1922–2008 · Mayor
Pedro Zaragoza Orts
- Development plan
- 1956
- Height limit lifted
- 1963
Zaragoza was mayor of his home town from 1950 to 1967. During his term, Benidorm’s first development plan was drawn up; it was approved in April 1956 by the provincial planning commission. In 1963 an amendment lifted the height limit; that same year the Edificio Frontalmar became the first high-rise to receive a licence, and work on the Torre Coblanca began in 1964. In 1959 he founded the town’s song festival.
He promoted Benidorm all over Europe: he had sprigs of almond blossom handed out in Stockholm department stores, and in 1965 he travelled to Finland for ‘Operación Laponia’. A famous story has it that in 1952 he allowed bikinis throughout the town, was threatened with excommunication for it and rode nine hours on his Vespa to plead his case with the head of state, Francisco Franco. No decree can be found either in the municipal archive or in the archive of the University of Alicante; a former council official said the bikini was simply tolerated. A historian at the University of Alicante considers the Vespa ride an invention.
Torre Coblanca →
Sources: Wikipedia EN, Pedro Zaragoza · Universidad de Alicante, Hito 4 · Universidad de Alicante, Hito 9 · Histobenidorm, 2021 · Astrolabio (juanjfdiaz), 2014
Architect · 1956 development plan
Francisco Muñoz Llorens
- Plan
- 1956, with Luis Rodríguez
- Hotel Victoria
- designed 1956/57
The Alicante architect was working at the Ministry of Housing when Pedro Zaragoza appointed him ‘Arquitecto Municipal Honorario’, honorary municipal architect. There was no salary, because the council had no money for one. Muñoz drew up the 1956 development plan together with the architect Luis Rodríguez. The plan still envisaged a garden city of low houses, but it became the basis on which Benidorm grew upwards from 1963.
By his own account, he submitted his draft plan with ‘cuatro rayajos’, four scribbles. According to the blog Astrolabio, he transferred Le Corbusier’s idea of the high-rise from offices to housing.
In Benidorm he also built in his own right during the 1950s: chalets, the Apartamentos Berlín and Los Ángeles (1958) and the Manila Park leisure park (1958). For the Hotel Victoria on the road to Valencia, built for José Moncho Mayor, he produced a strikingly modern design in 1956/57, while other buildings of his from those years remained traditional. The hotel got the town’s first hotel pool, laid out in a former irrigation tank.
Hotel RH Victoria →
Sources: Astrolabio (juanjfdiaz), 2016 · Valencia Plaza · El Periòdic · Juan-José Chiner Vives, Benidorm. Los orígenes de la ciudad vertical, 2006 · Juan-José Chiner Vives (ed.), Los hoteles del paraíso 1954–1964, 2005
Architect · 1990 Plan General
Juan-José Chiner Vives
- Plan General
- 1990
- Exhibitions
- 2005 and 2006/07
The Benidorm architect drew up the revision of the development plan that began in 1986 under mayor Manuel Catalán Chana. It became the 1990 Plan General, which is still in force today. In the high-rise zones it allows 30 per cent of a plot to be built on, and there is no fixed height limit.
Chiner is also the chronicler of the early years. In 2005 he curated the exhibition ‘Los hoteles del paraíso 1954–1964’ at the CAM cultural centre in Benidorm, with hotel brochures from the municipal archive, and in 2006, for the 50th anniversary of the 1956 plan, the exhibition ‘Benidorm. Los orígenes de la ciudad vertical’. In its catalogue he debunks a myth: the claim that in 1956 Benidorm had Spain’s first Plan General does not stand up to an examination of the records.
Sources: Mª Nieves Higueras López, Benidorm, estudio de su modelo urbanístico (Proyecto Fin de Grado), 2012 · Juan-José Chiner Vives, Benidorm. Los orígenes de la ciudad vertical, 2006 · Juan-José Chiner Vives (ed.), Los hoteles del paraíso 1954–1964, 2005
Sociologist · ‘Benidorm, ciudad nueva’
Mario Gaviria
- Studies
- 1972–1974
- Book
- Benidorm, ciudad nueva (1977)
Between 1972 and 1974 the sociologist carried out the first systematic studies of Benidorm’s beaches and the people who used them. With José Miguel Iribas, Françoise Sabbah and Juan Ramón Sanz Arranz he turned them into the two-volume work ‘Benidorm, ciudad nueva’ (Editora Nacional, Madrid 1977; Chiner gives 1975).
The book analyses the building regulations from 1956 to 1974 zone by zone: heights, minimum plots, setbacks and building volume. Its tables underpin later dissertations on Benidorm’s urban planning. Gaviria also showed that in practice the volume rule did not keep building volume constant. By his figures, on 1,000 m² at the Playa de Levante one could build 2,580 m³ in 1956, and 4,000 m³ after the amendments from 1958 onwards.
Sources: Juan-José Chiner Vives, Benidorm. Los orígenes de la ciudad vertical, 2006 · Mª Nieves Higueras López, Benidorm, estudio de su modelo urbanístico (Proyecto Fin de Grado), 2012 · Pedro Touceda Gutiérrez, Reconstrucción del desarrollo urbano de Benidorm (TFG, ETSAM-UPM), 2024
Architect · Edificio Frontalmar
Vicente Aliena Goiti
- Frontalmar licence
- 1963
- Structure
- steel frame
Working in Valencia, the architect designed the Edificio Frontalmar on the Playa de Levante, which received its building licence in 1963. According to the barely legible legend on the plans, he was also a co-owner. The exhibition catalogue by Juan-José Chiner Vives calls the Frontalmar Benidorm’s first skyscraper; in 1964 it was under construction.
The planning application argued that a tower was more attractive than 125 metres of frontage at the usual five storeys, and that it left room for parking. The town agreed, because the volume stayed the same while more open space and sea views were gained. It was built with a steel frame, modelled on the Finca de Hierro in Valencia. This method remained common in Benidorm until the early 1970s, when reinforced concrete took over.
Torre Coblanca →
Sources: Juan-José Chiner Vives, Benidorm. Los orígenes de la ciudad vertical, 2006 · Miriam Ponce, Así se lee Benidorm (Universidad de Alicante), 2022
1927–2005 · Architect
Juan Guardiola Gaya
- Client
- Coblanca
- Towers
- Torre Coblanca, Torre Benidorm
Guardiola came from Reus and graduated in Barcelona in 1957. As a student he worked with Francesc Mitjans on the Camp Nou, where he got to know exposed concrete. From 1963 to 2000 he designed most of the buildings for the construction firm Coblanca, dozens of skyscrapers. The first was the Torre Coblanca, one of the town’s first high-rises.
A study by the University of Alicante compares the tower with Mies van der Rohe’s Lake Shore Drive Apartments in Chicago, but as a contrast: Mies arranges everything around a central core, while Guardiola orients the apartments towards sun and view. He painted and made assemblages. In Alicante he designed the casino on the Explanada (1976), in Benidorm the La Noria shopping centre (1979).
Torre Coblanca →Torre Benidorm →
Sources: Vía Arquitectura · Crónica Global, 2025 · RUA, Universidad de Alicante
Architect
Roberto Pérez-Guerras
- Towers
- Intempo, Neguri Gane
By his own account, the Alicante architect has designed five towers in Benidorm, among them Neguri Gane, together with Julio Pérez Gegúndez, and Intempo. Before every design he visits the site, preferably at sunrise. At Intempo, a seagull is said to have tipped the balance on the height; at the top, as he puts it, sits ‘a cone, a diamond’.
Some things stayed on paper: a Benidorm tower whose top 20 floors were meant to rotate, and a mosque above the sea in Libya. In 2022 his biography ‘Construyendo fuertes’ by Martín Sanz Moros was published. It was launched at Intempo.
Intempo →Neguri Gane →
Sources: Alicante Plaza · Pérez-Guerras Arquitectos · CTBUH Skyscraper Center
1935–2018 · Architect
Antonio Escario Martínez
- Tower
- Gran Hotel Bali, 186 m
Escario, born in Albacete, designed the Gran Hotel Bali. The design was worked up in a team with F. Candel, R. Luelmo and F. Sanchís. He had already built the Edificio Santa Margarita in Benidorm.
From 1970 to 1989 he ran the practice ‘Escario, Vidal y Vives’ with José Antonio Vidal and José Vives. His buildings include the ‘Pagoda’ in Valencia, the Albacete museum, Vigo airport and the headquarters of the EU trade mark office in Alicante. He died in Valencia in 2018.
Gran Hotel Bali →
Sources: Wikipedia ES, Antonio Escario · Revista de Obras Públicas, 2014 · CTBUH Skyscraper Center
† 2023 · Structural engineer
Florentino Regalado Tesoro
- Projects
- over 4,500
- Towers (selection)
- Intempo, Gran Hotel Bali, Torre Lúgano, Neguri Gane, Kronos
Hardly any name is behind as many Benidorm towers. The engineer from the province of Cáceres, known in Alicante as ‘un cacereño de Alicante’, calculated the structures of Intempo, Gran Hotel Bali, Torre Lúgano, Neguri Gane, Kronos, Torre Levante, Costa Blanca I and the Miragolf towers. In all, he worked on over 4,500 projects. He is said to have calculated Benidorm’s town hall by hand.
In 2014, in the Revista de Obras Públicas, he explained the history of Benidorm’s high-rise construction from an engineer’s point of view. For Costa Blanca I he gives shear walls of 8.50 metres and a slenderness ratio of 1:13. On 3 June 2026 Alicante named the footbridge over Avenida de Dénia after him.
Intempo →Gran Hotel Bali →Costa Blanca I →
Sources: Ayuntamiento de Alicante, 2026 · Revista de Obras Públicas, 2014 · CTBUH Skyscraper Center
Architect
Carlos Gilardi
- Towers
- Torre Levante, Hotel Meliá Benidorm
Gilardi designed the Torre Levante (1985); the structure was calculated by Florentino Regalado. The tower is regarded as Benidorm’s first building over 100 metres. According to Regalado, the bracing in the base was deliberately kept small because the ground-floor shop space was so valuable. Gilardi still lists the tower as his practice’s first reference. He later built the Hotel Meliá Benidorm, the SHA Wellness Clinic in Albir and the Palau Altea. He has been working as an architect for around 40 years.
Torre Levante →Hotel Meliá Benidorm →
Sources: CTBUH Skyscraper Center · Revista de Obras Públicas, 2014 · Houzz, Carlos Gilardi
1937–2014 · Builder
Manuel Peláez Castillo
- Company
- ECISA, founded 1968
- Towers (selection)
- Neguri Gane, Sol de Poniente, Gemelos 26, Don Jorge, Torre d'Oboe
Peláez came from Benalúa de las Villas near Granada, left school without qualifications and worked as a waiter and builders’ merchant. In 1968, with his brothers Miguel and José Luis, he founded the construction firm ECISA (Estructuras y Cimentaciones Insulares) in the Canary Islands. At the start of every job the motto was ‘¡Vamos directos al triunfo!’.
In Benidorm, ECISA built over 30 towers with more than 25 storeys, more than a third of all the town’s towers. They include Neguri Gane, Sol de Poniente, Gemelos 26, Don Jorge, Cibeles and the town hall. The firm was quick to adopt reinforced-concrete waffle slabs instead of steel beams.
Neguri Gane →Sol de Poniente →Gemelos 26 →
Sources: El Español, 2022 · CTBUH Skyscraper Center
† 2026 · Builder and hotelier
Joaquín Luis Pérez Crespo
- Construction began
- 1988
- Opened
- 17 May 2002
Pérez Crespo started the Gran Hotel Bali at the western end of Poniente in 1988. He financed construction without a bank loan, which is why it dragged on for around 14 years. When it opened on 17 May 2002, the hotel, at 186 metres, was Spain’s tallest building and Europe’s tallest hotel. He remained its owner to the end. In December 2025 around 50 Benidorm hotel managers honoured him at their annual meeting at the Bali. He died in early August 2026.
Gran Hotel Bali →
Sources: Arquitectura Viva · Alicante Plaza, 2026 · Alicante Plaza, 2025
† 2009 · Fresco painter and hotelier
Felipe Pastor
- Plot
- 11,635 m²
- Delfín opened
- 1963
Pastor saw the plot at the western end of Poniente in 1957 and is said to have remarked: ‘You are standing on gold.’ On 30 December 1957 he and his partners bought 11,635 square metres. On 20 July 1963 the Hotel Delfín opened there. He designed and painted the four geometric dolphins on the façade himself that same year, directly onto the wall.
In the 1970s he went to London to win over tour operators. He also built the Hotel Los Dálmatas, today’s Hotel Port Benidorm. Pastor died in Madrid in 2009, aged over 90. Where his hotel stood, the Gran Delfín is now going up.
Gran Delfín →Hotel Port Benidorm →
Sources: Histobenidorm, 2015 · Alicante Plaza, 2023
1950s–60s · Hoteliers
The hoteliers of the early days
- Largest hotel c. 1960
- Avenida, 122 rooms
- Open all year 1961/62
- 12 hotels
Before the high-rises came, family businesses built the first hotels. Francisco Climent Pallarés ran and owned the Hotel Avenida on Calle Martínez Alejos; with 122 rooms it was the largest in town around 1960. His brochures of 1958 and 1960 are the oldest in the municipal archive’s collection. José Moncho Mayor had Francisco Muñoz Llorens design the Hotel Victoria, which got Benidorm’s first hotel pool.
Ramón Ferrando Solbes owned the Hotel and Residencia Madrid, and José Martorell ran the L'Illa on the Playa de Levante. In 1958 plans were drawn up for Manuel Fuster Albarat to convert the former Chalet Payá into a hotel, later called the Planesia. By 1961/62 twelve hotels were already open all year round, together accounting for almost 80 per cent of hotel beds.
Sources: Juan-José Chiner Vives (ed.), Los hoteles del paraíso 1954–1964, 2005 · Histobenidorm, 2013
† 2015 · Developer
José Ignacio de la Serna
- Towers
- Neguri Gane, Intempo
The Basque developer built Neguri Gane (1998–2002). The name refers to the villa district of Neguri near Bilbao. At 148 metres, the tower was Spain’s tallest residential building until the Torre Lúgano was completed in 2007.
De la Serna then started Intempo, through the company Olga Urbana, in which he was the majority shareholder. That put him behind two towers that were each regarded as Spain’s tallest residential building. He died in February 2015.
Neguri Gane →Intempo →
Sources: Valencia Plaza, 2015 · Wikipedia ES, Intempo · CTBUH Skyscraper Center
Developer · since 1969
The Serna family (TM Grupo Inmobiliario)
- Founded
- 1969, Orihuela
- Tallest project
- TM Tower, 230 m
José Luis Serna built his first flats in Orihuela in 1969; this grew into TM Grupo Inmobiliario, based in Torrevieja. Today Ángeles, Pablo and Jesús Serna run the company, with Pablo Serna as CEO. In Benidorm, the first project, from 2016, was Sunset Drive in La Cala.
In January 2018, according to EjePrime, TM bought 165,000 square metres one block back from the Poniente seafront and built Sunset Sailors there, among others. The biggest project is the TM Tower: 230 metres, according to TM Europe’s future tallest residential building, with a sky bar and observatory on the 63rd floor. It was unveiled in September 2025 to almost 400 guests with a drone show.
TM Tower →Sunset Sailors →Sunset Drive →
Sources: El Debate, 2026 · EjePrime, 2018 · TM Grupo Inmobiliario, 2025
1903–1971 · Magician and postcard photographer
Fredo Marvelli
Friedrich Jäckel from Breslau performed as the magician ‘Fredo Marvelli’ from 1920 and became well known in Berlin. In the early 1950s he passed through Benidorm with his car and caravan and soon came back; a permit allowed him 30 days’ camping on the Levante beach. He is buried in Benidorm.
Because in 1954 he could not get a licence to take photographs for money, he switched to postcards, reportedly the first in Benidorm to hold a patent for them. In the mid-1960s he handed over his shop and patent to Foto Rueck. His cards show Benidorm just before the first skyscrapers.
Sources: Histobenidorm, 2015 · Biblioteca Valenciana (BIVALDI)
1909–1974 · Photographer and photojournalist
Ilse Steinhoff
The photographer from Barmen took pictures at the 1936 Olympic Games and made photographic journeys through Africa. After the war she worked as a photojournalist, first in Saarbrücken, from 1950 based in Stuttgart. Her photo collection of around 2,000 items went to the Basler Afrika Bibliographien in 2010.
She took a picture of Benidorm harbour with fishing boats and a view across Poniente to the Tossal de la Cala, dated to around 1930 by the archive. The image is held in the Fernández Fuster collection at the University of Zaragoza and is freely licensed.
Sources: Wikipedia DE, Ilse Steinhoff · Universidad de Zaragoza (Flickr)
1901–1994 · Ethnologist
Olof Hasslöf
- Photographs
- 11/12 November 1959
The Swede wrote his doctorate in 1949 on the fishermen of Sweden’s west coast, was curator at the Maritime Museum in Stockholm from 1946 to 1967 and taught comparative folklore in Stockholm and Copenhagen. On 11 and 12 November 1959 he photographed Benidorm as a fishing village: boats on the beach, nets being mended on the jetty, the village above the harbour with its first multi-storey new buildings. His photo archive of around 3,000 images is held at the Bohusläns museum in Uddevalla.
Sources: DigitaltMuseum, Bénidorm 1959 · DigitaltMuseum · DigitaltMuseum (biography)
Tourism researcher and collector
Luis Fernández Fuster
Fernández Fuster wrote standard works of tourism research, including ‘Geografía general del turismo de masas’ and ‘Introducción a la teoría y técnica del turismo’. His papers are held at the former Escuela de Turismo in Huesca, now the library of the Faculty of Business and Public Administration of the University of Zaragoza.
They include photos from the state tourism archive, among them many early pictures of Benidorm, for example by Ilse Steinhoff, R. Arranz and E. de la Vega. The university makes them available online under free licences. Many of the ‘then’ pictures on this website come from there.
Sources: Universidad de Zaragoza (Flickr) · Catalogue, Université de Nantes · Catalogue, Universidad de El Salvador
1946–2013 · Film director
Bigas Luna
- Film
- Huevos de oro, 1993
In 1993 the Barcelona director, painter and photographer made ‘Huevos de oro’, the second part of his ‘Iberian Trilogy’. Javier Bardem plays Benito González, an upstart who wants to build his own skyscraper. Filming took place in Benidorm, Melilla and Miami, among other places. In shot is the shell of the Gran Hotel Bali, in spring 1993 somewhere beyond the 30th floor. The hotel was not completed until nine years later.
Gran Hotel Bali →
Sources: Wikipedia EN, Golden Balls · Astrolabio (juanjfdiaz), 2013 · Wikipedia EN, Bigas Luna
b. 1960 · Film director
Isabel Coixet
- Film
- Nieva en Benidorm, 2020
- Lead role
- Timothy Spall
The multiple Goya award winner wrote and directed ‘Nieva en Benidorm’ (2020), produced by El Deseo with RTVE, Movistar+ and ViacomCBS. Timothy Spall plays Peter, a bank clerk from Manchester who has taken early retirement. He travels to Benidorm to visit his brother Daniel, who lives there and has gone missing.
Daniel lives in the Torre Lúgano; one of the first shots was filmed from the terrace of that apartment. Shooting began in January 2020, and the premiere was on 24 October 2020 at the Seminci film festival in Valladolid.
Torre Lúgano →
Sources: El Hype · Benidorm Film Office · Wikipedia EN, It Snows in Benidorm