Stage of the Camino

Alicante to Novelda

From Alicante To Novelda

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Origin

Alicante

Destination

Novelda

Distance

30.00 km

Duration

7.50 h

Difficulty

Moderate

Stage of the Camino

Stage Description

The opening day of the Camino del Sureste, the one that says goodbye to the sea and opens the long Vinalopó corridor towards the interior. Leaving Alicante behind means leaving the Co-Cathedral of San Nicolás and the silhouette of Santa Bárbara castle atop Mount Benacantil, and the urban tarmac soon gives way to the almond groves, vineyards and dry farmland that announce the Meseta. The profile is long but kind: a sustained climb with no harsh ramps, gaining a little over two hundred metres across thirty kilometres. Halfway through comes the Franciscan sanctuary of Orito, one of the great Jacobean landmarks of the province, and shortly after Monforte del Cid with its Hermitage of the Apparition. The stage ends in Novelda, marble town of the Middle Vinalopó, dominated by La Mola castle and the modernist sanctuary of Santa María Magdalena.

The Camino del Sureste begins in Alicante, facing the Mediterranean, and will not see the sea again for more than a thousand kilometres. The first stage covers some thirty kilometres to Novelda and works as a long transition: in a single day the pilgrim moves from the coast to the dry farmlands of the Vinalopó, gaining almost imperceptibly the two hundred and forty metres that separate the port from the marble town.

The departure is from the old quarter, beside the Co-Cathedral of San Nicolás de Bari, with Santa Bárbara castle perched on Mount Benacantil as a last urban postcard. The route leaves the city through its western districts and crosses the industrial and university outskirts before reaching open country. This is the least rewarding section of the day and is best dispatched early, before the sun bites, because from there on the landscape opens up and never closes again.

The heart of the stage is Orito, a small hamlet of Monforte del Cid whose Franciscan friary keeps the memory of Saint Paschal Baylón and has sheltered walkers and pilgrims for centuries. The so-called Senda del Santo descends to the sanctuary and returns the pilgrim to the main route, which continues towards Monforte del Cid past the Hermitage of the Apparition. All around, almond, vine and olive draw the agricultural mosaic typical of the Vinalopó.

The final kilometres run among quarries and marble workshops, the industry that has given this district its name and its prosperity, before entering Novelda through the river plain. The town deserves more than a night in passing: on the hill stand together La Mola castle, with its unusual triangular tower, and the sanctuary of Santa María Magdalena, a modernist work of Gaudinian inspiration built in the first third of the twentieth century. In the town centre, the Modernist House-Museum preserves intact the interior of a bourgeois home from the era of saffron and table grapes. Novelda offers the pilgrim full services and a good table before tackling the climb towards the Upper Vinalopó.

Last updated: 17/08/2026

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Alicante to Novelda

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