Art in Altea

1. How a fishing town became an artists’ colony

Black-and-white photograph looking up at the corner of a house: several courses of tile form a saw-toothed cornice beneath the eaves, below it a small barred window with a wooden shutter and a hard shadow across the whitewashed wall — Lime-washed wall, tiled cornice, barred window — the building manner of the old town, seen from belowPhoto: Ximo Rosell

Eberhard Schlotter lived in Altea from the 1950s onwards.

The influx grew in the 1970s. Those who came often stayed, and that changed the town twice over. First an audience appeared: galleries, exhibitions, an art market. Second, and this is still felt today, the town found a way of seeing itself. That a town should consider its own appearance worth protecting cannot be taken for granted.

The faculty came later and consolidated the process: since 1997 Altea has trained artists rather than merely attracting them.

2. Names that shaped the place

The list below holds people whose connection with Altea is publicly documented; where the university itself names someone, the entry says so. It is deliberately short and sourced, rather than long and vague.

Eberhard Schlotter (1921–2014) — German painter and printmaker who worked in Altea for much of his life. For German-speaking readers the most obvious way into the colony’s history. The university names him too.
Benjamín Palencia (1894–1980) — one of the most influential Spanish painters of the twentieth century, present in Altea in the 1970s according to the university.
Juan Navarro Ramón (1903–1989) — painter, born in Altea; his estate went to the town council, which holds 236 catalogued works by him.
Antoni Miró — Valencian artist who appears in the university’s list of those who left their mark on Altea.

The list is incomplete, and for now it should stay that way. Better four sourced names than forty copied from tourist leaflets. Additions with a source are welcome.

3. Training: the Faculty of Fine Arts

The Faculty of Fine Arts in Altea belongs to the Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche and was founded in 1997. It is a campus of its own, devoted entirely to training in the arts — not a department inside a large university, but a small, specialised centre.

Address: Campus d’Altea, Avinguda de Benidorm s/n
Partida Pla de Castell, 03590 Altea
Run by: Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche (UMH)
Founded: 1997
Faculty: baa.umh.es
Campus: campusaltea.umh.es

It offers the degree in Fine Arts with a specialisation in either Plastic Arts or Visual Arts and Design, plus the master’s programme “Project and Research in Art”. The faculty has its own workshops for printmaking, metal, stone, wood, ceramics and casting, and aims to make them as accessible as possible.

For the town this means young artists who study here, exhibit, and in some cases stay on. Courses, admission and the calendar change every year and are on the university’s own pages.

4. Exhibiting and performing

Flat, rust-brown steel sculpture cut out like a silhouette on a square: a bull with large eyes and other stylised figures. Behind it the church with its blue-and-white tiled dome and tall bell tower; blue sky, sunshine. — Art in the streetscape: *Gernikabou* by Antoni Miró, a Corten-steel bull on the square by the parish churchPhoto: Axel Voigts

Low, light-coloured arts centre with the lettering “PALAU ALTEA Centre d’arts” above its glazed entrance and a long banner under the roofline. Palm trunks, lawn and a hedge in front, a mountain on the right, sunlight. — The Palau d’Altea on Carrer d’Alcoi — cultural and congress centre, stage and exhibition roomsPhoto: Axel Voigts

White three-storey house with a tiled eave, wrought-iron balconies and an old wooden door in a stone frame. On the façade, tiled signs reading “Casa de Cultura” and “Biblioteca Municipal Joan Fuster”, a “Navarro Ramon” banner and a curved metal sculpture. — The Casa de Cultura on the Costera Pont del Montcau — the Joan Fuster municipal library is in the same buildingPhoto: Axel Voigts

Palau d’Altea — the town’s cultural and congress centre, with exhibitions, theatre, music and dance. Programme and tickets through the venue itself: palaualtea.com. Carrer d’Alcoi 18. On the map
The faculty’s exhibition spaces — the campus shows work by students and guests and hosts congresses. Avinguda de Benidorm s/n. On the map
Casa de Cultura and municipal halls — temporary exhibitions, often with a local connection; the public library shares the building. Costera Pont del Montcau 14. On the map. Announced in the municipal events calendar: altea.es
Galleries in the old town — the real density is in the lanes of the Casco Antiguo: small galleries, workshops and studios, many of them open only in season.
Craft market — on summer evenings on the church square; see the page on fiestas and markets.

5. Art in public space

A rust-red steel sculpture against a cloudless sky: a horizontal block with cylinders and round glass discs projecting forward, a comb of thin vertical rods above, the sea to the right — Atalaya Terra by Víktor Ferrando on the Plaza de Europa, unveiled in 2023 — built from material off the Benidorm–Altea railwayPhoto: Axel Voigts

Close-up: four thick glass bells seated on rust-red steel cylinders, a threaded bolt rising at an angle out of each into the blue sky — Glass insulators from the railway’s overhead line — the sculptor dates the material to 1913Photo: Axel Voigts

Large pale stone letters at the edge of the promenade spelling ALTEA, each carved with reliefs; on a stone block to the left a dark ship’s propeller, the sea behind in evening light — Altea del Mar by Mario Romero on the promenade — each letter carved from a single block of marble, the propeller beside itPhoto: Axel Voigts

Two works stand out on the promenade, open to anyone at any hour.

Atalaya Terra has stood on the Plaza de Europa since 9 June 2023, opposite Platja de l’Espigó. It is 3.5 metres tall, weighs 4,500 kilograms, and is made of material off the railway between Benidorm and Altea, donated by Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat Valenciana. The parts were galvanised at GALESA so the salt air would not start them rusting again.

Up close you can see what went into it: glass insulators of the kind that hung on the overhead line and the trackside telegraph, together with steel sections and threaded bolts. The sculptor Víktor Ferrando, from Calp, dates the material to 1913 and says it came from England. Recycling is a principle of his work — he calls the material the reconversion of a historical heritage that has not been lost. For the form he names the planet Venus, sometimes visible from that spot above the sea.

The work is a gift: Ferrando handed it to the municipality through the Rotary Club, permanently and free of charge, and the municipality undertook in return to make it known. The plinth was designed and set by the planning department. It is the second sculpture in a series planned along the Mediterranean corridor; the sources disagree on how many there will be.

The name fits better than it first sounds. Atalaya means watchtower, and this coast has a real one: the Torre de Bellaguarda, which in the sixteenth century kept watch over the coast and warned of pirate raids. A sculpture of railway material keeping watch over the same coast is the same idea, centuries later.

Altea del Mar, the second work, stands further west on the promenade in front of Platja del Bol: the name of the town in marble letters, each carved from a single block, with a brass ship’s propeller 78 centimetres across. It is by Mario Romero and came out of the Amb el Nom d’Altea competition, an idea of Paco Lloret’s that came third in the 2019 participatory budget.

6. A directory of artists

This directory is being built. For now it is empty, and there is a reason: the names, studios and contact details of living people are personal data. They cannot simply be gathered and published, even if they appear elsewhere on the internet.

So only those who expressly wish to be listed are included. Listing is free and can be withdrawn at any time, with no reason required.

What an entry contains

Name or artist’s name
Discipline: painting, sculpture, ceramics, photography, music…
Area of Altea and, if wanted, the studio address
Studio hours, if it can be visited
A website or one contact route of your choice
Two or three sentences about the work

How to be listed

A message to the person responsible for the site is enough; the details are in the legal notice. Nothing is published without express consent, and only the details the person authorises. Removal is handled with no questions asked. How the data is handled is described in the privacy policy.

What will expressly not happen: a compiled list of everyone who makes art in Altea. A directory you appear in without having asked would be neither legally sound nor particularly friendly.

7. Sources

Atalaya Terra: details from the unveiling notice of Altea Cultural ↗, with Alicante Plaza ↗ and Calp al Día ↗, where the sculptor dates the material. The sources disagree on how many works are planned, so no figure is given here. Altea del Mar: based on elperiodic.com ↗.

Faculty of Fine Arts, Altea (UMH) — baa.umh.es and campusaltea.umh.es. Basis for the founding year, the location and the courses.
Ajuntament d’Altea — altea.es, for venues and programming.

Specific sources: the influx of the 1970s, the names the university itself gives (Schlotter, Palencia, Miró) and the master’s programme according to the university (campusaltea.umh.es); the workshops according to the faculty’s campus leaflet (bbaa.umh.es); Eberhard Schlotter and his foundations in Altea and Celle according to alicanteplaza.es (6 September 2019); Juan Navarro Ramón according to valenciaplaza.com (13 June 2017) and alicanteplaza.es (21 February 2024); Gernikabou according to the Museo Reina Sofía (museoreinasofia.es); the Torre de Bellaguarda according to comunitatvalenciana.com. Legal basis for the directory: Art. 6(1) GDPR (eur-lex.europa.eu).

For the life dates of the people named, generally accessible reference works were consulted. Where the connection with Altea rests only on the university’s list, the text says so and does not turn it into a biography.

Compiled October 2026. Galleries open and close; programmes change with the season. The municipality and the venues themselves are the current source.