Everything about Alicante totally explained
|
|-
|
|}
Alicante (
Spanish language) or
Alacant (
Valencian) is a city in
Spain, the capital of the province of
Alicante and of the
comarca of the
Alacantí, in the southern part of the
Valencian Community. It is also a historic
Mediterranean port. The population of the city of Alicante proper was 322,673, estimated
as of 2007, of the entire urban area, 434,505, ranking as the second-largest Valencian city. Population of the
metropolitan area (including
Elche and satellite towns) was 734,362 as of 2007 estimates, ranking as the eighth-largest metropolitan area of Spain.
Alicante is one of the fastest-growing cities in Spain. The local economy is based upon tourism in the beaches from
Costa Blanca coast and particularly the second residence construction boom which started in the 1960s and reinvigorated again by the late 1990s.
services and public administration also play a major role in the city's economy. The construction boom has raised many environmental concerns and both the local autonomous government and city council are under scrutiny by the European Union. The construction soar is the subject of hot debates among politicians and citizens alike. The latest of many public battles concerns the plans of the Port Authority of Alicante to construct an industrial estate on reclaimed land in front of the city's coastal strip, in breach of local, national and European regulations.
Luis Díaz Alperi (1945), of the Partido Popular (
People's Party), has been reelected city mayor with an
absolute majority for his fourth term in the Municipal Elections of May 2007, followed closely by Etelvina Andreu (1969) of the Partido Socialista (
PSOE).
The city has regular
ferry services to the
Balearic Islands and
Algeria, and an international
airport is nearby, served by
Iberia and other airlines. The city is strongly fortified, with a spacious harbour. Amongst the most notable features of the city are its main
castle, the
Castle of Santa Bárbara, which sits high above the city, and its port, which has become the subject of bitter controversy in the city as residents battle to keep it from being changed into an industrial estate (see Recent History below).
The most important festival, the
Bonfires of Saint John, takes place during the summer
solstice. This is followed a week later by seven nights of firework and pyrotechnic contests between companies on the urban beach Playa del Postiguet. Another well-known festival is
Moros y Cristianos in Altozano or
San Blas district. Overall, the city boasts a year-round nightlife, helped by tourists, fun-loving residents, and a large student population of the
University of Alicante. The nightlife social scene tends to shift to nearby Playa de San Juan (St. John's Beach) during the summer months.
The city is the headquarters of the
Office for Harmonization in the Internal Market and a sizeable population of Euro public workers live here.
At the foot of the main staircase of the City Hall Building (Ayuntamiento) is the "cota cero" (zero point), used as the point of reference for measuring the height above or below sea level of any point in Spain, due to the marginal tidal variations of the Mediterranean sea in Alicante.
Since 2005 Alicante hosts Ciudad de la Luz
Ciudad de la Luz
, one of the largest film's studios in Europe. Spanish and international movies such as
Asterix at the Olympic Games (film) by
Frédéric Forestier and
Thomas Langmann, Manolete from
Menno Meyjes have been shot there.
Population
The population of Alicante in 2006 was 322,673 inhabitants, 734,362 in the metropolitan area "Alicante-
Elche". About 15% of the population is foreign, mostly those from
Argentina,
Ecuador, and
Colombia who have arrived in the previous 10 years as immigrants. There are also immigrants from other origins such as
Romania,
Russia,
Ukraine and
Morocco, many of which are under illegal alien status and therefore are not accounted for in official population figures. The real percentage of foreign population is probably higher, since the Alicante metropolitan area is home to many Northern European retired citizens, even if officially they're still residents of their own countries. In the same pattern, a sizable amount of permanent residents are Spanish nationals who officially still live in
Madrid, the
Basque provinces, or other areas of the country.
| Foreign Population (more than 1,000 persons/nationality) |
| Pos. |
Nationality |
Population |
| 1st |
align=left |
|
| 2nd |
align=left |
|
| 3rd |
align=left |
|
| 4th |
align=left |
|
| 5th |
align=left |
|
| 6th |
align=left |
|
| 7th |
align=left |
|
| 8th |
align=left |
|
| year |
population |
| 1250 |
2,500 |
| 1350 |
3,250 |
| 1418 |
1,539 |
| 1609 |
5,040 |
| 1646 |
6,174 |
| 1717 |
11,019 |
| 1735 |
12,604 |
| 1754 |
14,394 |
| 1768 |
17,213 |
| 1786 |
17,345 |
|
| year |
population |
| 1797 |
19,313 |
| 1803 |
21,447 |
| 1857 |
27,550 |
| 1860 |
31,162 |
| 1877 |
34,926 |
| 1887 |
40,115 |
| 1897 |
49,463 |
| 1900 |
50,495 |
| 1910 |
55,116 |
| 1920 |
63,382 |
|
| year |
population |
| 1930 |
71,271 |
| 1940 |
89,198 |
| 1950 |
101,791 |
| 1960 |
121,832 |
| 1970 |
181,550 |
| 1981 |
245,963 |
| 1991 |
265,473 |
| 1996 |
274,577 |
| 2001 |
288,481 |
| 2006 |
322,431 |
|
Climate
Observatory of Alicante (Ciudad Jardín)>
| 1971-2000 |
Jan |
Feb |
Mar |
Apr |
May |
Jun |
Jul |
Aug |
Sep |
Oct |
Nov |
Dec |
YEAR |
| Record high °C |
29,2 |
29,4 |
32,6 |
32,6 |
35,1 |
37,8 |
41,4 |
40,4 |
38,4 |
36,2 |
30,6 |
26,6 |
41,4 |
| Average high °C |
16,8 |
17,8 |
19,2 |
20,9 |
23,6 |
27,2 |
30,1 |
30,6 |
28,4 |
24,4 |
20,4 |
17,6 |
23,1 |
| Average low °C |
6,2 |
7,0 |
8,2 |
10,1 |
13,3 |
17,1 |
19,7 |
20,4 |
17,8 |
13,7 |
10,0 |
7,3 |
12,6 |
| Record low °C |
-2,6 |
-4,6 |
-1,0 |
2,6 |
4,8 |
10,4 |
13,4 |
13,2 |
9,4 |
4,0 |
0,2 |
-2,6 |
-4,6 |
| Average rainfall mm |
22 |
26 |
26 |
30 |
33 |
17 |
6 |
8 |
47 |
52 |
42 |
26 |
336 |
History
The area around Alicante has been inhabited for over 7000 years, with the first tribes of
hunter gatherers moving down gradually from Central Europe between 5000 and 3000 BC. Some of the earliest settlements were made on the slopes of
Mount Benacantil. By 1000 BC
Greek and
Phoenician traders had begun to visit the eastern coast of Spain, establishing small trading ports and introducing the native Iberian tribes to the alphabet, iron and the pottery wheel. By the sixth century BC, the rival armies of
Carthage and
Rome began to invade and fight for control of the Iberian Peninsula. The Carthaginian general
Hamilcar Barca established the fortified settlement of Akra Leuka (
Greek: Ἄκρα Λευκὴ, meaning "White Mountain" or "White Point"), where Alicante stands today.
Although the Carthaginians conquered much of the land around Alicante, the Romans would eventually rule
Hispania Tarraconensis for over 700 years. By the 5th century, Rome was in decline; the Roman predecessor town of Alicante, known as
Lucentum (
Latin), was more or less under the control of the
Visigothic warlord
Teodmiro. However neither the Romans nor the Goths put up much resistance to the
Arab conquest of
Medina Laqant in the 8th century. The
Moors gave the city its modern name - Alicante is
Arabic for "city of lights". The Moors ruled southern and eastern Spain until the
11th century reconquista (reconquest). Alicante was finally taken in 1246 by the Castilian king
Alfonso X, but it passed soon and definitely to the
Kingdom of Valencia in 1298 with the Catalonian King
James II of Aragon. It gained the status of Royal Village (
Vila Reial) with representation in the medieval
Valencian Parliament.
After several decades of being the battlefield where
Kingdom of Castile and the
Crown of Aragón clashed, Alicante became a major Mediterranean trading station exporting rice, wine, olive oil, oranges and wool. But between 1609 and 1614
King Felipe III expelled thousands of
moriscos who had remained in Valencia after the reconquista, due to their allegiance with
Barbary pirates who continually attacked coastal cities and caused much harm to trade. This act cost the region dearly; with so many skilled artisans and agricultural labourers gone, the feudal nobility found itself sliding into bankruptcy. Things got worse in the early
18th century; after the
War of Spanish Succession, Alicante went into a long, slow decline, surviving through the 18th and 19th centuries by making shoes and agricultural products such as oranges and almonds, and its fisheries. The end of the 19th century witnessed a sharp recovery of the local economy with increasing international trade and the growth of the city harbour leading to increased exports of several products (particularly during World War I when Spain was a neutral country).
During the early twentieth century, Alicante was a minor capital which enjoyed the benefit of Spain's neutrality during the
First World War, which provided new opportunities for the local industry and agriculture. The
Rif War in the 1920s saw numerous
alicantinos drafted to fight in the long and bloody campaigns at the former Spanish protectorate (Northern Morocco) against the Rif rebels. The political unrest of the late 1920s led to the victory of republican candidates in the local council elections throughout the country, and the abdication of King Alfonso XIII. The proclamation of the
Second Spanish Republic was much celebrated in the city on
April 14,
1931. The
Spanish Civil War broke out on
July 17,
1936. Alicante was the last city loyal to the Republican government to be occupied by General Franco's troops on
April 1,
1939, and its harbour saw the last Republican government officials fleeing the country. Even if not as famous as the bombing of
Guernica by the German Luftwaffe, Alicante was the target of some vicious air bombings during the three years of civil conflict, most remarkably the bombing by the Italian
Aviazione Legionaria of the Mercado de Abastos in
May 25,
1938 in which more than 300 civilians perished.
The next 20 years under Franco's dictatorship were difficult for Alicante as it was for the entire country. However, the late 1950s and early 1960s saw the onset of a lasting transformation of the city due to tourism. Large buildings and complexes rose in nearby Albufereta and Playa de San Juan, with the benign climate being the best tool to bring prospective buyers and tourists who kept hotels reasonably busy. The tourist development, aside from construction, also brought numerous businesses such as restaurants, bars and other businesses focused on visitors. Also, the old airfield at Rabasa was closed and air traffic moved to the new El Altet airport, which made for a convenient facility for charter flights bringing tourists from northern European countries.
When Franco died in 1975, his successor
Juan Carlos I successfully oversaw the transition of Spain to a democratic constitutional monarchy. Governments of nationalities and regions were given more autonomy, and the Valencian region wasn't an exception.
Alicante is the
Valencia region's second-largest town.
The port has been reinventing itself since the industrial decline the city suffered in the 1980s (with most mercantile traffic lost in favour of Valencia's harbour). In recent years, the Port Authority has established it as one of the most important ports in Spain for cruises, with 72 calls to port made by cruises in 2007 bringing some 80,000 cruise passengers and 30,000 crew to the city each year. The moves to develop the port for more tourism have been welcomed by the city and its residents, but the latest plans to develop an industrial estate in the port have caused great controversy.
Main sights
Transport
Alicante Airport outranks its
Valencian counterpart, being among the busiest airports in Spain along with
Madrid,
Barcelona,
Palma and
Málaga and keeps expanding. It is connected with Madrid and Barcelona by frequent
Iberia and
Spanair flights, with many Western European cities through carriers such as
Jet2.com,
Monarch Airlines,
EasyJet,
Ryanair and
Air Berlin, and has also flights to
Algiers and
Russia. In addition, Alicante's only link to South America, specifically
Bogotá, is provided by
Avianca.
The
Alicante Tram connects the city with outlying settlements.
Famous citizens
- George Washington Montgomery, (1804-1841), born in Alicante, United States diplomat and editor/publisher of the first Spanish language translation of the works of Washington Irving.
- Carlos Arniches (1866-1943), novelist
- Rafael Altamira y Crevea (1866-1951), co-founder of Permanent Court of International Justice so-called the World Court, after 1945 International Court of Justice
- Francisco Javier de Balmis (1753-1819) physician who headed the Balmis expedition to vaccinate the Spanish-colonies population against smallpox.
- Gabriel Miró (1879-1930), novelist
- Antonio Gades (1936-2004), Flamenco dancer
- Juan Escarré (1969), field hockey player
- Belen Rueda, actress
- Miriam Blasco, judoka Olympic winner
- Isabel Fernandez, judoka Olympic winner
- Vanessa Romero, model and actress
- Maria Jurado, model and actress
- Esther Cañadas, model and actress
- Pedro Ferrándiz, basketball coach
- Hannibal Laguna, fashion designer
- Francisco Rufete, footballer
- Miguel Hernández, poet
Twin towns
Nice, France
Carloforte, Italy
Herzliya, Israel
León, Nicaragua
Matanzas, Cuba
Oran, Algeria
Riga, Latvia
Toyooka, Japan
Wenzhou, People's Republic of ChinaFurther Information
Get more info on 'Alicante'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://alicante.totallyexplained.com">Alicante Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
