Guardamar del Segura
Encyclopedia
Guardamar del Segura (ˌɡwaɾðaˈmaɾ ðeɫ seˈɣuɾa) or briefly Guardamar is a municipality
of the province of Alicante
located at the mouth of the river Segura
in southern Valencia (autonomous community), Spain
. It is a Mediterranean resort, with a large pine forest abutting an 11-km-long white sand beach
.
Historically an area of fishermen and farmers, Guardamar del Segura is the southernmost point where Valenciano (a dialect of Catalan) is spoken.
A Phoenician colony, called Herna by Roman geographer
Avienus
in his book Ora Maritima was the first settlement near the mouth of Segura river, and later Arabs called the place وادالرمل "Guald-al-ramal" (River of the Sand), likely the basis for its name today. In Spanish, "guardar" means "safekeeping" and "mar" means "sea", and this is another possible basis for its current name.
Guardamar hosts local festivals like Moros i Cristians, L'Encantà, and Fogueres de Sant Joan, which commemorate its history (Iberian, Arab, and Christian). The local spirit is called Aigua de València (champagne, fresh orange
, cointreau
).
Guardamar is the southernmost Catalan
-speaking town, although as of 1991 only 41.8% of the town's residents knew how to speak it.
Municipality
A municipality is essentially an urban administrative division having corporate status and usually powers of self-government. It can also be used to mean the governing body of a municipality. A municipality is a general-purpose administrative subdivision, as opposed to a special-purpose district...
of the province of Alicante
Alicante (province)
Alicante or Alacant is a province of eastern Spain, in the southern part of the Valencian Community. It is bordered by the provinces of Murcia on the southwest, Albacete on the west, Valencia on the north, and the Mediterranean Sea on the east...
located at the mouth of the river Segura
Segura
Segura is a medium-sized river in southeastern Spain.It starts at Santiago Pontones , passes Calasparra, Cieza, Murcia, Beniaján, Orihuela, Rojales and ends in the Mediterranean Sea near Guardamar del Segura in the province of Alicante...
in southern Valencia (autonomous community), Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
. It is a Mediterranean resort, with a large pine forest abutting an 11-km-long white sand beach
Beach
A beach is a geological landform along the shoreline of an ocean, sea, lake or river. It usually consists of loose particles which are often composed of rock, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles or cobblestones...
.
Historically an area of fishermen and farmers, Guardamar del Segura is the southernmost point where Valenciano (a dialect of Catalan) is spoken.
A Phoenician colony, called Herna by Roman geographer
Geographer
A geographer is a scholar whose area of study is geography, the study of Earth's natural environment and human society.Although geographers are historically known as people who make maps, map making is actually the field of study of cartography, a subset of geography...
Avienus
Avienus
Avienus was a Latin writer of the 4th century AD. According to an inscription from Bulla Regia, his full name was Postumius Rufius Festus Avienius.He was a native of Volsinii in Etruria, from the distinguished family of the Rufii Festi...
in his book Ora Maritima was the first settlement near the mouth of Segura river, and later Arabs called the place وادالرمل "Guald-al-ramal" (River of the Sand), likely the basis for its name today. In Spanish, "guardar" means "safekeeping" and "mar" means "sea", and this is another possible basis for its current name.
Guardamar hosts local festivals like Moros i Cristians, L'Encantà, and Fogueres de Sant Joan, which commemorate its history (Iberian, Arab, and Christian). The local spirit is called Aigua de València (champagne, fresh orange
Orange (fruit)
An orange—specifically, the sweet orange—is the citrus Citrus × sinensis and its fruit. It is the most commonly grown tree fruit in the world....
, cointreau
Cointreau
Cointreau is a brand of triple sec produced in Saint-Barthélemy-d'Anjou, France. It is drunk as an apéritif and digestif, and is a component of several well-known cocktails. It was originally called "Curaçao Blanco Triple Sec".-Production:...
).
Guardamar is the southernmost Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
-speaking town, although as of 1991 only 41.8% of the town's residents knew how to speak it.
Points of interests
- Torreta de GuardamarTorreta de GuardamarTorreta de Guardamar is a 370-metre tall guyed radio mast erected by the US Navy near Guardamar del Segura, Spain. It was built in 1962 and is both the tallest architectural structure in the Iberian peninsula and the tallest architectural structure in the European Union since height reduction of...
, a radio mast of the US military and the tallest structure in the European UnionEuropean UnionThe European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
.