We went to the Santa Maria Church located in the old quarter of Alicante. The church is the oldest active church in Alicante and was built between the 14th and 16th century. Apparently the church was built on top of the remains of a mosque.
From the outside the main features are the tower, the blue tiled dome and the entrance way which has massive doors and archway.
View of the Basilica Santa Maria from the alleywayMain entrance to the Basilica Santa Maria
The church walls are approximately 2 feet think and are solid stone. There are no windows visible on the church and apparently the church was used as a place of refuge when the city was under attack. The exterior writings on the church are remnants of ancient notices which apparently were written on the church for people to see.
Inside the main doors of the church the space opens up into a vast high domed open area.
Centre dome of the church with a glass opening in the centre allowing for lots of light into the churchInside the Basilica of Santa Maria
There is an organ situated high on the wall overlooking the church pews.
Church organ on second level of church
Sunlight shines through the high windows and through the top of the dome brightly lighting up the church interior. There are several alcoves within the church that have ornate statues.
statue of JesusAngel in alcove at Basilica Santa MariaJesus carrying the cross statue in one of the alcoves
The back drop to the church altar is a very ornate and beautifully painted with religious scenes, along with several golden statues.
Ornate back drop to the altar in the church
The church is very impressive with a humble outside appearance but with a very detailed and ornate inside. We are definitely glad we took the time to visit this church.
There is a major festival here in Alicante called “The Hogueras de San Juan” which translates to “The Bonfires of Saint John“. The tradition and history of this particular festival is very interesting. It originates from the tradition of burning useless objects with the arrival of the summer solstice. This is a popular festival and is celebrated in many cities and towns in Spain as well as around most of the world. In Alicante they have been celebrating the festival since 1928 with large effigies like the one pictured below from the early 1930’s.
One of the features of the festival is the creation of giant effigies that are made with cardboard, paper mache and wood. An identical smaller version is also made and all effigies are judged. The first place winner has their smaller identical effigy version saved and put into the Museu the fogueres. The remainder of the effigies including the smaller versions are then burnt on the night of June 24th in a major festival.
Last evening we went to check out the Museu de Fogueres in Alicante. The museum is amazing with effigies of all sizes and shapes on display. Some of the displayed effigies are detailed with realistic renderings, while others are more whimsical in style.
One of the beautiful effigies on display at the Museum
The festival in Alicante began in 1928 and each year there is a winner added to the museum. It was hard to select only a few photos to show you because they are all fantastic. I have a few of our favourites below.
This man and women are on display at the main entrance to the museum. They are the largest of the effigies on display and are approximately 15 to 18 feet high.
Ray standing beside one of the effigies.
The pictures below are from the same effigy at different angles. There was so much detail it was hard to show it all in one photo. The size of the effigy was full scale with a desk, typewriter other items and stood about 5 or 6 feet high.
Detailed effigy with gremlins in the mix making havoc with him.Note the spilled ink blotter dripping off the front of the deskSee the sleeping cat on the floor with ink dripping on his headGremlins climbing up the cord at the side of the deskGremlin pulling out the paper from typewriter
Another effigy we really enjoyed was the cow. This effigy was about 6 feet high and the details were amazing.
Cow effigyCow passing gas and holding a torch with its tailMan drinking milk from hose attached to the utter.
There was also this very bad brood of kids with their dad. It made me laugh as it must have been a father that designed and built this effigy.
Effigy of children misbehaving.brood of kids giving parents a hard time.
There were too many neat and detailed effigies to put each one separately into the blog so we have added a photo gallery. We hope you enjoy them.
Yesterday we went to the “museo the Argueologico” in Alicante. The museum has received awards for its content and presentation. The building is impressive with a grand entrance area.
Entrance to the museum of Archeology in Alicante
In the museum there are 10 wings which have selected displays within each wing. We went through each wing taking our time to view the amazing and detailed exhibits on display. There was a prehistoric period with hunters and food gatherers on display. There was a display of tools that were some 16,000 years old. Hard to imagine these tools still being in existence today.
ancient hunting tools
There was a wing dedicated to the Iberians territory. This territory was in the Alicante region. The Iberian culture was known for its agricultural abilities but also for its fine ceramic art work.
In the centre of the Iberian wing there is a statue of the Lady of Cabezon Lucero.
There were also some beautiful religious artifacts on display.
Artwork of religious stages of the crossancient scripturesreligious artifacts
There was a display of the Roman artifacts and culture from the second and third century BC. This was very interesting because they were from the Alicante area known as “Lucerna”. There were painted tiles and roman coins and a large section of pottery.
Other areas of the museum had displays on archaeology and how they went about locating the artifacts. There were excavations that were done in caves, churches, castles and even underwater. A lot of research and work went into the discoveries and items on display. It was truly amazing how they managed to preserve and exhibit the artifacts over time here in the museum. One of the many things we enjoyed was the Roman ruins, walls and stone writings which were displayed.
Stone tablet with writings inscribed in it.Roman statue
The exhibits were very well done and we enjoyed taking our time and reading about the history of this particular area. It has given us some insight into why certain areas of Alicante have specific names. For example the area of “Luceros” in Alicante is where the Roman town of Lucerne was located back in the 3rd century. There is a long and rich history here in Alicante.
On Saturday we went to the local market and there on display were some fafa beans. These beans are very poplar in Spain and every market or grocery store sells them fresh. We decided to buy some fresh fafa beans and try to make a meal with them. They are a very big bean and don’t look very appetizing.
Fafa Bean AKA broad bean
We took them home and tried a Spanish recipe for the bean. There are a few steps that needed to take place before you can eat them. First you need to get the bean out of the pod. I thought there would be more beans in the large pods. Each pod contained maybe 3 or 4 beans in total.
Our total beans amounted to approximately 1/4 cup. We were expecting more beans than that.
All of our beans from the pods
We rinsed the beans and then boiled them for approximately 5 minutes. Once the outer skin of the bean turns white you remove the skin.
removing the outer skin of the boiled bean
Once the skins were removed we rinsed the beans and then crumbled them up. We added some crumbled feta cheese, fresh mint and olive oil in with the beans.
The mix is put on top of a toasted baguette with a drizzle of olive oil. The end result was a very tasty meal.
There are numerous areas in Alicante that have outside exercise equipment. There is a concept here of promoting fitness using outdoor exercise equipment. We see the equipment in almost every park we walk by. There are even some outdoor exercise equipment on the walkways right in the heart of the Alicante business area. It is not uncommon the see some people using the equipment, especially on the weekends.
People exercising at local park
A while back we were walking through the Palmeral park and came across a section of the park that had outdoor exercise equipment. We decided to try it out and get a bit of a workout.
Wheel fitness for upper bodyRowing machine which uses your own weight as the resistance
All of the equipment is designed to use a person’s weight as the resistance for the workout.
Leg strength machines
After the quick test of the equipment Shelley took a well deserved break.
Shelley taking a well deserved break.
People here enjoy the outdoors and we can see why they like to exercise outside. The weather here is conducive to having outdoor exercise equipment. There is no need for a membership at a gym when you can simply walk to the local park and work out.
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