Qualla: Benissa https://qualla.com/benissa en-us © 2026 Bendyline Thu, 20 Aug 2026 16:39:03 GMT Qualla serial false Qualla support@bendyline.com yes https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/b/h/benissa-wp/hero-small.webp Qualla: Benissa https://qualla.com/benissa Benissa: Introduction https://qualla.com/benissa/ Photo credit Joanbanjo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Benissa is a town of some twelve thousand souls, and it has a cathedral. Not officially, the great Neo-Gothic church at its heart holds no bishop and carries no such title, but the people of the Marina call it the Catedral de la Marina all the same, and standing in its shadow you see why. Its stone spires rise absurdly, gloriously out of proportion to the small hill town around them, visible from the vineyards and the coast road long before the streets themselves come into view.

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Image: Joanbanjo | CC BY-SA 4.0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/b/h/benissa-wp/snbh-benissa-intro.mp3 0:06 1 full Benissa: The Cathedral That Isn't https://qualla.com/benissa/ Photo credit Diego Delso, CC BY-SA 3.0. The church anchors a medieval centre that Benissa has kept remarkably intact. Narrow streets wind between houses whose doorsteps open straight onto the paving, their plain fronts hiding internal courtyards and rooms that prove far more spacious than the exterior suggests. Ironwor...

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Image: Diego Delso | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/b/h/benissa-wp/snbh-benissa-the-cathedral-that-isnt.mp3 0:06 2 full Benissa: Sons of an Older Name https://qualla.com/benissa/ Photo credit Michael Kranewitter, CC BY-SA 3.0. The name itself carries the region's tangled history. Benissa descends from an Arabic tribal name, Beni-Hisa, from the centuries when this was Muslim land. After the Christian reconquest of 1248, settlers arrived from the Pyrenees, Catalonia, and Aragon and moved in among the exi...

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Image: Michael Kranewitter | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/b/h/benissa-wp/snbh-benissa-sons-of-an-older-name.mp3 0:06 3 full Benissa: The Admiral's Four Towns https://qualla.com/benissa/ Photo credit Tereticm, CC BY-SA 2.0. For much of the Middle Ages Benissa did not stand alone. Together with Altea, Calp, and Teulada it formed a single lordship, and among the lords who held it was Roger of Lauria, the formidable Sicilian admiral who commanded the fleets of Aragon. The arrangement did not spare the ...

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Image: Tereticm | CC BY-SA 2.0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/b/h/benissa-wp/snbh-benissa-the-admirals-four-towns.mp3 0:06 4 full Benissa: A Coast Held at Arm's Length https://qualla.com/benissa/ Photo credit Joanbanjo, CC BY-SA 3.0. Benissa owns roughly four kilometres of shoreline, yet the town keeps its distance from it, perched inland among terraced vineyards and palm trees while its beaches lie a drive downhill. That coast, the Benissa Costa, is a string of cliff tops and small coves, La Fustera, Baladra...

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Image: Joanbanjo | CC BY-SA 3.0

]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/b/h/benissa-wp/snbh-benissa-a-coast-held-at-arms-length.mp3 0:06 5 full Benissa: Moors and Christians, Every June https://qualla.com/benissa/ Photo credit Joanbanjo, CC BY-SA 4.0. Benissa keeps its history alive by staging it. In January the Fira i Porrat de Sant Antoni fills the streets with a medieval fair. Late April brings the Festes Patronals de la Purissima Xiqueta, honouring the town's patron saint with concerts, processions, bull-running, and sport...

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]]> Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMT https://qualla.com/_m/s/n/b/h/benissa-wp/snbh-benissa-moors-and-christians-every-june.mp3 0:06 6 full