Alicante
— — the white the sea light has not stopped washing.
Not only on a wall.
“A port city on Spain's southeast coast, where the Mediterranean turns the white walls of the old town nearly luminous in the afternoon. The Castillo de Santa Bárbara sits on a stone bluff above the harbour; below it the marble-paved Explanada runs along the water in a wave of black, red, and cream. The light is the steady fact of the place.
Alicante, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Alicante sits on the Costa Blanca, the southeastern coast of Spain, and is the capital of the Province of Alicante in the Valencian Community. The city's population is approximately 338,000. Above the harbour rises Monte Benacantil, a 166-metre limestone bluff crowned by the Castillo de Santa Bárbara, a fortification with Islamic-period origins enlarged under successive Castilian and Habsburg monarchs. The Mediterranean climate brings about 2,900 hours of sunshine a year, among the highest figures recorded anywhere on the continent.
The light that gives the Costa Blanca its name comes from the combination of low atmospheric humidity, the white limestone of the local cliffs, and a coastal orientation that catches the sun for most of its arc across the sky. Alicante records roughly 2,900 hours of direct sun per year and only about 300 millimetres of rainfall. The white-painted walls of the Santa Cruz quarter and the marble-paved Explanada amplify the effect; even in winter the late afternoons read warm and silvered.
Alicante–Elche Miguel Hernández Airport is the main gateway, with year-round links across Europe and a half-hour drive into the city. The Castillo de Santa Bárbara is reached by a free elevator carved into the side of Monte Benacantil, with the tunnel entrance opposite Postiguet beach. The Explanada de España, paved with about 6.5 million marble tiles in a wave pattern, runs along the harbour. Summer high season brings crowds; spring and autumn keep the warmth without the press of August.