Ermita de San Antonio Abad (Ermita de Sanç)

The Ermita de San Antonio Abad, popularly known as the Ermita de Sanç, stands in open countryside, in the rural district of the same name, several kilometres from central Benidorm. It was founded around 1740 by Tomás Sanç, general steward of the lordships of Polop and Benidorm, who lived in this rural area while his father, holding the same post, worked out of Polop. Sanç also held a doctorate in law, a title that led contemporary records to refer to him as "Doctor Sanç," and his surname is the source of the name still used today for both the hermitage and the surrounding rural district.

History

Sanç had the hermitage built to provide religious services to the scattered population living across the area's many farmhouses, at the time a considerable distance from Benidorm's urban centre. Modest in appearance, with almost no ornamentation, it has hosted worship on Sundays and holy days since its founding, first for the farmers of the surrounding countryside and today as a gathering point for those who keep the Sant Antoni festival alive.

Visiting

The hermitage's interest lies more in its history and setting than in its architecture: it shows what rural Benidorm looked like before the town became a tourist destination, when the urban centre around the Iglesia de San Jaime y Santa Ana in the Casco Antiguo was still a distance from these scattered farmhouses. It remains the setting for the Sant Antoni festival, with a pilgrimage and an offering to the saint, one of the less well-known dates on Benidorm's festive calendar for visitors. Anyone in the area can also visit the Castillo de Polop, in the neighbouring town with which the hermitage shared feudal administration under the very same line of barons for centuries, long before either place took on its present shape.