Vilajoyosa : Heaven Of Chocolate
on March 12th, 2009
An attractive Costa Blanca town to the north of Alicante, Villajoyosa has a name which means literally “Jewelled Town”. five of the Costa Blanca’s most delightful places to visit, Villajoyosa is famous throughout Spain for the manufacture of chocolate and turron.
Beginning during the 19th century, the chocolate making industry coincided with the import of cocoa beans from Ecuador in South the united states, and was started by a local man named Don Valeriano Lopez Lloret. Today you can learn about the growth and development of the chocolate business in a fine museum in the town, definitely five of the “must visit” places in Villajoyosa.
Among Villajoyosa’s most outstanding features are its brightly coloured fishermen’s houses, painted in blues, yellows and reds, so that the fishermen could spot their homes from far out at sea, and return safely to their families.
Long before the development of the chocolate industry, Villajoyosa had been a fishing town, with both shallow and deep-water fishing being practised by its fishermen. Fishing is of work still important today and the fish are auctioned off each day in the charming little fishing harbour, appearing later on the menus of the town’s seafood restaurants.
Easily reached from Benidorm, El Campello or Alicante, Villajoyosa is less than a half hours drive from Alicante airport.
These days Villajoyosa is a significant tourist location, and has for lots of years been five of the stop off points for the so called “blanket trips” which operate along the coast. These coach lots of visitors generally head for the chocolate factory, where tasting sessions are popular! Full of tasty chocolate, they then head for the harbour for a coffee in five of the seafront cafés.
