The Mountain With the Missing Piece
From the tram station, Puig Campana rises over Benidorm like a silent, brooding sentinel.
At first glance, its sheer bulk dominates the skyline, but it is a single, dramatic feature near its summit that immediately arrests the eye: a conspicuous, jagged gap known locally as El Portell — “The Gate.”
This wound in stone, later popularly renamed the Tajo de Roldán (Roldán’s Notch), transforms the mountain from a simple rock formation into an architectural mystery. It feels like a portal, a threshold between the sunlit streets of Benidorm below and a hidden, unseen world of myth.
Beneath its shadow, the modern town bustles with life. The city sprawls, a dazzling contrast where modern, sun-drenched towers meet the cobalt Mediterranean, where the ancient alleys of the Old Town smell of fresh tapas and history, and where the bustling beaches vibrate with the energy of a thousand holidaymakers and locals alike. Yet, for those who pause to truly look, the mountain watches back, telling a story that predates any tourist arrival.
The Legend: A Stroke of Desperate Love
To the imagination, the notch is not a geological accident but a mark left by passion and despair. The local legend attributes the mountain’s missing piece to the mighty warrior, Roldán.
The story goes that Roldán had fallen deeply in love with a beautiful maiden, but she was cursed with a terrible, fatal illness. A wise man revealed a single, impossible hope: she would live only for as long as the sun’s golden rays touched her.
Roldán rushed his beloved to the highest point of Puig Campana. As the day drew to a close and the sun began to sink toward the peak, the warrior was consumed by a blinding, desperate grief. Rather than face inevitable loss, he seized his powerful sword and, with a superhuman, final effort, struck the mountain with a single, furious blow.
The impact created the massive gap we see today, slicing through the rock to allow the light to momentarily stream through and bathe his love. The desperate act bought her just a few fleeting moments of life before the sun finally dipped below the horizon, and she died in his arms.
The Enduring Monument
In his overwhelming sorrow, Roldán hurled the great, cleaved piece of rock far out into the Mediterranean Sea. And there it remains: the missing chunk, perfectly situated just offshore, forming Isla de Benidorm.
In this way, Puig Campana and the surrounding landscape are transformed from simple scenery into a living, tragic narrative. The mountain with the missing piece bridges human emotion, myth, and the natural world.
Looking at El Portell, you feel the echo of that giant’s grief, the futile but beautiful struggle against fate.
The mountain asks us to step lightly, observe carefully, and remember that even in the midst of a modern town, a doorway to ancient wonder remains wide open.