Guardamar del Segura Wednesday Street Market

Guardamar del Segura originated and developed at the mouth of the Segura River as a town of fishermen and farmers, with an irrigated vegetable garden inland and a coastal fishing fleet that supplied the region with fresh fish. The 1829 earthquake forced the town to be rebuilt almost entirely at the foot of the castle, on an orthogonal grid designed by engineer José Agustín de Larramendi, and that new, orderly town center served for generations as the setting for the weekly street market, which was held in the center, near the church. From that economy based on the sea and the vegetable garden, a unique tradition survives in the municipal ordinance: “la saranda”—the sale of fresh fish caught the previous night by the vendor themselves or a close relative, transported in a handmade wooden cart and a wicker basket, with the vendor wearing a white uniform and carrying a municipal ID card. The weekly street market changed locations due to the pandemic. In July 2020, the town council divided it into several sections and moved it to the Era de la Madaleneta to maintain social distancing, and in October of that same year, a new decree approved the temporary move to the La Redona parking lot in the Santa Ana industrial park, a space that allowed for an increase in the number of stalls, organized access points, and provided easier parking. To ensure that the change did not exclude those living in rural areas or in residential developments, a free city bus service was launched with hourly departures on market mornings. What began as a temporary solution eventually became permanent: the Ordinance Regulating Non-Permanent Sales, definitively approved in August 2023, now designates La Redona as the site for the Wednesday market and sets its summer and winter schedules. Since then, the market has been managed through annual renewals of permits—which are valid for fifteen years—public lotteries to fill vacant stalls, and competitive selection processes based on a merit-based scoring system, in addition to a specific regulatory framework for sales via food trucks. No specific year of establishment has been identified for the weekly street market.