Tossal de la Cala

A fort from Sertorius's war

Tossal de la Cala is a hill roughly 100 metres high in the Serra Gelada, on which a small Roman military fort stood between the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. Excavations, begun in the 1940s by Father Belda and continued in 1956 by professor M. Tarradell, uncovered a castellum that the surviving remains suggest was built on the orders of general Quintus Sertorius around 77 BC, during the Sertorian Wars that pitted Rome against itself on the Iberian peninsula. The fort was part of a chain of coastal military outposts watching over the shoreline of the Marina Baixa and Marina Alta districts.

Since 2013, new excavation campaigns led by the University of Alicante have confirmed that the site was occupied by Sertorius's troops and have uncovered walls, room remains and sections of the defensive system protecting this stretch of coast. The site can be walked freely via a signposted path that climbs from the built-up area of Benidorm.

A viewpoint with history

Beyond its archaeological value, Tossal de la Cala works as one of Benidorm's natural viewpoints, with views over the coastline and much of the Parc Natural de la Serra Gelada, on whose edge it sits. The climb is short but has some incline, and pairs well with a visit to the Torre de les Caletes, another defensive site on the coast, though from a much later period, within the same protected area. It's worth wearing proper shoes and avoiding the middle of the day in summer, since the path has little shade.