Village
Salinas is a municipality in the Alto Vinalopó, inland in the province of Alicante, with 1,828 Spanish-speaking inhabitants. It spreads around an endorheic lagoon that gives it its name and which was worked as a saltworks until the 20th century; a flood in 1751 forced the town centre to be moved a kilometre to the northwest, where it was rebuilt on a grid plan. The lagoon has shaped settlement since prehistoric times: between the 8th and 7th centuries BC it was a strategic passage between Andalusia and the Serranía de Cuenca. In the 11th century a walled enclosure was built with a tower inhabited by an Andalusi community; after the Christian conquest it passed through the lordships of Villena and Elda before joining the Kingdom of Valencia, and that tower would eventually become the town's first church, dedicated to San Antonio Abad.
Nature
The laguna de Salinas is an endorheic lagoon located about 2 kilometres from the Alicante town that gives it its name, with a catchment area of about 90 km² into which flow watercourses from the surrounding sierras and various wells. Salty in nature, like the nearby laguna de Villena, it measures about 1200 metres in length by 800 in width. It now remains dry for much of the year owing to the scarcity of rainfall typical of the Vinalopó valley and to the overexploitation of the aquifers, caused above all by the numerous wells extracting water, mainly to supply the city of Elda.
Activity
Salinas, in the comarca of L'Alt Vinalopó (Alicante), holds its Moors and Christians festival in late May in honour of the Virgen del Rosario, patron saint of the municipality, one of the most notable festive events on the local calendar. Three comparsas take part: Piratas, Contrabandistas and Moros Laguneros. Among the most notable events are the Entrada, the Retreta and the Embajadas, performances typical of this kind of festival in the Valencian region. For several years these celebrations coexisted with elements of the village's earlier festival, the Fiestas de las Mozas.
Monument
Parish church of Saint Anthony Abbot of Salinas (Alicante, L'Alt Vinalopó), in the historic centre of the municipality, on the Plaza de España. Construction began in the 18th century, after the population was relocated following the 1751 flood, and was completed around 1780. It blends Baroque and Neoclassical styles, with a single-nave plan, side chapels and a central dome on pendentives. The communion chapel preserves the original flooring and houses three paintings by the Salinas painter Juan Gabriel Barceló. The current bell tower, from 1922, is a reconstruction, since the original was demolished in 1905 due to its dangerous tilt.
Nature
The Iberian site of El Puntal, a settlement and necropolis from the 4th century BC, is located on a spur of the Altos de don Pedro range, 3.5 km from the settlement of Salinas (Alicante) and facing the Salinas lagoon. It was identified by José María Soler García in August 1952. The settlement, from the full Iberian period, preserved a line of wall, remains of towers, a trapezoidal tower and a ditch, along with dwellings of square or rectangular plan. In the necropolis, aristocratic-type grave goods appeared, Attic black-glaze and red-figure pottery, Punic amphorae, decorated Iberian pottery, loom weights, iron weapons and bronze fibulae. Today, eroded and affected by clandestine excavations, the site remains covered in vegetation.
Nature
The Sierra de Salinas is a formation of the Prebetic system that forms a natural border between the north of the Region of Murcia, at Yecla, and the towns of the Alto and Medio Vinalopó; Salinas occupies its southern slope, Villena the northern one and Yecla the western one. Formed by a fold of Lower Cretaceous limestone rocks, it extends for about 15 kilometres, with the Capilla peak (1238 m) as its highest point, where the municipal boundaries of Villena, Pinoso and Yecla converge. It has around 500 catalogued plant species and fauna such as the golden eagle. To the north runs a road with endemic plants and caves; to the south, trails climb to the summit, from where, on clear days, Villena, Salinas, Sax, Biar, Yecla and Caudete can be seen.
Curiosity
In 1751 a great flood completely submerged the original centre of Salinas, located at the site known as Lugar Viejo, next to the lagoon, in the southeast of the present-day village. With the help of the Count of Puñonrostro, it was decided to rebuild the settlement one kilometre to the northwest, further from the lagoon, with a hippodamian urban layout of rational streets and a similar number of houses, organised around a central square, today's Plaza de España, where the town hall and the parish church were located. Within four years, twenty houses had already been built, along with the town hall, the new church, a glass kiln, a shop and an inn; according to the Diccionario de Madoz, around 1845-1850 the population had 113 houses.
Activity
Moros y Cristianos (Moors and Christians) festival of Salinas, in the comarca of L'Alt Vinalopó, held in May in honour of the Virgen del Rosario, patron saint of the municipality. Over time it replaced earlier celebrations known as the Fiestas de las Mozas, alongside which it coexisted for several years before adopting its current format. Three comparsas -Piratas, Contrabandistas and Moros Laguneros- take part in the main events of the Entrada, the Retreta and the Embajadas.
Historical milestone
The endorheic lagoon was worked for centuries as a saltworks: the water was left to evaporate in beds and the salt was loaded onto carts towards the inland towns. The exploitation gave the municipality its name and declined in the twentieth century, when the wetland came to be protected.
Food and drink
Game stew, with rabbit, partridge or hare, cooked with tomato, garlic and herbs and served over pieces of unleavened flatbread that soak up the broth. It came from neighbouring La Mancha and remains pig-slaughter and hill-day food in the towns of the corridor.