The legend of Montíboli

In the tenth century, during the Arab occupation of the Spanish Levant, a wealthy young Arab merchant called Mohamed Al Bali lived on the coast of Alicante near the town of Villajoyosa, La Vila Joiosa (The Joyful City).

During the years that he and his family stayed there, he fell in love with the daughter of a Christian fisherman who unloaded his nets on the beaches near what would later be La Vila Joiosa.

The frontal rejection of both families to a union that was a disgrace to Al Bali and a sacrilege for the family of the young woman, forced the young couple to live hidden and always away from any inhabited site.

Faced with the impossibility of their love being accepted and due to the enormous pressure exerted by the families, the couple made a desperate decision.

They would climb to one of the hills that bordered the steep coast. There was a beautiful cliff from which the immensity of the sea could be seen, and where peace enveloped everything. This place had always been the mute witness of this impossible love.

From the top of that cliff, their complicit refuge, they promised each other eternal love, and launched themselves into the void, disappearing forever.

From that day, the Arab inhabitants of the regions bordering to Vila Joiosa, called that cliff “Mount Al Bali”, which with time became “Monti-Boli” and since then there is the belief, as the monument to the entrance of the Hotel Montíboli shows, that "From this place, the souls of the elect, undertake their last trip to paradise".