Walking in Villajoyosa, December 2022 (Winter in Spain)

Villajoyosa ("la Vila") is the capital of the district of the Marina Baja (Alicante), Spain. It is a town near Benidorm with 34000 citizens, located 32 km northeast of the city of Alicante. The urban area of ​​Villajoyosa passes the Amadorio river.
The Alicante Metropolitan TRAM (former Trenet de la Marina ) that goes from Alicante to Denia has five stops in Villajoyosa. The town is very well connected with Valencia and Alicante and their airports. The area is famous for its chocolate industry and tourism.
It is worth visiting its long sandy beach, colourful old town, chocolate factory Chocolate Valor (Avda. Pianista Gonzalo Soriano, 13), the Gothic Catholic church of the Assumption and colourful port. The town's festival of Moros and Christians, celebrated at the end of July, was declared an International Tourist Interest Festival.

The town has an ancient history. The municipality of Villajoyosa had its first settlers in the Bronze Age. In the 6th and 5th century B.C., ancient geographers mentioned that Greek populations existed in Alonis (Villajoyosa).
In 1300 Bernat de Sarrià, the admiral of Jaume II, founded the vila nova (new town) of Vilajoiosa on the border of the Crowns of Aragón and Castilla, on the ruins of the Iberian and Roman cities. It was repopulated with inhabitants from the Catalan and Aragonese Pyrenees who brought with them new customs, a new religion and a new language. At that time it was the only port in the Marina Baja district and a port of call for the fleets coming from Flanders which carried raisins from the region. In 1443 Queen Maria granted it a royal charter, a privilege that explains the crown on the coat-of-arms of Villajoyosa.
Isolated by mountains, it was the first port in Hispania for ships coming from the east. In the 15th century, it housed the Royal Shipyards and in the 19th century, it was the second most crucial vessel-building port in Spain. Its large sailboats and pilot ships took the products of the industries of Alcoy to America and the Philippines and brought back the cocoa which gave rise to its chocolate industry. Villajoyosa is the birthplace of the Spanish fishing net industry and its many elements and systems (such as the twin fishing boat system) and tuna trap-net captains.