What to see in Polop

Polop stands on a hill in the Marina Baixa, at 262 metres above sea level and around 15 kilometres from the coast, with the Ponoig massif closing off the horizon to the west and the Guadalest river marking the boundary with neighbouring Callosa d'en Sarrià. Its population, just under 6,000, is split between a compact old town built on the slope below the ruins of an Arab castle and a newer extension at its foot. It is an inland town where Islamic and Christian heritage sits alongside a fountain that, on its own, draws much of its visitors.

From Andalusi fortress to Christian lordship

The Castillo de Polop was built in the early twelfth century on the same hill the town now occupies, and was the most important fortified Andalusi settlement in the comarca. Forces loyal to Jaume I conquered it in 1271, and the king granted the site to the knight Bertrán de Belpuig; it later passed to the Fajardo family, who held the lordship until the late nineteenth century. The fortress saw fighting during the thirteenth-century revolts led by Al-Azraq and, later, during the Germania period, when a group of moriscos held out inside its walls. Its structures were partly dismantled so the stone could be used to build the town's hermitage, and what remains today are stretches of a double wall, an underground cistern and the ruins of a square tower thought to be the core of the original fortification.

The Fuente de los Chorros and the legacy of Gabriel Miró

In the centre of the old town, Plaza de los Chorros brings together the town hall, the church of San Pedro and a fountain that has grown over time: it began in 1855 with eleven spouts, rose to a hundred in 1965 and has carried its current 221 spouts since a 1976 remodelling, fed by the Terrer and Garrofer springs. A short walk away, the Museo Casa Gabriel Miró commemorates the Alicante-born writer, who spent long stays in the town for the health of his daughter Clemencia and described it in Años y leguas; the house that holds the museum is not the one Miró actually lived in, which no longer stands, but it keeps personal belongings donated by his family. Anyone who prefers the outdoors can climb Monte Ponoig, the nearly 1,200-metre massif that overlooks the town, with pine forest and some of the best viewpoints near Alicante.