Mercado Central de Alicante, Art Nouveau marketplace in central Alicante, Spain.
Mercado Central de Alicante is an eclectic market hall with Valencian Art Nouveau ornament, on Avenida de Alfonso el Sabio. Its brick facades have vertical window slits and a stepped stone entrance with a canopy; the southwest corner forms a round volume, La Rotonda, with a grey semispherical dome and small cupola. Inside, three basilical naves of steel pillars and trusses hold the stalls.
The hall opened in 1921 following designs by architects Francisco Fajardo Guardiola and Juan Vidal Ramos, replacing an older market structure on the site of former 18th-century city walls. During the Spanish Civil War in 1938, the structure sustained bomb damage but was rebuilt after the conflict ended.
The market's name appears in carved stone lettering above the entrance, "MERCADO CENTRAL DE ALICANTE". Inside, stalls are grouped into long blocks along three basilical naves, and the rear facade faces the plaza named 25 de Mayo after the 1938 bombing. The building still serves as the city's municipal market.
The hall opens Monday through Friday from 07:30 to 14:00 and Saturday from 06:30 to 15:00, with the widest selection available in the early morning. Tram lines L1 through L9 stop nearby, making access easy from the beach or other neighborhoods.
The dome over the corner rotunda is grey, not green, and the building's envelope is non-load-bearing: brick on the main facades, glass and light materials along the sides. Inside, a frame of rolled-steel pillars and trusses frees the three basilical naves of columns, and the roofs slope to the sides and break at mid-height to let daylight in from above.
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