Tabarca Island, Alicante

In front of the city of Alicante, to ten or twelve miles, and near the end of Santa Pola or of the Aljub, is the island of Tabarca, with an approximated length of 1,800 meters and one maximum width of about 400 meters. In fact but that of an island, is a small archipelago, compound, aside from Tabarca, by small barren islands the Quarry, the galera and the Nao.

The visit to the island of Tabarca is an almost obligatory excursion for all the people who spend the summer in the White Coast. Multiple exits, from the port of Alicante and Santa Pola, facilitate this route in a comfortable marine stroll that lasts, approximately, one hour from Alicante and half an hour from Santa Pola.

The exit of this excursion usually is made in the morning, to be able to return in the evening after to have bathed in crystalline waters of the island and tasted salary the traditional "kettle" in one of the restaurants that there are located next to the beach

The present name of TAbarca was put by Carlos III, in 1768, memory of the Tunisian island of Tabarka, old Spanish possession, from where the first settlers of this alicantina island came. One was about 300 prisoners, in his majority genoveses, who were retained in Tunisia and that, thanks to the Bernardine effort of fray of Almanaya and fray Juan of the Virgin, were rescued by Carlos III, previous payment of 1,200 pesetas of the time by each one of them. This way, besides to obtain the freedom for the captives, repoblaba this desert island, who used to use it the berberiscos as platform for their attacks to the levantina coast.

The island is formed by materials of volcanic origin on which limestone micénicas and quaternary deposits have settled. Natural reserve, with one varied marine fauna (llubinas, mere, congrios, gilded, etc.). Declared like Zone of Special Protection for the Birds by the UE

- MUSEUM OF MINIATURE PAINTINGS: Located in the incomparable settingof a typical Tabarca house from the time of King Charles III, This MUSEUM of MINIATURE PAINTINGS IS UNIQUE IN THE WORD, for its extraordinary artistic value and for the material used to carry out the works here exhibited: Pebbles of only 6 x 10 cm., upon whose surface many of the most famouse Works of Arts of the Universal Painting have been portrayed in oils.

120 replicas of exceptional beauty in this Museum are the works of the Miniaturist Paainter Angel Ruiz, who has dedicate 8 years and more than 7,000 hours to them