Bourg
Alicante · Baix Vinalopó
Santa Pola
A fishing and salt-working town on its broad bay, with a 2,470-hectare wetland to the west and Tabarca lying offshore beyond the cape.
Salt works and waterbirds
A town between the salinas and the bay
Santa Pola faces a broad bay from the site of the Roman port that served Ilici, with a fishing harbour and a compact centre gathered around its sixteenth-century fortress.
West of the town, working salt pans preserve part of the old coastal wetland. Offshore beyond the cape, Tabarca's walled settlement and marine reserve form a separate island landscape most directly reached and understood from Santa Pola.
Fast facts
INE padrón, 1 Jan 2025
- Population
- 39,709
- Change since 2015
- +25%
31,657 in 2015
Read Santa Pola
The salinas and the island offshore
Reviewed August 2026
The Salinas de Santa Pola: salt making, flamingos and a living wetland
How an old coastal lagoon became working salt pans and why managed brine, mud and marsh support one of southern Alicante's major bird sites.
Read the guide
Reviewed August 2026
Nueva Tabarca: an island settlement built in 1770
The rescued Tabarkino families, Carlos III's planned citadel and Spain's first marine reserve off the Santa Pola cape.
Read the guide