Nueva Tabarca is a tiny archipelago located in front of Cabo de Santa Pola, and about ten nautical miles from the bay of Alicante, a city to which it belongs administratively since 1770.
The main island, known as Isla Plana, is the largest with about 30 ha of land. Next to this, which is the one that houses the historic population, another series of islets are located, such as La Cantera, to the W., La Galera, to the S., and La Nao to the E., and a series of reefs , most facing the southern profile of the main island.
“Isla Plana” has been the most used name throughout history, until “Nueva Tabarca” became its official name in the last third of the 18th century. At that time, a human contingent of Genoese origin arrived on the island for its definitive colonization, former captives in Algiers, who were rescued by the Spanish crown of Carlos III, and who years ago inhabited the small Tunisian island of Tabarka, and from there the name given to the island of Alicante in memory of that.
An ambitious project to build a walled citadel with an enlightened reformist spirit was carried out, although a series of conditions inexorably marked the immediate future of its population, mainly the lack of fresh water and its special physical and geographical characteristics.
Despite all these difficulties, at present, Nueva Tabarca is a heritage paradigm, and hence its declaration of Asset of Cultural Interest as a Historic Site in 1964, as well as a Marine Reserve of fishing interest since 1986, being the first to be declared in Spain.
The stamp that Correos dedicates to this important insular enclave includes a beautiful aerial image of its entire heritage, both of the inhabited and fortified historical nucleus, its marine environment, as well as the Campo, which shows the beautiful flowering of the Tabarquin autumn.
