The reconversion of urban port maritime facades: the case of Alicante

Abstract

The seafronts of the cities, conceived in past times as merely defensive and often residual spaces linked to the port, have nowadays become a showcase for coastal cities and hubs for their prevailing tourist activity.

The city of Alicante, capital of the homonymous province of the Valencian region and an important seaport enclave with a long commercial tradition in the Mediterranean Sea, is analyzed as a case study. In the mid-nineteenth century, Alicante was the first Spanish maritime city connected by rail with the capital —Madrid—, with the relevant consequences of all sorts that this entailed. Advances in communications resulted in the opening of the coast to the inhabitants of the interior, who began to move to the coast to take the sea baths as a source of health, so fashionable in those years. At the same time, the city ceased to be a military stronghold, which allowed the demolition of the defensive walls that constrained the city preventing its normal growth. For all these reasons, Alicante can be considered a paradigm of a Mediterranean coastal city in its evolution from its walled harbour city structure to its configuration as a reference tourist destination in the Spanish Levante.

The aim of this study is to analyse the evolution of the Alicante maritime front, starting from its defensive origins, passing through the creation of seafront promenades at the end of the nineteenth century, until reaching the current urban structure. The methodology followed is based on the detailed study of all the elements that are part of the maritime facade, always understood within its historical context. The temporal scope, although it ranges from the first Muslim-era coastal walls, focuses mainly on the period from the demolition of the city walls, in the mid-nineteenth century, to the present day. With regard to the space field, the study refers to the proper urban maritime facade that frames the historic centre and is bounded at its ends by two old railway stations, La Marina Station —to the northeast— and Murcia Station —to the southeast—, as historical milestones in remembrance of the importance of the railway in the development of the coastal front. Coinciding with the three existing promenades at present, the seafront is considered divided into three different sections, from north to south: Gómiz-Explanada-Canalejas, with a total length of approximately 2 km.

The initial hypothesis is that the generation of the promenades and, eventually, the urbanization of the city-sea interface, is a consequence of a functional change of the coastline. After several centuries of defensive function, materialized in the walls of the coast, and of mercantile function, serving as surroundings to the port, on the seafront of Alicante dominated the playful-representative function, while the increasingly numerous bathers began to arrive in search of the benefits of sea water in the second half of the nineteenth century. The spa visitors were followed, when spas went into decline, by sun and beach tourists from the 60s and 70s, making Alicante the chosen destination to spend the holidays by the sea and second residence of many inhabitants of the interior of the peninsula. This playful-representative role was combined for more than a century with the commercial one, until in the 90s of the last century the port activity was definitely moved to the south of the city, leaving the historic dock for nautical and recreational boats, as anecdotal record of the port city that in the past was.

The interest of the study is that much of the conclusions drawn from the research, regarding the conversion of the sea façade into other uses and the consequent impact on the rest of the city, could be extrapolated to other coastal cities of similar characteristics, with port tradition, turned into places of major tourist activity today.