Some called it Calpe meaning steep rugged hill made of rock, the Phoenicians called it Ifach which meant north. So the whole town of Calpe was referred to as the north craggy rock, having Gibraltar as the south reference. Calpe, which is north of Altea and south of Denia, is an ideal vacation spot on the Costa Blanca on the Mediterranean Sea in Spain. Going back as far as 1935, Calpe took advantage of its privileged coastal location and inaugurated its first hotel in the town where some well-known celebrities such as Hemingway once stayed.
A closer look at Calpe and the Penon
As mentioned earlier, Calpes main attraction is not its town nor even its beautiful soft sandy beaches but the tall craggy rock formation called the Penon de Ifach. It is hard to believe, but this is the smallest natural park in Spain together with the Columbretes Islands in Castellon. It was declared a Natural Park in 1987 because its 300 varieties of vegetation and colonies of birds needed protection from the expansion that this small fishing village was undergoing at an incredible speed. It measures about 35 hectares and has a botanical, landscape and tectonic interest. The swift or martin...