Gandia

Gandia
Municipality

Flag
Coat of arms
Motto(s): Home of the Fideuà
Gandia
Location of Gandia in Spain
Gandia
Gandia (Valencian Community)
Gandia
Gandia (Spain)
Coordinates: 38°58′N 0°11′W / 38.967°N 0.183°W / 38.967; -0.183Coordinates: 38°58′N 0°11′W / 38.967°N 0.183°W / 38.967; -0.183
Country  Spain
Autonomous community  Valencian Community
Province Valencia
Comarca La Safor
Judicial district Gandia
Government
 • Alcalde Diana Morant Ripoll (PSOE)
Area
 • Total 60.8 km2 (23.5 sq mi)
Elevation 22 m (72 ft)
Population (2008)
 • Total 90,020
 • Density 1,500/km2 (3,800/sq mi)
Demonym(s) Gandiense (Spanish), Gandià (Valencian)
Time zone UTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST) UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code 46700, 46701, 46702, 46730
Official language(s) Spanish, Valencian
Website Official website

Gandia (Valencian pronunciation: [ɡanˈdi.a]; Spanish: Gandía [ɡanˈdi.a]) is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Eastern Spain on the Mediterranean. Gandia is located on the Costa del Azahar, 65 kilometres (40 miles) south of Valencia and 110 km (68 mi) north of Alicante.

It was an important cultural and commercial centre during the 15th and 16th centuries: in the 15th it had a university. It was home to several important poets including Ausiàs March, and produced the novelist Joanot Martorell, but it is perhaps best known for the Borja or Borgia, through their family title, Duke of Gandia.

Today, Gandia is one of the largest coastal towns, with a population over 200,000, and a thriving centre of commerce and tourism in the region. There are two main zones, Gandia City, which has all the historical monuments, commercial activity, and shopping, and Gandia beach, where apartments and summer residences used during the summer season are to be found. The bars and nightclubs are concentrated in the beach area. As is normal for Spain, nightlife does not begin until well after midnight. The beach and town are actually some 2 km (1 mi) apart which succeeds in separating summer tourism from day-to-day living.

Main sights

Tourism

Beach in Gandia

With its long, wide, golden, sandy beaches Gandia is one of the major tourist destinations in Spain. Traditionally Gandia's tourism has a domestic base, with the majority coming from Madrid, although in recent years it has been an increasingly popular destination for international tourists, mainly French, German and British.[1]

For culture, there are literary contests, the Summer University (Universitat d'Estiu), the International Festival of Classical Music and art exhibitions; sports include water, golf, tennis and hiking.

There are some popular Spanish restaurants around the beach.

Gandia has a number of shopping facilities including shopping malls and chain supermarkets like Carrefour, Carrefour Express, Lidl, Mercadona and Aldi.[2] There are also available various fast-food chain restaurants like McDonald's, Burger King, Telepizza and Domino's Pizza.[3]

Geography

A lake in the marjal

Gandia has an important regional wetland with an extension above 1.200km2 in the outskirts of the city, called Marjal de La Safor.[4] This natural area is home to several water plants such as Lemna gibba, Lemna minor, and specially many species of water lily plants, such as Nymphaea alba, Utricularia australism and Potamogeton fluitans. Underwater plants also exist, such as Myriophyllum and Ceratophyllum. Native land plants are mostly formed of various Phragmites species, Thypha domingensis, various Scirpus and Cladium species.

Various species of palm trees are naturalised in the area, and they're also found widely in the marjal due to seed dispersion, either wind or animal dispersion. The most common naturalised palm trees in the area are Phoenix dactylifera (African date palm), Washingtonia robusta (Mexican fan palm) and Phoenix canariensis (Canary Island date palm). There are some specimens of the native palm tree Chamaerops humilis (European palmetto), although very few compared to the naturalised species.

Vegetation with Phragmites

This natural zone is also rich in fauna, with many species of birds, fish, amphibian and reptiles, with some mammal species. The most common species of birds are Tachybaptus ruficollis, Anas platyrhynchos, Falco tinnunculus, Fulica atra and Gallinula chloropus amongst many other species. The most common fish and amphibian species are Cobitis maroccana, Anguilla anguilla, Syngnathus abaster, Bufo bufo, Bufo calamita and Rana perezi.

The most common reptiles are turtles, with a native species (Emys orbicularis) which is in critical condition due to the heavy expansion of the Trachemys scripta scripta and Trachemys scripta elegans, most known as Florida turtles, which are introduced species in Spain. Other species of reptiles are Tarentola mauritanica, Podarcis hispanica and Natrix maura amongst others.

The most common and native mammals are the European rabbits (Oryctolagus cuniculus), the European hedgehog (Erinaceus europaeus), the greater white-toothed shrew Musaranya comuna (Crocidura russula), the European bat (Pipistrellus pipistrellus) and the wild hog (Sus scrofa) amongst others.

Climate

The climate of Gandia is mediterranean-subtropical (Köppen climate classification: Csa) with mild to warm temperatures during winters, and hot summers. The annual average temperature is between 18-19 °C. Gandia receives about 600mm of rain per year, the majority falling from September to November. The wettest season is the autumn. The average annual sunshine hours are about 3.000.

Climate data for Meteo station of the beach of Gandía, Valencia province, Spain.)
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Record high °C (°F) 29.6
(85.3)		 29.8
(85.6)		 34.2
(93.6)		 32.4
(90.3)		 42.0
(107.6)		 40.0
(104)		 39.7
(103.5)		 40.8
(105.4)		 38.3
(100.9)		 38.1
(100.6)		 33.1
(91.6)		 26.1
(79)		 42.0
(107.6)
Average high °C (°F) 19.7
(67.5)		 19.0
(66.2)		 21.1
(70)		 23.5
(74.3)		 26.8
(80.2)		 29.3
(84.7)		 32.3
(90.1)		 32.1
(89.8)		 30.9
(87.6)		 28.8
(83.8)		 22.3
(72.1)		 19.3
(66.7)		 25.4
(77.7)
Daily mean °C (°F) 14.4
(57.9)		 14.3
(57.7)		 15.9
(60.6)		 18.5
(65.3)		 21.0
(69.8)		 24.0
(75.2)		 27.0
(80.6)		 27.0
(80.6)		 25.8
(78.4)		 23.2
(73.8)		 17.8
(64)		 13.5
(56.3)		 20.2
(68.4)
Average low °C (°F) 9.1
(48.4)		 9.5
(49.1)		 10.8
(51.4)		 13.5
(56.3)		 15.2
(59.4)		 18.6
(65.5)		 21.7
(71.1)		 22.0
(71.6)		 20.8
(69.4)		 17.5
(63.5)		 13.3
(55.9)		 8.1
(46.6)		 15.0
(59)
Record low °C (°F) 3.1
(37.6)		 2.2
(36)		 3.9
(39)		 7.7
(45.9)		 8.4
(47.1)		 14.0
(57.2)		 17.9
(64.2)		 17.3
(63.1)		 14.8
(58.6)		 7.0
(44.6)		 4.0
(39.2)		 2.4
(36.3)		 2.2
(36)
Average precipitation days 4 3 4 5 5 3 1 2 4 6 4 5 46
Source: The information for the extreme temperatures are for the last 3 years.[5] The rain data are for the nearest station which records rain data to Gandía, because the weather station of Gandia only records temperatures.[6]

Sports

Gandia, and the whole Safor comarca, is said to be the centre of the Raspall variant of the Valencian pilota autochthonous sport. Nonetheless, Gandia held the Trinquet El Zurdo courtfield (it was demolished in 2007 to build an apartment block).

International relations

Twin towns – Sister cities

Gandia is twinned with:

See also

References

  1. ↑ Gandia.be.
  2. ↑ Gandia
  3. ↑ http://www.buscorestaurantes.com/restaurantes/comida-rapida/en/Valencia/Gandia
  4. ↑ http://www.gandia.org/web/guest/marjal-de-gandia
  5. ↑ http://www.wunderground.com/personal-weather-station/dashboard?ID=IVALENCI47#history/s20120401/e20150718/mcustom
  6. ↑ - Estación climática de la Playa de Gandía (Weather Underground) y yr.no
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.