Explanada de España

The Explanada de España is Alicante's best-known seafront promenade, a boulevard almost 600 metres long separating the harbour from the city centre. Its paving, finished in the 1950s under mayor Agatángelo Soler and architect Francisco Muñoz, is made of around 6.6 million marble tiles, each four centimetres across, forming a wave-like mosaic in three tones: Alicante red, ivory cream and Marquina black.

A mosaic built from local marble

The stone came from quarries in Novelda, Pinoso, l'Alguenya and Monòver, all within the province, and the wave pattern took its inspiration from the paving of Rossio square in Lisbon, adapted here to evoke the movement of the Mediterranean. A row of century-old palm trees runs the length of the promenade, dividing the two pedestrian lanes, with benches and craft stalls along the sides, most common on spring and summer evenings.

The Explanada connects at one end to the Mercat Central and passes close to Casa Carbonell, one of the most photographed Modernist buildings on the harbour front, and sits right at the foot of the Castillo de Santa Bárbara. The marble surface, polished smooth by generations of foot traffic, turns slippery in the rain, so extra care is worth taking on wet days. With little shade beyond the palm trees, walking it early in the morning or at dusk is more comfortable than the middle of a summer day.