Babilonia beach in Guardamar del Segura hosts near-century-old beach houses built from the 1930s to 1950s, originally to help halt advancing sand dunes. Generations of families from inland Alicante province have used the modest dwellings as summer homes, forming a tight-knit, multigenerational community with enduring friendships and some year-round residents. Authorities initially welcomed the houses as a barrier to the dunes, but lengthy legal attempts to extend long-term land grants failed. Sixty houses are scheduled for demolition in mid-September, with their existence blamed for worsening coastal erosion despite their longstanding social and historical significance.
For almost a century, the beach-houses of Guardamar del Segura have held out against time and tide, change and development, offering a living snapshot of the early stirrings of tourism on Spain's Costa Blanca. For decades, families from inland areas of Alicante province have come to the modest dwellings on Babilonia beach to spend the summer months together, eating, drinking, swimming and chatting. Enduring friendships and relationships have begun on their verandas and under their roofs.
However, barring a last-minute reprieve, 60 of the houses will be torn down in the middle of September after lengthy legal efforts to extend their land grants failed and their existence was blamed for worsening coastal erosion. The houses, made originally from wood and then from more durable materials, sprang up between the 1930s and 50s after decades of work to stop the sand dunes advancing towards the town of Guardamar del Segura.
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