Guardamar_del_Segura
Guardamar del Segura
Municipality in Valencian Community, Spain
Guardamar del Segura (Valencian pronunciation: [ˌɡwaɾðaˈmaɾ ðel 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 Valencian is spoken. A Phoenician colony, called Herna by Roman geographer Avienius in his book Ora Maritima was the first settlement near the mouth of Segura river,[2] 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.[3] Guardamar hosts local festivals like Moros i Cristians, L'Encantà, and Fogueres de Sant Joan, which commemorate its history.
