Lifeguard station nº2

Those getting lost in the golden sands surrounding this Red Cross lifeguard station can thank a French botanist for their beautiful beach. In 1848, Jean Felix Robillard Closier abandoned his post at Paris’s Jardins des Champs-Élysées to take up the title of senior gardener at Jardín Botánico in Valencia.

Closier, ever a budding perfumer, planted the seeds of the first essence factory in the city and transformed nearby marshland into a farm of geraniums—a flower native to Cape Verde that commonly goes by the name “malvarosa.” Years later, the neighborhood now known as Malvarrosa sprouted up around his farm and factory.

Now, on a beautiful day, visitors can dig their toes into the fine sand, admiring the beautiful surroundings, and take comfort in knowing that even if they become hypnotized by the glimmering waves of what were once fields of flowers, lifeguards are standing by—just a mini winding staircase away—to revive them.

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