Mercadillo municipal artesanal Ingeniero Mira

The promenade that gives the street market its name honors Francisco Mira i Botella, the forestry engineer who led the effort to save Guardamar. In the late 19th century, the dunes were encroaching on the town at a rate of several meters per year, and on December 2, 1897, the Project for the Defense and Reforestation of the Dunes was approved by Royal Decree. Beginning in the summer of 1900 and continuing for nearly three decades, Mira erected palisades and counter-dunes and oversaw the planting of more than 600,000 pine trees, tens of thousands of palm trees, and thousands of eucalyptus trees until the sand was stabilized and the current pine forest was created, which is now a protected area. That project not only prevented the sand from burying the town—it transformed the coastline into a livable and walkable space, and with the development of tourism in the 20th century, it became the hub of the municipality’s summer life. The artisan street market took root along that promenade, which the town council regulates as a periodic street market with its own legal status: the ordinance on non-permanent sales devotes a specific article to it and sets out in detail the characteristics of the summer wooden booths and the “Catalan market stalls” for Holy Week, including materials, dimensions, and colors, as this is an urban area whose aesthetic is to be preserved. Each year, by decree of the relevant municipal department, the maximum number of permits, the seasons, the specific dates for setting up, and the sales hours are approved, along with the deadlines for assembly, disassembly, and electrical inspection of the stalls. Since the stalls are located on public maritime-terrestrial property, the permits are also subject to approval by the competent coastal authority. The year the street market began could not be determined; the published municipal documentation begins in 2017.