Guardamar del Segura () or briefly Guardamar is a

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

of the

province of Alicante Alicante ( ca-valencia, Alacant) is a province of eastern Spain, in the southern part of the Valencian Community. It is the second most populated Valencian province. Likewise, the second and third biggest cities in the Valencian Community (Alica ...

located at the mouth of the river

Segura Segura (, ; la, Thader; ar, شقورة, Shaqūrah, or ) is a medium-sized river in southeastern Spain. It has its source in the Sierra de Segura. Course The river begins at Santiago Pontones ( province of Jaén), passes Calasparra, C ...

in southern

Valencia (autonomous community) The Valencian Community ( ca-valencia, Comunitat Valenciana, es, Comunidad Valenciana) is an autonomous community of Spain. It is the fourth most populous Spanish autonomous community after Andalusia, Catalonia and the Community of Madrid w ...

, Spain. 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, such as sand, gravel, shingle, pebbles, etc., or biological sources, such as mollusc shells ...

. Historically an area of fishermen and farmers, Guardamar del Segura is the southernmost point where Valencian is spoken. 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" ...

Avienius Postumius Rufius Festus Avienius (sometimes erroneously Avienus) was a 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 ...

in his book '' Ora Maritima'' was the first settlement near the mouth of Segura river, In Spanish, "guardar" means "safekeeping" and "mar" means "sea", and this is another possible basis for its current name. Guardamar is the southernmost Catalan-speaking town and in 1991 41.8% of the town's residents could speak it. Guardamar hosts local festivals like '' Moros i Cristians'', '' L'Encantà'', and '' Fogueres de Sant Joan'', 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 In many parts of the world, local elections take place to select office-holders in local government, such as mayors and councillors. Elections to positions within a city or town are often known as "municipal elections". Their form and conduct vary ...

of May 2011, Carmen Verdú of the People's Party (''Partido Popular'') won the elections with an

absolute majority A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority ru ...

, larger than the one the former major (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 political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been ...

References

External links

Agrupación Musical de Guardamar del Segura

guardamardelsegura.com
{{authority control Municipalities in the Province of Alicante Seaside resorts in Spain