Guardamar del Segura (), or briefly Guardamar, is a

municipality A municipality is usually a single administrative division having municipal corporation, corporate status and powers of self-government or jurisdiction as granted by national and regional laws to which it is subordinate. The term ''municipality' ...

of the

province of Alicante Alicante (, , ; ; ; officially: / ) is a province located in eastern Spain, in the southern part of the Valencian Community. It is the second most populated Valencian province, containing the second and third biggest cities in the Valencian Co ...

located at the mouth of the river Segura in southern

Valencia (autonomous community) The Valencian Community is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid with more than five million inhabitants.Instituto Nacional de Estadí ...

Spain Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...

. It is a Mediterranean resort, with a large pine forest abutting an 11-km-long white sand

beach A beach is a landform alongside a body of water which consists of loose particles. The particles composing a beach are typically made from Rock (geology), rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle beach, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological s ...

. Historically, it was an area of fishermen and farmers. A Phoenician colony, called ''Herna'' by Roman

geographer A geographer is a physical scientist, social scientist or humanist whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society, including how society and nature interacts. The Greek prefix "geo" means "earth" a ...

Avienius Postumius Rufius Festus Avienius (or Avienus) was a Latin literature, Latin writer of the 4th century AD. He was a native of Volsinii in Etruria, from the distinguished family of the Rufii Festi. Avienius is not identical with the historian Fest ...

in his book ''

Ora Maritima ("The Sea Coast") is a poem written by Avienius. It has been claimed to contain borrowings from the ''Massaliote Periplus'' (perhaps dating to the 6th century BC).Donnchadh Ó Corráin Chapter 1 "Prehistoric and Early Christian Ireland", in ''Th ...

'' was the first settlement near the mouth of Segura river, In Valencian, ''guardar'' means safekeeping and ''mar'' means sea, and this is another possible basis for its current name. Guardamar is the southernmost

Valencian Valencian can refer to: * Something related to the Valencian Community ( Valencian Country) in Spain * Something related to the city of Valencia * Something related to the province of Valencia in Spain * Something related to the old Kingdom of ...

-speaking town and in 1991 41.8% of the town's residents could speak it. Guardamar is also the only municipality of the

Vega Baja del Segura Vega Baja del Segura (; Mapa temàtic comarcal de la Comunitat Valenciana, serie CV350. Institut Cartogràfic Valencià. 2022, Col·leccions AutonòmiquesPDF/ref> ), simply known locally and regionally as Vega Baja (in Spanish), is a ''comarca'' ...

comarca (known locally as Baix Segura) where Valencian is traditionally and widely spoken. Guardamar hosts local festivals like '' Moros i Cristians'' (Moros y Cristianos), '' L'Encantà'', and '' Fogueres de Sant Joan'' (Hogueras de San Juan), which commemorate its history.

Population

The INE (Spanish Census) of 2006 showed that the city had 14,261 residents. By January 2011 this figure had reached 16,863 of which 10,051 were Spanish. The total dropped by 2015 to 15,589. The most prominent nationalities in 2015 were:

Government

Carmen Verdú is the mayor of the city. In the latest municipal elections of May 2011, Carmen Verdú of the People's Party (''Partido Popular'') won the elections with an

absolute majority A majority is more than half of a total; however, the term is commonly used with other meanings, as explained in the " Related terms" section below. It is a subset of a set consisting of more than half of the set's elements. For example, if a gr ...

, larger than the one the former mayor (María Elena Albentosa) had, while the opposition (Socialist Party) lost some of their popular support. She is the second woman ever to occupy this position. At the 2015 local elections, the political composition on the local council was:

Geography

Climate

Points of interests

* Torreta de Guardamar, a radio mast. The tallest military structure in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

References

External links

Agrupación Musical de Guardamar del Segura

guardamardelsegura.com

Guardamar del Segura Quiz
a
LetsQuiz
{{Authority control Municipalities in the Province of Alicante Seaside resorts in Spain