It was therefore fortified with a castle to prevent their attacks. Unfortunately the castle suffered great damage during the peninsular war & its remains have long since disappeared.
The 18th century however worked out good for the town, & 2 major religious events took place. The first was the beginning of the works of the parish of St. James (Jaime Apostole), who is a patron saint of Benidorm. The second was the phenomenal discovery of the Virgen de Suffrage. She was discovered in 1740 when townsfolk found a ship on Playa Poniente beach. There was no sign of a crew, and at the time the populace was paranoid with the outbreak of plague, and so set the ship on fire. From the ashes the infamous Virgen del Suffrage (statue of the Virgin) was found and what seemed as a miracle is that she was completely undamaged from the flames. The Virgen was taken as a patron saint of the town.
These religious events clearly upgraded the profile of Benidorm, however its growth was largely recognized to its fishermen being granted the installation of a type of Tuna fishing using a complicated system of nets, the greater quantity of “almadrabas” in the Mediterranean! This won international acclaim for the town increasing both populace & wealth.
The first half of the 19th century found Benidorm having its coastal traffic increased & the town fared well as a base for merchant sea captains & the building of their vessels.
In the 1950’s Benidorm had the first taste of tourism. Although it went through a miserable age under the rule of the dictator Franco (1940-1976), the package tourism soon recovered & ultimately it is this which has made Benidorm the place it is today. At the start of the century it had a population of just 2,000, and today it has been transformed into a very popular tourist destination efficient enough to entertain & accommodate up to 5,000,000 visitors per year. |
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