Pilar de la Horadada: the Campo, the tower and the youngest town in Alicante

Pilar de la Horadada is the last town in the Valencian Community before the Region of Murcia. It has about 24,300 residents, a compact inland centre and around five kilometres of Mediterranean coast. It is also the newest municipality in Alicante province, independent from Orihuela only since 1986, and its history is the history of a stretch of farmland known for centuries as the Campo de la Horadada.

Roman road country

The plain here was crossed by the Vía Augusta, the Roman road between Ilici, near modern Elche, and Carthago Nova, now Cartagena. Somewhere near the coast stood Thiar, a staging post named in the Roman itineraries, and a Roman milestone from the road survives as one of the town's emblems. There are also worked stone and quarry traces near Mil Palmeras beach. The route mattered enough that the modern N-332 and the AP-7 motorway still follow roughly the same line.

The tower and the name

The coast was raided by Barbary corsairs well into the early modern period, and a line of watchtowers was built to give warning. The Torre de la Horadada, on the shore in the settlement that now carries its name, was built in 1591 under Felipe II. The word horadada means pierced or bored through, taken either from the tower or from a holed rock on the coast. The inland settlement took its own name from the chapel, and later parish church, of Nuestra Señora del Pilar. Put together, the two halves give Pilar de la Horadada.

A century of asking to leave

The Campo de la Horadada was the southern edge of the large municipality of Orihuela, more than 30 kilometres from the city. For generations it was dry farmland with few houses and little public investment. Residents complained that the Campo had no proper drainage, paving or services while its taxes went north. Through the late twentieth century the campaign for separation grew, at one point blocking the main coast road, and on 30 July 1986 Pilar de la Horadada became a municipality in its own right, covering about 78 square kilometres.

Water and the fields

Farming is still central. Cooperatives based in the town, Surinver among them, grow artichokes and winter leaf vegetables on a large scale and export them across Europe through the colder months. The land depends on irrigation, including water brought south through the Tajo-Segura transfer. Inland, around Pinar de Campoverde, the seasonal Río Seco runs through pine and scrub that is drier and quieter than the coast.

The coast

The shoreline runs from El Mojón, right on the Murcia boundary, north through Mil Palmeras, the harbour and beaches at Torre de la Horadada, and Las Higuericas. It is open Mediterranean coast of sand and low rock, with a fishing and leisure port at Torre de la Horadada. The Mar Menor lagoon is often mentioned in the same breath, but it belongs to Murcia and begins just beyond El Mojón at San Pedro del Pinatar. Pilar's own beaches face the open sea.

Visiting Pilar de la Horadada

• The centre is small and walkable, focused on the church of El Pilar and Calle Mayor, with a local history museum and the Roman milestone.
• Torre de la Horadada, with its tower and harbour, is the main coastal settlement, and a shore path connects the beaches.
• The town sits on the N-332 between Torrevieja and San Pedro del Pinatar, close to junctions on the AP-7.

Pilar de la Horadada is the southern end of this run of coast. Torrevieja and its salt lakes lie to the north, with San Fulgencio and La Marina and Guardamar del Segura beyond. Orihuela, the city Pilar separated from, sits inland to the west.

Sources and review

Reviewed in August 2026 using the Pilar de la Horadada town hall history pages, the municipal tourism service, the Comunitat Valenciana tourism service and the Instituto Nacional de Estadística municipal register. Some sources give the watchtower a slightly earlier date, and this is noted in the text. Population and access details change, so confirm current information before travelling.