The oldest testimony of human presence found in Benidorm is constituted by the archaeological remains of the Tossal Creek, a small hill located at end of the West beach. These reveal the existence of Iberian establishments during the centuries III-I B.C

After this, the king distributed the feuds conquered in the Kingdom of Valencia among his military campaign collaborators, with that great part of the district is in hands of the admiral Bernat d'en Sarrià. On the 8th on May of 1325, the admiral grants the Carta Puebla of Benidorm which purpose consists to mark the limits of the new population's term and to regulate the social, economic norms and politicians between the feudals and the vassals.

The sea has always played an important paper in the life of the habitants of Benidorm. From this town excellent seamen -captains, boatswains, sailors, telegraphers... -, since, apart from the fishing and the agriculture, the sailing also constituted a great source of revenues for the town.

It is by the middle of the XIX century when, soon after the improvement of the communications, Benidorm begins its tourist expansion. The first holiday people -coming from Madrid, mainly - make their appearance during the second decade of this century, dates when the first chalets are began to build. In question of few years an economy based on fishing and agriculture passes to an economy based on the tourism.

Source: Francesc X. Soldevila

Other cultures, as the Roman ( fragments of Punic ships and Roman shipwrecked in Benidorm bay ) or Arabic, also left their mark. The location of the actual Benidorm also has its origin in the medieval defensive necessities of the Hispanic oriental coast. In the XIII century the territory occupied by Benidorm was taken by the king Jaime I The Conqueror, in the process of Christian expansion against the Muslim domain.

The base of the local economy was fishing and agriculture, although there were fatal times for this activity due to the shortage of water, what caused the population to decrease progressively. At the beginning and by the middle of the XV century, Benidorm suffers two terrible pirate attacks that ravage the town and the castle, leaving the village uninhabited after the lasta attack. It is at the end of XVI century when it seems that the population begins to settle down again.