1860 to 1900 the population almost doubled from 6,538 to 12,413 inhabitants and a wealthy bourgeoisie emerged. At the beginning of the 20th century, however, the raisin trade fell into a crisis, as a result of which Dénia increasingly focused on the cultivation of citrus fruits and, until the 1960s, on the production of tin toys. With the rapid development of tourism from the second half of the 20th century, all other branches of the economy faded more and more into the background, meanwhile tourism is the dominant economic factor of the city, followed by services in the national, international and multilingual administration and brokerage of real estate . Waste disposal and waste separation is already carried out on a large scale using a future-oriented underground system.

tourism

Dénia is now a popular holiday destination in Spain. Most of the tourists come from Spain, followed by French, Belgians, Germans and British. In recent years, numerous people from these countries have completely settled in Dénia and in the vicinity of the city (especially in Els Poblets ) or own a holiday home there. Land prices in the region are therefore at a higher level.

The best-known tourist spectacle is held annually bullfighting event Bous a la Mar .

Infrastructure

Dénia is connected to both Alicante and Valencia airports by the AP 7 motorway. From Denia ferries run by the company Balearia to the Balearic islands of Ibiza and Mallorca . The railway line L9 of FGV connects Dénia Alicante .

gastronomy

Dénia is particularly known for the cooked red shrimp. Sea stew, aioli (cold cream made from garlic and olive oil), llandeta (fish dish with potatoes) and prawns with Swiss chard are other typical dishes, as well as must made from grape juice and raisins. The city is home to over 300 restaurants, some of them high-class, and Quique Dacosta is one of the 40 best restaurants in the world (2014) with three Michelin stars.

Festivals

Dénia is one of the cities with the most festivals (fiestas) in Europe; In addition to the aforementioned Bous al mar, the typical “Moros y Cristianos” festival is celebrated in August in honor of San Roque (August 13th to 16th). There are marches and flag parades. A highlight of the four-day event is the gala procession, during which Moors and Christians show their traditional clothes. Other festivals are:

Fiestas de San Agustín en Las Rotas: Festival in honor of San Agustín in late August or early September.
Feria de todos los Santos (late October to early November): in Torrecremada. Festival with various activities such as horse riding.
Romería a la Ermita de Santa Lucía (December 13th). Festival that culminates in the chapel of Santa Lucía.