It offers a comprehensive range of leisure services and facilities, including floating platforms, beach libraries, children's playgrounds, sports and recreational games, shaded reading areas, and accessible beaches, facilitating access and enjoyment for people with reduced mobility.
The new Paseo de Poniente, designed by architects Carlos Ferrater and Xavier Martí Galí and the OAB Studio of Barcelona, is a new place of transition between the built city and the natural space of the sea and the beach.
This promenade is not understood as a border-edge, but rather as an intermediate space that makes this transition permeable.
The ceramic paving is designed from two perspectives: the first is recognition of the cultural heritage of Arabic ceramics, which is well-established in the Levante region. The second is color. Benidorm is a city of leisure, and this paving defines a recreational space designed for passersby to enjoy this place that connects the city with the beach.
The design of this promenade, inaugurated in 2009, has received several awards, including those from the Chicago Museum of Architecture and Design, the ASCER Award, and the 2010 FAD Award.
Continuing along this promenade, you reach the area known as "La Cala" on Poniente Beach. This is perhaps the least-known beach because it has been less tourist-oriented than Levante. It's a more residential area, and this is evident not only in the urban density but also in the type of hospitality and commercial establishments.
In the 1950s, it was a virgin beach bordered by the national highway towards Alicante, from where you could have a view of the small town on the rocks of Canfali.
At the end of Poniente Beach is El Tossal de la Cala, where one of the first human settlements in the area took place.
This hill, whose peak reaches about 100 meters, protects the cove from the north and east winds. It houses an archaeological site that was declared a Site of Cultural Interest (BIC) in September 1984.
Excavations carried out in the 1940s and in 1965 revealed a set of archaeological materials dating from the 2nd and 1st centuries BC.
Archaeological excavations carried out in 2013 revealed that it was a Roman settlement occupied by the armies of Quintus Sertorius during the Sertorian Wars.
The wall runs approximately at elevation 91, creating a small fortified enclosure on the summit, covering an area of about half a hectare. Despite being only one meter thick, it effectively enclosed the enclosure, given the steep slope of the southern slope, the only accessible one, as the southern slope is a cliff that drops directly into the sea.
The wall, the different rooms and the materials found demonstrate the presence of Roman soldiers and confirm, beyond a doubt, that Tossal de la Cala was a fort or castellum ordered to be built by General Sertorius as part of a fortification plan for the northern Alicante coast, probably around the year 77 BC.
Tossal de la Cala was part of a Roman chain of coastal military enclaves located in the two regions of the Marina, all situated on cliffs and in inaccessible coves, which played a fundamental role in controlling the movement of friendly and enemy ships in the naval hostilities of the war.
The military contingent from the Tossal de la Cala barracks in Benidorm received supplies from the indigenous villages located inland, where Sertorius always sought support in order to respond to his powerful enemies sent by Rome in a military response. It is likely that the Iberians of the region lived in the enclave as part of the army itself.