Alicante, Spain

Alicante sits on Spain's Costa Blanca along the Mediterranean Sea and is home to roughly 340,000 residents. The 9th-century Castle of Santa Bárbara crowns Mount Benacantil at 166 metres, ranking among the largest medieval fortresses in Spain. Down at sea level, the Explanada de España stretches out as a palm-lined promenade paved with 6.6 million tricolour marble tiles. Nearby stand the 1685 Co-Cathedral of Saint Nicholas, raised over a former mosque, and the 1911 Carbonell Casa, the finest modernista building in the city. Each landmark records a distinct chapter of Alicante's past, and a closer layer still waits beneath them.