Calpe old town: a walk through the art, the squares and the best corners

Working out what to see in Calpe old town turns up an odd discovery. You walk through narrow whitewashed streets assuming you are looking at something old. But of the twenty-one artworks now hanging and standing there, eleven arrived in the last three years.

The town is turning it into an open-air museum with a fixed route and signage: the MAU, the Museu d’Art Urbà. It is to be presented shortly, though no date has been put on it.

The result is a quarter that is two things at once: a medieval core with a defensive tower and a church that doubled as a refuge, and a contemporary art trail that is still growing. Here is the walk.

Why the old town is different from three years ago

The Poble Antic, as it is known here, sat quiet for years. In the last three that has flipped: new bars and restaurants, art galleries, places to stay, guided walks that book out as a matter of course, and above all art on the walls.

The MAU gathers twenty-one works into one route: mosaics, murals and sculptures, with signs beside them. Eleven of those were added in three years. Two existing murals have been fully restored and three more are due within months.

The councillor responsible, Guillermo Sendra of Culture and the Old Town, now calls the quarter a cultural and artistic reference point, built on sustainability, spreading activity across the year, and respect for tradition.

That middle one is the relevant word for you: spread across the year. There is as much to see here in November as in July, and then you have the streets to yourself.

Where to start and where to leave the car

The old town sits on the hill, not by the water. That is the first misconception to clear up: you do not pass it on a beach walk, you go there deliberately.

The car. Do not drive into the quarter. The streets are pedestrianised and the few that are not are too narrow to turn in. Park at the bottom, near the Plaza Mayor or the Ajuntament, and walk up.

Shoes. Sloping, cobbled and slippery in places when wet. This is not a walk in flip-flops, even if you have just come off the beach.

Time. Allow an hour and a half if you are just walking and looking, and half a day with the museums and a sit-down.

When. Early morning for the light and the quiet, or late afternoon when the facades turn orange. In the middle of the day the sun stands straight over the narrow streets and you see the least.

The Torreó de la Peça: start at the tower

Start on the plaza de la Vila, at the round stone tower jutting out of the old wall. That is the Torreó de la Peça.

The name refers to a piece of artillery that once stood here; a cannon still sits in the garden below, which makes the story immediate. The tower is part of the defensive wall that had to protect Calpe from attack by sea, and that was not theoretical: the raid of 1744 is still the festival of the year here.

Sources disagree on its age. One places the tower at the end of the fourteenth or the start of the fifteenth century, another speaks of a fourteenth-century bulwark. So we give no year; assume you are looking at late medieval stonework.

Inside the tower is the Museu del Col·leccionisme, a small museum of public and private collections with changing exhibitions. Small here really does mean small, so do not expect a two-hour visit.

The Iglesia Antigua: a church that was also a refuge

Attached to the modern parish church is the oldest building in the quarter: the Iglesia Antigua, gothic-mudejar in style.

This is the bit most visitors miss, because from outside it looks like an extension. Inside are the ribbed vaults in the photograph above, and a fifteenth-century altarpiece.

The interesting thing is not the style but the function. The building had two: worship and fortified refuge for the civilian population. In a coastal village raided regularly, the church was literally the last resort. That explains the thickness of the walls and the small windows.

If you go inside one thing in the old town, make it this.

The modern church with the mosaic

Next to it stands the parish church of Nuestra Señora de las Nieves, Mare de Déu de les Neus in Valencian, from the 1970s.

It clashes with the rest on purpose: clean lines, a large mosaic on the outer wall and stained glass that keeps the interior light. Plenty of visitors walk past it with a frown. Stop for a moment, because the combination of the two churches side by side, six centuries apart and sharing a wall, is the real monument here.

This is also the church where, during the Moors and Christians, the mass, the candle offering and the start of the procession take place. That story is in our guide to the fiesta.

The streets with crochet overhead

This is the image Calpe has become known for in recent years, and it is not a tourism gimmick but handwork by the town’s fibromyalgia association.

Crocheted canopies hang above the streets, in four streets and one square:

• calle San José
• calle Sant Roc
• calle Pare Sant
• calle Santísimo Cristo
• the Mestre Llopis square

They do two things at once: give shade and colour the street. Photograph them into the sun and the yarn lights up.

In that same calle Santísimo Cristo, local painters hang their work on the first and third Saturday of each month. Plan around that if you want to take something home.

The murals, and what is still to come

The murals are the heart of the MAU and are scattered through the quarter. You need no map: you walk into them, and once the new signage is up, all the more so.

One of the best known is not on a house but on the facade of the tourist office, by the muralist Gastón Castelló.

What to know about their condition: two have been fully restored, and three more are being tackled in the coming months. So if you find one behind scaffolding, that is maintenance, not decay.

The town’s own source names no artists for the individual works and gives no exact locations. That is precisely what the MAU is meant to fix, with a sign at every piece.

The squares: where to sit

The old town has more terraces than you would guess, because they are spread over small squares rather than lined up on one promenade.

You will find them on the squares de los Marineros, la Villa, Manuel Miró, el Mosquit, España and Beato Sendra, and in the streets Campanari, Mayor, Justicia, 2 de Mayo, Torreones and Pescadores.

Two practical notes. The calle del Campanar counts as the most colourful street in the quarter; sit there if you want something to look at while you eat. The calles San Roque and Pescadores are among the narrowest, and cooler on a hot day.

The plaza de la Villa is the square where things happen: the concerts and the Festival SOMIART are staged there.

When to go: the old town’s own calendar

The quarter has its own programme, deliberately spread across the year.

• March: LA NIT ENCESA.
• July and August: a twelve-minute video mapping on the facade of the Ajuntament Vell, the old town hall.
• All year: CALPSULAS, with micro-theatre in the Ajuntament Vell and in the Museu de La Senyoreta.
• First and third Saturday of the month: the painters’ gallery in the calle Santísimo Cristo.
• In summer: free guided walks. In August 2026 they left at 19:00 from the Casa de Cultura and lasted about 45 minutes. Check each year, because this changes.

The guided walks book out as a matter of course, according to the town. So book ahead rather than turning up.

Combining it with the Peñón and the harbour

The old town is too small for a whole day, and it does not need to be, because it sits between two other things.

The Peñón de Ifach. The rock is visible from the quarter and a quarter of an hour away by car. Note that the Ruta Roja to the top requires booking in advance; only three hundred people go up per day. How that works is in our guide to the climb.

The harbour. At the foot of the rock, with the fish auction and the restaurants. A logical order for a day: old town in the morning, lunch at the harbour, and the rock for whoever still has the legs.

The beach. The Arenal-Bol is on the other side. Out of season that is a comfortable twenty-minute walk from the harbour.

Practical questions

What does it cost? The walk itself nothing. The streets, the murals and the crochet are public.

What are the opening hours of the tower and the museums? We could not establish them. There is no reliable, current listing online that we were able to verify. Ask at the Calpe tourist office before you walk up.

Is it pushchair friendly? Only moderately. Slopes and cobbles. A sling works better.

How long does it take? An hour and a half walking and looking, half a day with museums and a terrace.

Is there shade? In the narrow streets yes, on the squares not always. The crochet helps.

Can I go out of season? Especially then. The programme is spread across the year and the quarter is empty.

When is it busiest? During the Moors and Christians in October. Spectacular, but not a moment for a quiet walk. See our guide to the fiesta.

About the authorMilo Schuijt

Milo Schuijt is an entrepreneur and DJ on the Costa Blanca. He writes about the places where he lives, works and plays: from beach bars to the housing market.

For the other side of Calpe, read about Bofill’s Club Social and the La Manzanera estate.