This is the Museo de las Hogueras de San Juan, and this is the perfect place to tell you about the festival Hogueras de San Juan, which is celebrated every year on the night of the twenty-third of June, the eve of Saint John. It was officially founded by José María Py y Ramírez de Arellano, a postal worker born in Cádiz who had worked in Valencia, seen the Fallas there, and thought Alicante should have its own version. Now, Fallas is Valencia’s great spring festival, celebrated in mid-March, and it is one of Spain’s most spectacular traditions. During this, every neighbourhood creates its own falla — a huge artistic monument made of colourful figures called ninots. Some are playful, some are beautiful, and many are wonderfully sarcastic, mocking politicians, celebrities, and social trends with unmistakable Spanish humour. They are on display for a few days, and then they are burned. Arellano was so taken in by this festival that he wrote an article in a local paper, persuaded the mayor and a citizens’ association called Alicante Atracción, and the first official Hogueras took place in the June of nineteen hundred and thirty eight. There were nine of them. In Alicante, during the festival, people build enormous artistic monuments in over a hundred and eighty squares. Some are four storeys tall. Most are satirical, made of wood, papier-mâché, and polystyrene foam, and they take months to build. They are called Hogueras, “bonfires,” because at midnight on the twenty-fourth of June, all of them are set on fire at the same time. The ritual is called the Cremà, “the burning.” It starts with a giant firework launched from the castle at midnight, the moment the summer solstice flips into Saint John’s day. First, the children’s Hogueras are lit, then the adult ones in the main square, then the neighbourhood ones. There’s a secondary tradition called La Banyà, “the soaking.” While the bonfires burn, the city’s firefighters drive through the streets and spray the crowd and the monuments with hoses. You shout “Bombero, l’aigua!”, meaning “Firefighter, the water!”, and they hose you down. It’s gloriously messy. Now, here’s something interesting. Bonfires had been banned in Alicante because of the fire risk in a dense old town. However, in the late nineteenth century, under a mayor called Carlos Chorro, the council forgot to publish its annual ban on bonfires and fireworks for Saint John. The citizens noticed, and that year they lit fires all over the city. The party was so wild, and the council so embarrassed, that the mayor was eventually forced to resign. It took another forty-seven years before someone formalised the festival. Entry is free here, so go ahead and step inside if you wish to. Every year, the public votes for one figure to be saved from burning, and that figure stays in this museum forever. So the museum is full of weird and wonderful satirical sculptures from across the decades, mostly of celebrities and politicians the city was angry with at the time, frozen in plaster and polystyrene, all of them wearing slightly outdated fashion. Take your time exploring the museum, and when you’re ready, follow the map to the next stop.