Climb into the Covetes dels Moros and work out that there is no original way up to them

Work through the theories — granary, refuge, burial — and decide which one the shape supports

Find the bullring cut directly out of the rock rather than built

Walk the medieval quarter on the cliff edge above the Clariano

Go into the old ice wells on the sierra above, where snow was stored for the summer

In a cliff face above Bocairent there are dozens of small rectangular chambers cut into the rock in rows, opening onto nothing — no path, no stair, no floor below them. They are called the Covetes dels Moros, and nobody is certain what they were: granaries, refuges and burial chambers have all been argued. They are generally dated to the Islamic period. The town below is built into the rock itself, with a bullring cut out of the hillside and a network of medieval streets on the cliff edge above the Clariano.

Bocairent: A Cliff Full of Cut Chambers

Find the portrait of Philip V in the Museu de l'Almodí and check which way up it is hanging

Work out why: the town was burned in 1707 and renamed after the man in the picture

Walk the length of the castle along the ridge — it is two castles, the Castell Menor and the Castell Major

Find out which popes came from here, and what the Borja family did next

Find the Gothic Sant Feliu church below the castle, one of the oldest buildings left after the fire

Xàtiva backed the Austrian side in the War of the Spanish Succession, and in 1707 Bourbon troops burned the town in reprisal. Philip V then renamed it San Felipe, after himself; the Cortes of Cádiz gave the old name back in 1811. The town has not forgotten. In its museum hangs a portrait of Philip V, and it hangs upside down. Xàtiva was also the cradle of the Borja popes — Calixtus III and Alexander VI — and the twin castle on the ridge above, praised by al-Idrisi in the 12th century for its beauty and strength, runs along the whole crest.

Xàtiva: The Town Hung Upside Down

Go into the municipal archaeological museum and find out which pieces are still there after the theft of 27 August 2026

Work out why the iron pieces matter: the oldest found in Spain, from when iron was still a precious metal

Find out who José María Soler García was and what he found near this town in 1963

Climb to the Atalaya castle on the hill above the town

Come for the Moros y Cristianos, which is one of the biggest in the Valencian country

The Villena archaeologist José María Soler García found the treasure in 1963: fifty-nine objects in gold, silver, iron and amber weighing almost ten kilos, the most important gold vessel hoard in Spain and the second in Europe after the royal tombs at Mycenae. Its iron pieces are the oldest found in Spain, from a period when iron was still a precious metal worth hoarding. On the night of 27 August 2026 much of it was stolen — mostly the gold, with several silver pieces left behind — so check what is actually on display before you go.

Villena: A Bronze Age Hoard of Gold

Go in through the tunnel cut in the rock, which is the only entrance to the upper village

Climb to the bell tower on its own spur and look down at the reservoir

Find out what happened in 1708 and why most of the castle is missing

Go into the Casa Orduña, rebuilt after it was burned in the same year

Walk down to the reservoir, which was started in 1953 and not finished until 1971

El Castell de Guadalest is entered through a tunnel cut in the rock, because there is no other way in. The Muslims built the castle of San José on the crag in the 11th century; in 1708, during the War of the Spanish Succession, it was blown up and the west wing was wrecked, and the Casa Orduña below was burned. What is left is a bell tower standing alone on a spike of rock above a turquoise reservoir, which is one of the most photographed views in the Valencian country. The reservoir itself was begun in 1953 and finished in 1971.

Guadalest: The Bell Tower on the Rock

Climb up to the castle on its crag above the town

Find Juan Pacheco's coat of arms on the vault keystones and on the four faces of the keep

Walk the barbican and the round towers he added between 1449 and 1454

Visit the interpretation centre at the foot of the castle on the battle of 25 April 1707

Almansa's castle stands on a crag above the town. Its oldest walls, of rammed earth, were long taken for Almohad work, but tests during the 2008 restoration dated them to the first decades of Christian rule, around 1300; Don Juan Manuel rebuilt it in the 14th century, and Juan Pacheco, second Marquis of Villena, gave it its present shape between 1449 and 1454, with the keep, the round towers and the barbican, his arms carved on the vault keystones and on all four faces of the keep. On 25 April 1707, on the plain below, the Duke of Berwick's army for Philip V beat the forces of Archduke Charles in one of the great battles of the War of the Spanish Succession.

Almansa: The Castle on the Rock and the Battle of 1707

Climb to the Plaza de la Iglesia and look up at the blue-and-white tiled dome

Work out why Altea survived the 1960s when everything either side of it did not

Walk the whitewashed lanes and count the studios and galleries

Swim off the pebble beaches, which is the other half of the reason it was left alone

Come up at sunset, when the whole old town faces the right way

Altea is the one town on this stretch of the Costa Blanca that was not flattened and rebuilt in the 1960s — a whitewashed old quarter climbing a hill above the bay, with the blue-and-white tiled dome of the Virgen del Consuelo on top of it, visible from most of the coast. It became an artists' town from the 1950s and has kept a disproportionate number of studios and galleries. Below it the beaches are pebble rather than sand, which is exactly why the developers went elsewhere.

Altea: The White Town Above the Bay

Be in the basilica on 14 or 15 August for one of the two acts

Watch the machinery — the araceli lowered from the dome, which is stagecraft that has been running since the 16th century

Work out what is preserved here: text and music fixed by the end of the 1500s and sung ever since

Find out why every role including the Virgin is sung by a male, and what medieval rule that comes from

Go to the Museu de la Festa to see how the machinery works when the basilica is not full

The Misteri d'Elx is a sacred music drama of the Dormition, Assumption and Coronation of the Virgin, performed in two acts on 14 and 15 August inside the Basilica of Santa María at Elche. The text cannot be older than the last third of the 15th century and text and music were fixed by the end of the 16th; only the melismas have moved since. Every part, including the Virgin, is sung by a male, preserving the medieval liturgical rule that barred women from these plays. UNESCO proclaimed it a Masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity on 18 May 2001.