Los Montesinos
The municipal area of Los Montesinos is placed in the extreme South of the province of Alicante and of the Comunidad Valenciana to the south of the region of Bajo Segura, in the lands that traditionally have shaped the " field or dryness ", It is distant from the garden or lands watered by the Segura River.
Located in the triangle formed by the cities of Alicante (to 65 km), Murcia (to 49 km) and Cartagena (to 64 km), the access to these cities is fast and across roads in a perfect condition of conservation.
In addition, the town of Torrevieja, one of the seaside towns more tourist tradition of the Comunidad Valenciana is just 10 km.
The town of Los Montesinos, is surrounded by cultivated land, and the natural beauty that gives the view of the Salinas de Torrevieja.
Its fields are covered with large areas of field and orchard at harvest time, which gives it a special colour. Its natural spaces have wide possibilities to practice activities such as ecotourism. The eastern part of town is part of the Natural Park of the Lagunas de Torrevieja and La Mata. This space, beside offering a beautiful landscape that inhabitants of Los Montesinos enjoy every day, it is a quiet area to walk and enjoy with its flora and fauna where one can contemplate vegetal species of the type of halófilas and animals such as ashen hawk , among others.
Los Montesinos got its name from the noble family that ruled the destinies of the lands where the people are located. Since the reforms of Cardinal Belluga the whole of the Vega Baja was prospering and with it Los Montesinos, to reach the current number of population of 2.715 inhabitants. The municipality covers an area of 15, 13 km2 which limits its east side, with the salt lagoon of Torrevieja, being therefore a second-line coastal town
In the configuration of its historical past stand out the traces of the Roman world on the estates Lo Montanaro and La Marquesa, documented as ancient Roman villas, located near the Via Augusta. This road, proceeding from Rome and in direction of Cadiz, was running parallel to the Mediterranean coast and, after crossing the Segura River, crossing the term of Los Montesinos in its west area, going towards Cartagena.
The Islamic culture has also left its traces in this territory in La Marquesa, estate in which was found in the middle of the 70s, a set of Arab coins, called "Tesorillo La Marquesa", composed by 246 silver coins of the centuries X and XIth.
The territorial demarcation of Los Montesinos, belonged to the town of Almoradi since the sixteenth century until 1990, which ended the traditional guardianship had exercised this population. Indeed, by Decree 140/90 the Consell of the Generalitat Valenciana, Los Montesinos became an independent municipality with its own Town Hall and with territory taken from the old term of Almoradí.
The population of Los Montesinos is on the administrative side, very young. It's a town that has a steady growth of its population, characterized by an upward pace as a whole, but splashed with different changes of growth intensity. It has undergone a gradual emigration due to its low dynamic economic, for that reason has a very aged population but in the last decade is recovering. As for its economic situation, the factors which have promoted the economic development of this core of population are the extension of irrigation and tourism. In the course of the twentieth century take place, gradually strengthening of favourable economic conditions, which have its genesis in engineering works, which allow the arrival of parotes water to the dryness. On the other hand, these are complemented by activities derived from the tourist development and from real estate growth occurred in the coastline since the 1980s. Irrigation and tourism has its effects on the natural landscape, in the typology of crops, in the social and economic organization, in the urban development, at the levels of income and the capital available.
Tourism has allowed to residents of Los Montesinos expand their economic prospects beyond the primary sector. While this phenomenon was initially in the coastal area of Torrevieja, Guardamar, Orihuela coast, then continued in the villages of the second coastline, as Rojales, San Miguel de Salinas, San Fulgencio and Los Montesinos, to a lesser proportion, because it is a sector that is not exploited.
Currently, the Subsidiary Rules of Los Montesinos finally approved in 1996, provides for two industrial areas of about 304,709 m2, two residential of about 245,000 m2 and a partial plan of 478,692 m2 that will lead a growth of the population in some 9.913 persons.
At the same time, Los Montesinos has a thriving agriculture, basically citrus and early vegetables, it generates itself an important agri-food. Simultaneously, the economic is linked with the real estate growth, investing capitals in the construction industry and other manufacturing subsectors dedicated to housing equipment such as wood, plumbing, furniture, wrought iron and glasswork among others. So, to continue the economic boom caused by tourism and the booming of the construction sector and related industries or related to it, we can hope for a supported increase of wealth and rejuvenation of the population.
On the other hand, in most municipalities of the region of the Vega Baja show a demographic pyramids of irregular type, with a high proportion of old people and few adults, principally from the stretch of 50 years of age to 30. This process of aging, in the case of Los Montesinos, is due to the migratory exodus caused by the absence of economic expectations, which has reduced of young workforce.
The progressive mechanization of the field and the substitution of the traditional crops for others needed of minor labour have provoked a decrease of the active population in the primary sector and a loss of population in the areas of agrarian single crop.
The industrial sector offers levels of implementation to average level submitted to companies related to the construction, carpentries, blacksmith, plumbing, etc.
Nowadays, the municipal expectations are:
- Evident tourist potentials, with great tourist value: architectural and ethnological heritage, customs and rural appearance.
- Clear future development in the industrial sector, with the acceleration that gives to the municipality the implementation of the industrial estate.
- Strong attraction of population to the town, because currently, to the Subsidiary Rules, which lend very positive expectations on the growth of the population, on the one hand; and for other one due to the strategic situation of the municipality, 7 Km from the coast, calm, well-connected and without agglomerations.