Families battle to save their Costa Blanca beach homes from demolition

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.

- Sam Jones

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The houses, originally made from wood and then from more durable materials, sprang up between the 1930s and the 1950s after decades of work to stop the sand dunes advancing towards the town of Guardamar del Segura. The authorities welcomed their construction, hoping that they would help serve as a barrier to the dunes. Before long, a summer neighbourhood evolved as families secured long-term land grants and built beach homes to which they returned annually. A few people even live there all year round.

"This has created a tight-knit community, now in its fifth generation," said Victor Sánchez, one of those battling to save the houses.