Spain · 9th century
Santa Bàrbara Castle (Valencian: Castell de Santa Bàrbara, Spanish: Castillo de Santa Bárbara) is a fortification in the center of Alicante, Valencian Community, Spain. It stands on Mount Benacantil (166 m) bordering the sea, which gave it enormous strategic value since from it you can see the entire bay of Alicante and its land surroundings. The image of the mountain from the beach resembles a face, which is why it is called "the face of the Moor" and is an icon of the city of Alicante.
There are historians who date the origin of the place name to the words bena, an Arabic transcription of pinna, 'peña' in Latin, and laqanti, an adjective that comes from Laqant, Alicante for the Arabs.
Text adapted from “Santa Bàrbara Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Santa Bárbara Castle ranks #694 of 9,079 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #29 of the 607 mapped in Spain. Founded c. 850, it is older than 94% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 88 atlas entries founded in the 9th century. Its Wikipedia articles were opened 11,925 times in the last 60 days, more than 95% of the atlas. 5 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Alicante, 1 km away. See how Spain compares in the castle statistics.
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