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The low narrow island of Tabarca with its walled settlement, harbour, open field and lighthouse surrounded by clear sea
Reviewed August 2026
Tabarca Island

Nueva Tabarca: an island settlement built in 1770

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Tabarca is not a separate municipality. It is a small inhabited island and outlying neighbourhood of Alicante, lying close to the Cabo de Santa Pola but about eleven nautical miles from the city it belongs to. Its low, narrow outline holds two contrasting landscapes: an eighteenth-century walled settlement at the western end and an open, scrubby field running east towards the tower and lighthouse.

Isla Plana before Nueva Tabarca

The island was long known as Isla Plana, a practical name for its flat profile. Roman material has been found on and around it, but permanent settlement was difficult because there was no reliable fresh water. Its position off a coast exposed to raiding also made it useful to pirates and privateers. Medieval and early modern proposals for a defensive tower never produced a lasting town.

The Tabarkino families

The name came from another island, Tabarka, off the coast of Tunisia. Families of Ligurian origin had lived there under Genoese control and worked in the coral trade. After Tabarka fell in the eighteenth century, many were taken into captivity in Tunis and Algiers. The Spanish Crown secured their release in 1768 and 1769 and housed them temporarily in Alicante.

At the same time, Carlos III's government was planning to fortify and populate Isla Plana. In 1770 the released families moved into a new settlement designed by military engineer Fernando Méndez de Ras under the patronage of the Count of Aranda. Nueva Tabarca remembered their earlier island home. The grid of houses, walls, gateways, church, governor's house and cisterns formed an Enlightenment project intended to be both defensible and self-supporting.

A planned town with hard limits

The plan was ambitious but the island remained dry, exposed and dependent on the sea. Rainwater cisterns were essential and not every proposed building was completed. Fishing, especially the almadraba tuna fishery, supported generations of islanders. The old tuna store now houses the Nueva Tabarca Museum, while the walls and three monumental gateways make the original town plan clear on foot.

Beyond the walls, El Campo is deliberately sparse. The Torre de San José stands inland and the nineteenth-century lighthouse occupies the eastern half of the island. Small coves, low rock and offshore islets break up the shore. The whole historic settlement was protected as a historic-artistic ensemble in 1964.

Spain's first marine reserve

In 1986 the waters around Tabarca became Spain's first marine reserve. The protected area includes rocky seabed and extensive Posidonia oceanica meadows, which provide shelter and nursery habitat for marine life. Fishing, diving and anchoring are regulated in different zones. Clear water does not mean an unrestricted playground: the reserve exists because human pressure had damaged the habitat and fish stocks.

Visiting with the island in mind

  • Passenger boats normally run from Santa Pola and Alicante, with frequency varying by season and weather. Check the operator and sea conditions on the day.
  • The island is compact and explored on foot. Shade and fresh water are limited away from the settlement.
  • Summer day trips create intense pressure on a very small place. An earlier or off-season visit gives the historic plan and open landscape more room.
  • Use authorised moorings and follow the reserve rules if arriving independently or entering the water.

Tabarca completes the maritime side of Alicante. From the island, the nearest mainland is the cape at Santa Pola, where the protected landscape continues in salt pans rather than beneath the sea.

Sources and review

Reviewed in August 2026 using the Alicante City Council history of Nueva Tabarca, the council's island heritage and museum records and the Spanish government account of the marine reserve. Museum access, sailings and marine rules change, so check current official information before travelling.