DENIA, a town in east Spain in the province of Alicante; on the Mediterranean sea and on the coast-railway from Carcagente to Alicante. Pop. (193o) 13,063. Denia, built on the seaward slopes of a small hill surmounted by a ruined castle, lies between the limestone ridge of Mongo on the south and a fertile plain on the north. It makes soap, jam, nails, bicycles and woollen, linen and esparto fabrics but is above all a fruit-port. It exports grapes, raisins, melons and oranges, tomatoes, onions and almonds, mainly to Great Britain and north Europe and imports wheat, flour, guano, sulphur, from Italy, Baltic timber, and coal and tin-plates from South Wales. The harbour, sheltered by a breakwater, con tains only a small area of deep anchorage and quay accommoda tion is limited to boats of under 12 ft. draught. Vessels therefore load and discharge chiefly into lighters, the larger boats anchoring in the open roadstead about m. from the shore. In 1926 135 vessels of 16o,000 tons entered the port.
Denia was colonized by Greek merchants from Emporiae (Am purias in Catalonia), or Massilia (Marseilles), at a very early date; the Romans named the town Dianium, after its temple of Diana, built, in imitation of that at Ephesus, at the foot of the castle hill. Denia was captured by the Moors in 713, and accord ing to an ancient but questionable tradition, under them became so prosperous a trading centre that its population rose to 5o,000. Many characteristic Moorish houses survive in the town though it has been largely modernized. After the city was retaken by the Christians in 1253, its prosperity dwindled, and only began to re vive iQ the i9th century. During the War of the Spanish Suc cession (1701-14), Denia was thrice besieged; and in 1813 the French withstood an allied British and Spanish siege of the citadel for five months before surrendering, on honourable terms.