An easy walk inland from the little hamlet of La Ermita, up to the imposing dam on the Rio Amadorio, catching a few curiosities on the way. Uphill, but not steep. Beautiful mountain views from the dam. One hour each way. Map at the end of this post. Jump directly to the section on the dam here
La Ermita is a tranquil little village clustered around the church of San Antonio Abad, a kilometre or two inland from the main town of Villajoyosa.
Fortify yourself with a drink or ice cream in the bar sandwiched between the church and the old school, and head off down Partida La Ermita to start the walk.
The main square with church of San Antonio Abad
Typical church roof with blue and white tiles
La Cruz de Piedra
Just before you hit the main road, you’ll see a stone cross, the Cruz de Piedra, originally Roman. It marked a crossroads on the Roman road heading from the coast up into the mountains.
This was the Camí del Peix (the Fish Road), so named because fish from the port of Villajoyosa were loaded onto mule trains for the steep 50 kilometre trek to Alcoy up in the mountains. Industrial goods came down in the opposite direction for export from La Vila to the rest of the world.
Pilgrims on one of the Caminos de Santiago would also have travelled this way; they landed at Villajoyosa and walked more than 1,000 km across Spain to the shrine of St James at Santiago de Compostela in Galicia.
The legend of la Roca Encantada
From the Cruz de Piedra, go straight across the main road and follow the narrow lane as it curves round to the right for a couple of hundred metres until you see a giant boulder jutting out into the road; the Roca Encantada (you guessed it; the Enchanted Rock).
La Roca Encantada (the enchanted rock).
The valley of the Amadorio, La Vila’s river, from the Roca Encantada
According to local legend, on the eve of the Fiesta de San Juan, the rock opens up and an elderly woman dressed in white steps out. She’s wearing a hat with coloured ribbons. If you take one before she disappears back into the rock, true love will be yours.
But if you choose the black ribbon…well, don’t make any long-term plans. You won’t be around long enough to enjoy them. The eve of San Juan is June 23 if you were thinking of trying your luck.
Reverse your steps and then almost as you hit the main road once again (check the map at the end of this post here), turn sharp left and walk alongside the traffic for 200 metres or so.
Then bear left up a single-track lane, past an olive grove, with the distinctive peak of the Puig Campana looming off to your right, until you reach the remarkable Olivera Grossa.
Still producing leaves after 1,400 years!
The tangled trunk bears witness to the immense age of the Olivera Grossa.
La Olivera Grossa
This is no ordinary olive tree; its trunk and branches are twisted with age and contorted into fantastic shapes. The Olivera Grossa has been around for an astonishing 1,400 years – nobody’s quite sure – and it’s still doing pretty well.
Think about it; this tree was growing strongly BEFORE the Moors first arrived in Spain from North Africa in 711 AD.
The watchtowers
Look over your shoulder to the left across the fields and you’ll see a tower with a roof on it. This is the Torre de Baix (the Low Tower), one of the watchtowers put up in the 16th century to warn against corsair attacks on the coast.
If Villajoyosa was attacked, fires would be lit on the towers to summon defenders. Villagers would take refuge in the towers if they didn’t have time to flee to the safety of the town.
Continue a hundred metres or so up the road and you’ll see another tower to your right, the Torre Dalt (the High Tower). Sadly, the tower and its neighbouring farmhouse are slowly crumbling away.
The Romans were here too!
They found a Roman villa somewhere along this road (I’m not sure exactly where) which leads to the hamlet of Xauxelles. The Valenciano name looks unpronounceable, but it’s slightly easier when written as Chauchelles in Spanish.
The local priest, an amateur archaeologist, did some excavating back in the 1940s and found some remarkable stuff, which you can see in Villajoyosa museum or in the MARQ museum in Alicante (for more info, see my blog posts here and here).
A fragment of stucco from Villa de Xauxelles in the MARQ archaeology museum in Alicante.
It was probably the home of a very upmarket Roman citizen, possibly a senator with the imposing name of Lucio Lucrecio Servilio Galo Semproniano, and boasted lavishly decorated baths.
Archaeologists would dearly love to get back in for another good look at the site, but apparently it’s on private property. So that’s that….at least for now.
Cross the motorway
Our problem now is how to get across the Alicante-Valencia motorway, which blocks our path. The quickest way, if not the most scenic, is to follow the lane through Xauxelles until you hit the main Villajoyosa-Orxeta road. Turn left and cross the motorway bridge.
Then it’s ten minutes roadside walking. There’s a protected lane for pedestrians and cyclists on the right hand side. Turn left where you see the signs for Rugby La Vila and Embalse de Amadorio – the Amadorio reservoir.
A dead straight road takes you past Villajoyosa rugby stadium. Yes, in this football-crazy country, they play rugby!
Last season, La Vila competed in the top division of Spanish rugby, which is quite something for a little town like Villajoyosa. Sadly, they got relegated – but they’ve bounced back this season. Take in a Sunday home match or have a look at my blog here.
El Pantano del Amadorio – the Amadorio dam
Keep right ahead for 15 minutes or so and the dam comes into view. Branch left through a short tunnel (no cars, pedestrians only) and out onto the road that runs across the top of the dam.
Views are great both ways; across the reservoir and up into the mountains beyond, or down to Villajoyosa and the sea (click through the slide show below).
The dam in the movies!
You can see why Hollywood came calling – the dam features in an action movie, The Covenant, starring Jake Gyllenhaal no less, which hit cinemas in 2023.
The final highly-explosive sequence was shot on the roadway over the dam itself. Take a look at a trailer here – try to spot a few shots of the dam! The last time I looked it was on Amazon Prime if you fancy watching the whole film. There’s also a “how they made the movie” video on YouTube here, with even more shots of the dam.
Precious water in a dry country
The dam was built in 1957 to regulate the water supply on Villajoyosa’s river, the Amadorio. Unusually, it’s only a few kilometres from the coast – most dams are up in the mountains. The dam is around 200 feet high; easy to believe if you peer gingerly over the edge to the stream below.
Rainfall is pretty irregular here, and it’s getting worse with climate change – so the water level in the lake varies wildly. In 2021, for example, it was more than half empty. After heavy spring rains in spring 2022, it was almost full once again – but then near-drought conditions returned with a vengeance in 2024.
The dam even has its own website. You can check the water level and see for yourself how it goes up and down from year to year.
The road through the tunnel at the far end of the dam will take you around the lake towards the village of Orxeta. You can get a bus back to La Vila from here.
If you don’t have the energy for that hike, reverse your steps back across the dam, through the tunnel and head up the dirt road to your left. You’ll find a car park, with a picnic site and children’s playground among the pine trees. The two huge towers nearby are silos where they made the concrete that built the dam.
The view from the dam down to the coast at Villajoyosa
Looking up into the mountains from El Pantano de Amadorio
There are some beautiful views across the reservoir from the car park, up into the Sierra Aitana mountains and across to the peak of Puig Campana on your right.
On a clear day, you can just see the distant white globe of the military radar station commanding the ridge above the village of Sella.
The Amadorio dam replaced a 350-year-old dam upstream in the mountains at Relleu, a short drive inland from here. It has a spectacular walkway which takes you inside the gorge below the dam wall. Highly recommended! For more, check my post here.
Go fishing at the Amadorio dam
I’m no fisherman, but according to this website, there are some sizeable carp in the lake, You can usually see them circling lazily if you look over the dam wall You do need a permit, which you can buy in Orxeta. This website tells you where to get it, and has more information on the kind of fish you can catch.
The dam walk
Dams are always a great place for a walk – a combination of blue water and gorgeous mountain scenery. Try these:
- The spectacular walkway at the Relleu Dam
- The Tibi Dam, one of the oldest in Spain
- The spectacular Elche Dam, nearly four centuries old
- The dam and turquoise lake of Guadalest
And try these other walks around Villajoyosa too:
- Villajoyosa to Playa de Torres
- Playa de Torres to (almost) Benidorm
- The Faro (lighthouse) of Albir
- Villajoyosa harbour to Malladeta
- Torre del Barranc d’Aigues watchtower
- Exploring the old town of Villajoyosa
Check out my guide to La Vila’s 13 beaches and coves here.
© Guy Pelham
Dear Guy, Just wanted to thank you for your wonderful blog. We bought a house in Vila last May and visit as often as we can, hoping to retire there in the not too distant future. In the meantime, your blog is helping us to explore the surroundings and learn the history. Many thanks, Lindsey Williamson
Hi Lindsey, really sorry I didn’t reply when you sent your email way back in April. Thought I had, but clearly forgot to press SEND! Hope you’re enjoying La Vila and thank you for your kind comments. Don’t know if you had a chance to watch the Moros y Cristianos fiesta last month. If you didn’t. I’ve just blogged about it with some nice pictures. Hope to be posting some video of it soon. Regards…Guy