Castillo de Dénia

The Castillo de Dénia crowns the hill above the city, with a design of Islamic origin from between the 11th and 12th centuries built over earlier remains of Roman Dianium, traces of whose dwellings and fortifications have turned up on its slopes. The complex was reshaped over the centuries: the Almohad period left its mark on the enclosure, the Torre Roja and Torre del Consell were built in the 15th century, and the Governor's Palace went up between the 16th and 17th centuries.

The Portal de la Vila

The entrance gate, the Portal de la Vila, keeps an Almohad-style pointed arch on the outside and a barrel vault inside, with later alterations layered over the original 12th-century structure. Around it, Renaissance-era bastions and other defensive features complete an enclosure that stacks different periods without a single unified style. Denia's own name comes from Dianium, the Roman settlement that occupied this same hill, a continuity of name that spans more than two thousand years of almost unbroken occupation of the promontory.

The archaeological museum

Since 1957 the castle has housed the city's Archaeological Museum, one of the pioneering museums in the region, with four rooms covering the Iberian, Roman, Muslim and Christian periods of Denia. From the top of the enclosure, much of the coastline opens up, with Montgó in the background and the Barrio de los Pescadores spreading out toward the harbour at the foot of the hill, not far from the Iglesia de la Asunción. Its museum is a regular entry on lists of the province's best museums.