Tarbena
is a beautiful town situated between mountains 30km from Benidorm in
the region of Marina Baixa.
The origins of the village, Tárbena, go back to prehistoric times
attested by the finding of Iberian remains. One may find the traces
left by the primitive settlers in the caves known as "Coveta de
les Lletres" and "Cova de Dalt". The geographic situation
made the road through Tárbena an obligatory one, to head toward
Denia or Sagunto as the Bernia mountain reached the sea. It was not
unitl the end of the 19 th century when a bridge (Pont del Mascarat)
was built allowing the travellers to follow the shoreside. There are
still names used in the village from those days like the "Camino
de los Arrieros" (The muleteer’s path) or "La Venta"
(The Roadside Inn) which remind us of the times when Tárbena
was a passing point between the Marina Baixa and the Marina Alta.
The
name of the village, Tárbena, derives from the Iberian. "Tarb"
means high. Not much is known of what happened in the region before
1607. After the morisco expulsion decreted by Felipe III, the villages
in the mountains of Bernia and Aitana where resettled with people from
Aragon and Catalonia. Tárbena was resettled by seven Majorican
families who brought their language and their customs. In our days the
traditional majorican sausage "sobrasada" is still made and
the majorican dialect is still used.
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