Orihuela old town (not the Costa): the cathedral, the palm grove and the castle climb

What to see

• Catedral del Salvador: 13th- to 14th-century Gothic, small and dark and beautiful, with a Velázquez in the museum next door.
• Colegio de Santo Domingo: a vast 16th-century college with two cloisters and a painted refectory; the town’s showpiece.
• Museo de la Muralla: the medieval walls, Arab baths and Gothic palace excavated under the university building.
• Casa Museo Miguel Hernández: the modest house of Orihuela’s poet, who died in a Franco prison in 1942; his face is painted all over the town.
• The castle walk: a steep path from the Seminary up to the ruined castle with the whole Vega Baja below. An hour return.
• Palmeral de San Antón: paths through a thousand palms on the edge of town.

Markets, fiestas and lunch

Tuesday is market day in the old town. Holy Week processions are of International Tourist Interest, with baroque floats carried through the narrow streets every night; the Moors and Christians parades around 17 July are the other big week. For lunch, the bars around the cathedral and Calle Mayor do tapas and a cheap menú del día; the regional dishes are arroz con costra (rice with an egg crust) and anything with Vega Baja artichokes.

Getting there

Thirty minutes from Punta Prima: inland on the CV-95 through San Miguel de Salinas, or the AP-7 and CV-91. Park by the river or in the Plaza de Santiago car park and walk; the old town is compact. Trains run from Orihuela to Alicante and Murcia if you want to combine it with a city.