Moors and Christians 2013

Prior to the actual Fiestas de Moros y Cristianos, which takes place from 19 to 28 July this year, there will be a Medieval Market from 15 to 17 July, held in the Calle Castillo, behind the church. The market will be officially opened at 11:30 on Monday 15 July.

As for the Fiestas de Moros y Cristianos themselves, what follows is only a brief outline of the events planned. For a full calendar of events in English, visit this page or pick one of the free printed calendars that can be found all around Guardamar.

The run-up to the last two days can be confusing to people from outside Guardamar, especially with the street battles and peculiar mixture of religion. However, there are a couple of concerts you might enjoy and there is no doubt at all that you will more than impressed by the parades of the last two days. To give you an idea of the costumes, you might like to have a look at my photos from 2011 (and from there you can follow a link to see other years, too).

Friday, 19 July

Starting at 21.30, pomp and circumstance as the Queen of the Fiestas together with others walk from the Plaza Labradores along the Calle Mayor to end up in the Plaza de la Constitución.

22.00 Opening speech by Inmaculada Cases Gómez, of the Hospital Vega Baja.

22.30 Presentation of standards (flags)

23.00 Coronation of the Queen of the Fiestas, including a light, water and fire spectacular.


Saturday, 20 July

22.00 Fancy Dress Parade and competition, starting at the corner of the Calle Mayor and the Calle Norte and passing along the Avenida País Valenciano, to finish in the Plaza Jaume II.


Sunday, 21 July

20.30 Music Concert in the Parque Reina Sofia.


Monday, 22 July

20.30 Choral Concert, including the Aromas de Guardamar choir (presumably in the Parque Reina Sofía, though you should check on this first).


Wednesday, 24 July

20.00 First street battle. Lots of noise. Followed at 21.00 by the entry into the castle (on the Plaza de la Constitución, presumably) by the Christians and its subsequent loss to the Moors.


Thursday, 25 July

11.30 Parade with the Music Society of Guardamar accompanying the Queen of the Fiestas and others through numerous streets, starting in Calle Colón and passing through Calles Gratitud, San José, Inginiero Mira, Ausias March, Las Viñas, Luis Rivera, Mediodía, Vicente Ramos, and Ingeniero Mira again to end in the Plaza de la Constisución.

21.00 Another procession, but more sobre,, passing along C/ Ingeniero Mira, Plaza de Abastos, C/ San Emigdio, C/ Valencia, C/ Mayor, Avda. País Valenciano, C/ Medio día, C/ Vicente Ramos yand ending at the church.

01.00 Firework display on the Playa Roqueta.


Friday, 26 July

20.00 Second street battle. Lots of noise again. This time the Moors enter the castle and the Christians come along to take it from them.


Saturday, 27 July

(This is really what it's all about)

20.30 Moors and Christians Parade. First the Moors, then the Christians, interspersed with marching bands. They leave from the corner of Calle Lepanto and Avenida País Valenciano, marching line-abreast along Avenida País Valenciano, Calle Mayor, and ending at the the crossing of Calle Mayor with Calle Norte.


Sunday, 28 July

19.00 Marching bands parade, starting at the crossing of Calle Mayor with Calle Norte and following the reverse route of the Moors and Christians Parade.

20.00 Moors and Christians Parade. This time the Christians lead the parade, followed by the Moors. Don't think this is a mere duplicate of the previous day's parade: most comparsas wear different costumes on each day.

01.00 Fireworks Display at the castle (the real castle this time!).

David Neale

The Dama de Guardamar

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of her discovery, the Dama de Guardamar (also known as the Dama de Cabezo Lucero) has returned to Guardamar from her usual residence in the Archaeological Museum of Alicante (MARQ). She will remain displayed here until 6 October 2012.

The Dama de Guardamar is a sculptured bust of an Iberian lady that was discovered on 22 September 1987 in the archeological site of Cabezo Lucero, which is not very far at all from El Raso.

Unlike her similar counterpart, the Dama de Elche, which was discovered intact, only pieces of the Dama de Guardamar were found, and these showed signs of having been deliberately broken by hammering, as well as scorch marks. Some pieces, however, were quite large, including one of the wheel-like ornaments worn on each side of the head, part of the face, neck and head-dress. In any case, sufficient pieces were found to identify the piece as a bust and to enable its full reconstruction. This took place in the Archaeological Museum of Alicante between October 1987 and June 1988.

The Lady of Guardamar probably dates form between 400 and 370 BC.

The exhibition that has been organised around the Dama de Guardamar can be visited for free in the Casa de Cultura. It is tastefully done, with explanatory notes in Castilian, Valenciano, and English. Sadly, instead of being shown as the Lady of Guardamar, the Dama is indicated as being the Dame of Guardamar, which seems to place her more in the realm of pantomime than patrimony.

David Neale

Earthquakes

We were rudely awoken at a quarter to six this morning (a quarter to six, mind you: that's 05:45 and far too early for any living organism to be awoken) by a strange rumbling noise and a brief but very noticeable shaking. Responsible for this unwelcome phenomenon was a small earthquake of magnitude 3.1, whose epicentre was located some 15 kilometres off the coast of Torrevieja, at a depth of about 11 kilometres.
Numerous earthquakes have occurred in the area during the past twelve months, but few have been of sufficient strength to have been felt. Also, they have usually taken place during the daytime, so that their effects are noticed less. The last largish tremor was on 23 March, 2011, but it took place close to midday and, even though it was of the same strength as today's, many people didn't even notice it.
No damage or injury has been reported as a result of today's tremor.
We live in a seismically active area, so tremors and quakes are not at all unusual. Few, however, are as strong as the 1829 earthquake, known as the Torrevieja Quake. This occurred on 21 March, 1829, when numerous towns in the Alicante province were seriously affected, with the most damage being in Almoradí.
Between 1820 and 1830 an unusual amount of seismic activity was registered in the province, especially along the three fault lines of the Bajo Segura (lower Segura): Benijófar, Guardamar del Segura, and Torrevieja.
Between 13 September, 1828 and 21 March, 1829, it is estimated that more than 200 quakes took place. Finally, at a quarter past six in the evening of 21 March, a major quake with a magnitude of 6.6 on the Richter scale, with its epicentre between Benijófar and Torrevieja, caused 389 deaths and 209 injuries, and destroyed more than two thousand homes, with many others badly damaged. The bridges across the river Segura in Almoradí, Benejúzar, Dolores, and Guardamar were all destroyed. Half of the fatalities were in Almoradí, where the roads were narrower than elsewhere and the buildings higher.
In our own Guardamar, 380 houses were completely destroyed, 140 received considerable damage, and 115 suffered fire damage (fortunately, only four people lost their lives and 20 were injured). The medieval town was completely destroyed, so that a new town had to be designed and built. This was done based on a neoclassical plan, having long straight roads with perpendicular intersections and three squares (two small, one large) arranged symmetrically. The new houses were built low and with large yards, in order to minimise the effects of future earthquakes. Stones from the old town were used to build the new. The photo below, dating from 1930, shows the layout of the rebuilt town, with the castle and old town visible in the top right.

(Photo from the book, Guardamar del Segura. Arqueología y Museo available from the Casa de Cultura, Guardamar)

David Neale

Segway Tour, Guardamar

How to enjoy yourself on a Segway.

We had our friends Terry and Sue from the UK over to visit us in October.  It was their third time here, so we were keen to find something to do that we hadn't done before with them.

We went into the Tourist Information Centre in Guardamar and picked up several leaflets to peruse.  One of them showed details of a Segway Tour in Guardamar.  If you don't know anything about this mode of transport, it is a two wheeled vehicle powered by an electric motor.  You can read more about the Segway here. The photographs show how much we enjoyed our adventure.

We try and do something now and again that scares us, so this was the perfect thing.  Our friends, are always game for a laugh, so we decided to book the Tour.

We had to be at the Segway Offices for 11am.  We arrived to be greeted by three pretty girls, which George and Terry appreciated very much.   The paperwork had to be completed and signed, then the training course started.  After a familiarisation exercise, we rode around an obstacle course, to make sure we understood how to operate the segway.  Once we felt competent(ish!), we were allowed into the car park, and the speed of the vehicle was increased.  In no time at all, we were careering around the car park like experts!

Two of the girls acted as  'Monitors', one at the front and one at the back and we nervously set off from their offices on the Santa Ana Industrial Estate, up the steep hill, past the bus station towards the South Park.  Crash!  Sue hit one of the kerbs and promptly fell off.  She was shaken but not hurt and we were impressed that she got straight back on and continued the tour.

We had over two and a half fabulous hours of fun.  We had people waving, laughing, and staring at us, we felt almost like film stars with all the attention we were given.

The highlight of the tour was careering around the square in front of the Town Hall.  Luckily it was empty no people to manoeuvre around, we had great fun circling round and around.

It is a tour to be recommended.  

If you want something different to do, call into the Tourist Information Centre and book yourself on this very different, challenging, but enjoyable tour.  Further information can be found at this webpage.

George and Linda Corrigan