Isla de Tabarca

Roman-era materials found on the island — including remains of a necropolis, shipwrecked amphorae, and what may be industrial buildings — point to early occupation, though no firm evidence of a permanent settlement has emerged. The island is possibly the Planesia recorded by ancient Greek writers.

The story of today's Tabarca begins in 1768. King Carlos III, prompted by a Trinitarian friar named Alonso Cano Nieto, arranged the rescue of survivors who remained in difficult circumstances until 14 October 1768, when the operation formally began. It was carried out in secret by the provincials of two redemptive orders: Alonso Cano Nieto of the Calced Trinitarians and Antonio Manuel de Artalejo of the Discalced Mercedarians. The process concluded on 8 December of that year, and the whole episode was recorded in the baptismal register of the parish of San Pedro y San Pablo.

Each family arriving on the island was assigned a numbered house through a formal act with a proper receipt. The new colonists were granted a set of privileges and exemptions, including freedom from military service and from both direct and indirect taxes that applied to the rest of the kingdom's towns.

This marked the beginning of the island's settlement as it exists today, though a decline eventually set in that was not reversed until well into the 1960s. As recently as 2026, residents voted to begin the process of becoming an independent local authority.

The entire island was declared a historic-artistic monument on 27 August 1964, with materials spanning from the early Roman imperial period onwards.

The walls follow the island's perimeter and were built largely to the original plans, constructed in stone with ashlar-faced outer surfaces. Several sections have deteriorated badly and some have collapsed into the sea, and almost no battlements remain. Restoration and rehabilitation work has been carried out at various points since 1980. The island has two gates: the Puerta de Tierra — also called the Puerta de Alicante or Puerta de San Miguel — which opens onto a small cove where the original harbour stood.

A small chapel already existed on the island by 1769. It was enlarged into a full church and blessed in 1770. The current building stands alone, with a single nave, lateral chapels, and a porch and window openings in the baroque style, characterised by curves and warped surfaces. Next to the church a building was constructed to serve as the priest's house and a school.

Since the planned castle was never built, the Governor's House was put up on one side of the main square, built over what had originally been stables, to provide, as the documents put it, a decent temporary accommodation for the Governor and the Town Council. It is a two-storey building with a hipped roof, and parts of the ground floor still reflect its original storage function, with large open spaces supported by a double intermediate arcade.

The Torre de San José has roots in earlier constructions from previous centuries and stands in the western third of the island. The current tower was designed by Baltasar Ricoud. It served as a state prison, and on 12 November 1838, during the First Carlist War, nineteen Carlist sergeants were executed there by order of the liberal Junta de Salvación y Defensa del Reino de Valencia. A commemorative plaque was installed in the citadel of Nueva Tabarca in 1996, and in 2024 the Alicante city council asked the Ministry of the Interior to transfer ownership of the tower so it could be turned into a permanent museum.

The lighthouse dates from 1854. The surrounding waters were declared Spain's first marine reserve in 1986.