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'Alicante' (Spanish language) or 'Alacant' (Valencian Catalan) is the capital of the province of Alicante and of the comarca of the Alacantí, in the southern part of the Land of Valencia, Spain, a historic Mediterranean port. The population of the city of Alicante proper was 322,431, estimated as of 2006, 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 725,395 as of 2006 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 late '90s. On a much smaller scale, production also includes: agricultural products such as almonds, citrus, olives and wine production, services and administration. The city exports cement, wine, olive oil, and fruit, and has light industries, including food-processing, leather, textiles, and pottery. ''Turrones'' (''torrons'' in Valencian) —a honey and almond nougat—is a food speciality of Jijona, close to Alicante, although ''alicantinos'' are especially proud of their paella, being "arros a banda" a local favourite, and seafood. The construction boom has raised many environmental concerns and both the local autonomous government and city council are under scrutiny by the European Union. Wild construction is the subject of hot debates among politicians and citizens alike.
Luis Díaz Alperi (1945), of the Partido Popular (People's Party), has been reelected city mayor 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 is its main castle, the "Castillo de Santa Barbara", which sits high above the city upon a cliff.
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 an all year nightlife, helped by tourists, fun-loving residents and large student population of the Universitat d'Alacant. 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 small tidal variations of the sea in Alicante.

Contents

Population

Climate

History

Pre 20th century history

Modern history

Recent history

Main sights

Transport

Famous citizens

Twin towns

References

External links

Population

The population of Alicante in 2006 was 322,431 inhabitants (325,797 by the local authorities in 2005), 725,395 in the metropolitan area "Alicante-Elx". 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 are 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.

Climate

History

Pre 20th century 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, where the Castillo de Santa Barbara stands today. 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: , meaning "White Mountain" or "White Point"), where Alicante stands today.

Although the Carthaginians conquered much of the land around Alicante, they were in the end no match for the Romans, who established rule in the province for over 700 years. By the fifth century Rome was in decline, and Roman predecessdor of Alicante, known as ''Lucentum'' (Latin), was more or less under the control of the Visigothic warlord Teodmiro. Neither the Romans nor the Goths, however, put up much resistance to the Arab occupation of ''Medina Laqant'', which brought oranges, rice, palms and the gifts of Moorish art and architecture. 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 battle field used by the Kingdom of Castile against the Crown of Aragon, Alicante enjoyed a ''segle d'or'' (golden age) during the 15th century together with the whole Kingdom of Valencia, rising to become 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 Berber 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 when in the early 18th century Alicante, along with the rest of Valencia, backed Carlos in the War of Spanish Succession. Felipe won, and he punished the whole region by withdrawing the semi-autonomous status it had enjoyed since the time of the Reconquista. 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).

Modern history

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 Moroccan war of 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 flee 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 was permitted an autonomy they had not been allowed for four centuries.

Recent history

Alicante is the Valencia region's second-largest town. The port has been reinvigorated since the industrial decline the city suffered in the 1980s (with most mercantile traffic lost in favour of Valencia's harbour) and has spruced itself up. As a result, the city has attracted more day trippers. The airport at El Altet however 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 Easyjet, Ryanair and Air Berlin, and has also flights to Algiers and Russia.
Other landmarks in recent history have been the opening of the European Union's Office for the Harmonization in the Internal Market (OHIM) and the construction of the polemic "Ciudad de la Luz", a series of facilities meant to sponsor movie industries to set base at Alicante.
No recent history account can be complete without addressing two sociological phenomena of the past few years. Immigration has already been described in this article, and the second residence building industry has transformed the looks of the city, bringing both along a new set of problems, such as environmental concerns on one hand and fear of social problems once the construction industry boom comes to a halt.

Main sights

Transport

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.^[2]

★ Carlos Arniches (1866-1943), novelist

★ 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

Twin towns

★ Nice, France

★ Carloforte, Italy

★ Herzliya, Israel

★ León, Nicaragua

★ Matanzas, Cuba

★ Oran, Algeria

★ Riga, Latvia

★ Toyooka, Japan

★ Wenzhou, People's Republic of China

References

1. Ayuntamiento de Alicante Sección de Estadística. La Población de Alicante (01-01-2006).
2. Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607-1896, , , , Marquis Who's Who, ,

External links

★ Official website of Alicante

★ Official website of the Diputación Provincial de Alicante

★ Website of the Universitat d´Alacant

★ Official Website of the Office for the Harmonization in the Internal Market OAMI/OHIM