Gandia

Gandia is a city and municipality in the Valencian Community, Eastern Spain on the Mediterranean. Gandia is located on the Costa del Azahar, 65 km south of Valencia and 96 km 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 Borgias, through their family title, Duke of Gandia.

Today, Gandia is one of the largest coastal towns, with a population over 80,000, 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 apart which succeeds in separating summer tourism from day-to-day living.

Tourism
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.

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 and Aldi.

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).

Politics
In 2011, Arturo Torró Chisvert of the People's Party became the mayor of Gandia. He replaced José Manuel Orengo of the (PSPV-PSOE) who had been Mayor since 2009.