Tabarca

Tabarca also acknowledged in Valencian as Nova Tabarca and Illa Plana, and in Spanish as Nueva Tabarca and Isla Plana, is an islet located inside the Mediterranean Sea, near the town of Santa Pola, within the province of Alicante, Valencian community, Spain. Tabarca is the smallest completely inhabited islet in Spain and it is currently recognised for its marine reserve. Before 1700, the island became known as Illa de Sant Pau 'Saint Paul's Island' or Illa Plana 'Flat Island'. Believed to be the island that St. Paul disembarked on, the island was a shelter for Barbary pirates up to the end of the 18th century.

Its Tunisian fellow islet off the city of Tabarka turned into part of the Republic of Genoa until 1741 when it turned into conquered by means of the Bey of Tunis. In 1760, Charles III of Spain ordered the fortification and repopulation of the Spanish island. A institution of Genoese sailors shipwrecked near the coast of Tunisia, mainly coming from the islet off Tunisian Tabarka, have been rescued and settled right here. The islet became renamed Nova Tabarca New Tabarca in each Valencian and Latin. Thus a settlement was created by royal edict in this uninhabited island which the North African corsaries had formerly used as a platform for raids at the Levantine coast.