This Europe: The day Franco said 'yes' to the bikini

The man once threatened with excommunication for allowing the bikini in Benidorm orders two bottles of wine to be brought to his book-lined office.

"They're from my wife's bodega," confides Pedro Zaragoza Orts, 80, who as mayor of Benidorm between 1950 and 1967 developed the Mediterranean hamlet into a mass resort – and revolutionised European holidaymaking.

Son and grandson of seamen, Mr Zaragoza worked in phosphate mines in western Spain and as a railway porter in Madrid before becoming mayor in the darkest, poorest years of Franco's dictatorship.

"Holidays used to be just for the rich. Mother and children decamped to a cool summer spot for three months and the husband stayed a fortnight then returned to the City. I thought humbler, middle-class people deserved holidays, too."

Turismo, a new concept of taking short breaks, entered the Spanish language in the 1950s, he says. He contacted German and Scandinavian airlines and promoted Benidorm, sending sprays of almond blossom to Stockholm before anything was in flower, and launching the slogan "sun and beach" to attract people from the grey north.

Northerners headed south, bringing the provocative two-piece. "I'd seen bikinis in magazines. In northern Europe it was nothing extraordinary. You couldn't stop it. So in 1953 I allowed bikinis to be worn in Benidorm, the first authority in Spain to do so. The priests threatened to excommunicate me," Mr Zaragoza chuckles.

In an act of now legendary bravado, Mr Zaragoza appealed directly to Franco. "I set off for Madrid on my Vespa at 6am. It took me eight hours. I changed my shirt but I went in to the General with my trousers spattered with motor oil. He backed me and the bikini stayed."

Mr Zaragoza also pioneered Benidorm's high-rise architecture. He takes a wine bottle and lays it on a piece of paper. "How can we best live in limited space? Low buildings occupy the space around us. The pace of life means we can't enjoy open spaces unless they're near by."

He stands the bottle on its base, then on its head and gestures at the expanse of paper uncovered. "I realised that if we built upwards we could have more space around. People could be near the beach, they could have balconies, fresh air, a sea view." Ten million holidaymakers annually visit Benidorm, Europe's third destination after London and Paris. "I'm proud of our achievement," he beams.

Then he opens the wine.