Alcoy

The name Alcoy appears in written records as early as 1248, in the Llibre del Repartiment de Valencia, which uses it to name the river now called the Serpis. But human presence here goes back far longer. The El Salt site shows evidence of repeated temporary camps over thousands of years, with flint tools and animal bones — deer, goat, horse — pointing to Neanderthal-era occupation. Rock shelters near La Sarga preserve Levantine and Schematic prehistoric paintings showing hunting and gathering scenes, dating from roughly 10,000 to 6,500 years ago.

By the Copper Age, around 3000 BC, people had moved out of caves and onto open plains, using some caves for collective burials — Les Llometes and the Cueva de la Pastora among them. Fortified hilltop settlements followed, practising cereal farming. Iberian culture eventually took hold here, within the ancient territory of Contestania, shaped by contact with Phoenician and Greek traders from the nearby coast. Roman-era settlement was mostly rural, sitting in the orbit of coastal cities like Denia and Alicante. The region's Iberian archaeological finds are held in Alcoy's municipal archaeology museum.

Alcoy's medieval fabric survives in fragments. The Torre de Na Valora is a Gothic Valencian watchtower; other remnants include the Torre N'Aiça, the Arco de San Roque, the Torre-portal de Riquer, and a reconstructed stretch of the old town wall. The Castillo de Barchell, likely of Muslim origin and probably built around the 11th century, was given by Jaime I to two squires in 1248 after the Christian conquest. A rectangular lordly tower and a courtyard with cistern still stand. It is a declared Bien de Interés Cultural, currently privately owned and under restoration.

The old town as a whole reflects the urban shape that emerged when Alcoy became a pioneer city of the Spanish industrial revolution — factories, working-class districts and bourgeois houses sharing a tight space between rivers and valleys. Plaza de España is the main civic square, where the town hall (1846–1863) holds a collection of local painting and sculpture. Beneath the square, the Lonja de San Jorge is an exhibition space designed by Santiago Calatrava and completed in 1995. Notable modernist buildings include the Círculo Industrial (1911) and the Monte de Piedad i Caixa d'Estalvis (1909), which now houses the IVAM Centre d'Art d'Alcoi.

Local buses are run by Subus Alcoi across six routes. A single fare is €0.85, paid in cash to the driver. A Tarjeta Multiviaje card gives ten journeys for €5 and can be bought at convenience shops listed on the Subus Alcoi website.

Alcoy and nearby Cocentaina are known for café licor, a coffee liqueur with roots in the early 13th century that carries the Spanish denomination Bebidas Espirituosas Tradicionales; it can be drunk straight or mixed with orxata, soda water, or lemon water. The local craft beer, Cervesa Spigha, comes in three varieties: American pale ale, brown ale, and blonde ale.