Dénia, a small provicincial Spanish city, lies in the province of Alicante in the Valencian Country, halfway between Alicante and Valencia. It has a population is 36,200 (as of 2003). A partial ruin of a fortress stands right in the middle of town.

In the days of Al Andalus, Dénia served as the capital of a taifa kingdom, ruling over part of the Valencian coast and Ibiza. The Slavic slaves saqaliba managed to free themselves and run the taifa.

The Moors originally built the fortress, and the French, who occupied the city for four years during the War of the Spanish Succession, re-built it in the early 19th century.

A community of English raisin traders lived in Dénia from 1800 until the time of the Spanish Civil War in the late 1930s.

The ferry to Ibiza and the other Balearic Islands departs from Dénia. It also serves as a terminus of a picturesque metre gauge railway line to Alicante run by FGV.

External links

• Traveling to Denia