Street markets, the so-called flea markets, captivate visitors for their history, their background and for the many different elements of surprise. No matter if you routinely go to the market every week, or if you just drop by the market. Some of the best street bazaars on the Spanish coast are really close to Oliva Nova.
RIURAU, A MUST-SEE STREET MARKET
You will find the Riurau Market in a town between Dénia and Xàbia, in Jesús Pobre a small village located at the foothills of the Montgó mountain. Every Sunday, the street market is full of stalls with fresh local products: fruit, vegetables, oil, olives, typical pastry and a long etcetera of stands, besides handicraft items typical from the region. All year round, the first Sunday of each month, there is also a second-hand and collectors fair where you can find all kinds of items for a collection: furniture of different ages and styles, ceramics, lamps, paintings, vintage items, records and discs, sewing machines, cameras, clocks and watches, or collector coins.
It started as an alternative during the crisis. However, it has turned into a complete success, not only economic but also cultural. The Riurau Market allows to know first-hand the farmers, gardeners, bakers, artisans and creatives who show their product with no intermediaries.
This is the pioneer market of those that show the region’s best produce, known as “land markets”. Dew drops can be seen in the surface of the freshly harvested products offered by farmers and gardeners. Because of the growing presence of purchasers, they are getting more involved each day in their crops. A clear example of it is that they avoid the utilisation of chemical fertiliser and harvest respecting the environment like their parents and grandparents did.
Together with fruits and vegetables, this is the star product in the market: coques, typical from the Marina Alta region, are prepared in classic wood-fired ovens. A dough made of flour seasoned with tomato, natural herbs and spices from the area, peas and onion, anchovies or homemade cold meat on top.
XALÓ, A MORE EUROPEAN THAN SPANISH STREET BAZAAR
Some may think that the Xaló Market is one of the most important street markets in the province of Alicante. A flea market full of scorned and forgotten objects that are treasured as if your life depended on it nowadays. Unique items whose value is determined by our bargain power and negotiation skills with the seller in most cases.
It is open every Saturday throughout the year and the most surprising items can be found there. There is an almost infinite range at the Xaló Market: second-hand and new clothes, fossils and minerals, old typewriters, pictures, furniture and tableware, foreign currency, antique farming tools, second-hand leather clothes, kitchenware, old toys, handmade wickerwork and decoration, cameras, military items and more besides.
A great number of stalls in this singular street market belong to non-native people residing in the area. Th us, you find objects from all over Europe too. As a curious fact: if you are a second-hand book hunter, here books in German and English corner the market above books in Spanish.
DÉNIA AND LIVING OUTDOORS
Two of the main street markets in the Marina Alta region are located in Dénia, but each has its own specific features. The weekly market on Monday mornings and the antiquities flea market celebrated every Friday morning. They are open all year round.
The weekly market celebrated on Mondays is the biggest of all the street markets celebrated in the region. It is visited by a huge number of people, not only people from Dénia go shopping there but also from nearby towns and villages. It is located in Torrecremada Esplanade, on the periphery of the city. A market with everything that a Spanish market has to offer from clothes, food and gifts to trinkets.
The flea market celebrated on Fridays is not so crowded. It is a street market in every sense of the word, as antiquities and secondhand objects are being sold. It was traditionally settled in the Torrecremada Esplanade too. However, it has moved from the periphery to the city centre and it is now located in La Via street, except in the summer months not to hamper the flow of urban traffic when the city is busy.
