Murcia Region

The warm, arid province of Murcia sits on the Mediterranean to the south of the Valencia region. Criss-crossed by not very imposing sierras, Murcia is essentially the basin of the Segura River, a medium-sized river which regularly bursts its banks with more or less terrible results. But its alluvial plain makes Murcia a market garden producer of considerable importance, with the assistance of the ancient irrigation systems made necessary by Murcia's lack of rainfall.

History of Murcia. About 230 BC, the Carthaginans founded a trading depot at Cartagena, naming it in Punic Qart Hadast, New City. The Romans called it Cartaga Nova, New Carthage, and when they took it in 209 BC it was considered one of the richest cities in the world. The basis of this wealth was the locally mined silver.

When the Caliphate of Córdoba disintegrated in the 11th century, the Kingdom of Murcia came into being as a taifa, petty kingdom, with the Moorish city of Murcia as its capital. It included the present-day province of Albacete, now part of Castilla-La Mancha, and part of Almería. It was taken by the Christians in the middle of the 13th century, but was maintained as a separate but vassal kingdom until well into the 19th century.

The industrial revolution never really happened for Murcia, and the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War was hard on the region. In the nineteen-sixties, Murcia underwent considerable demographic changes due to its own emigration and immigration from Andalusia, with the consequent undermining of the native Murcian culture, particularly on the coast. Murcia's interior is thinly populated.

Murcia Travel

Places of Interest

Murcia (City). The capital of the region is a thoroughly provincial affair, though enjoyable and lively enough. Its main sights are its cathedral and its Arab remains, particularly the Castle of Monteagudo, 5 km north of the city. It is especially animated the week after Easter, when its spring festivals begin with the street parades of the Bando de la Huerta.

Caravaca de la Cruz. The cross in question is a strange, esoteric-looking object with four arms rather than two. Caravaca, in the north-west of Murcia, is considered the fifth-holiest place in Christendom (after Rome, Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela and Santo Toribio de Liébana in Cantabria). An Annus Sanctus, Jubilee year, is held there every seven years (the next is in 2010), and the faithful believe that a pilgrimage to Caravaca then is especially meritorious.

Carthage. Carthage sits uneasily with Murcia, which it considers an upstart. It suffered considerable damage in a rather silly uprising in 1873, so much of its public architecture dates from the following years. Together with Alicante, it was the last city in Spain to fall to the troops of Franco. It is very much a working seaport, and collectors of fortifications will find that it is difficult to move in Carthage and the surrounding area without tripping over something of interest. It is also the location for the Museo Nacional de Arqueología Marítima, National Marine Archaeology Museum.

Lorca. A lovely inland city with a fabulous castle, Lorca's largely Renaissance architectural heritage includes "a collegiate church and a castle declared to be National Monuments, nine parish churches, various convents, over 200 emblazoned houses, 100 palaces and hundreds of beautiful spots."

Costa Cálida. One of Spain's less exploited costas, with the exception of the Mar Menor (see below). See Spain and Portugal's Costa Cálida pages for more information.

Mar Menor. The Lesser Sea is a huge, practically land-locked salt-water lagoon which used to have important populations of seahorses - unfortunately, they have largely been pushed out, and in certain places under certain weather conditions, the jellyfish which have replaced them can prevent bathing altogether. The sandspit which separates the Mar Menor from the Mediterannean, La Manga, has been overdeveloped with high-rise hotels and apartment blocks, but the towns and villages around the Mar Menor are unspectacularly attractive and very likeable. See Spain and Portugal's Costa Cálida pages for more information.

Practical Murcia

Food and Drink. The municipality of Calasparra is famous for its delicately flavoured rice, considered the best in Spain and the origin of which is guaranteed by a denominación de origen. Typical dishes therefore include arroz con pollo, chicken rice, arroz con verduras, vegetable rice, arroz con conejo y caracoles, rice with rabbit and snails, arroz con alubiones, beans and rice, etc. Fish is popular, in the form of sopa de pescado, fish soup, or many kinds of salty fish products: huevas, roe, or fish cooked in escabeche, oil and vinegar, or mojama, a cured fish. Murcia wine is of surprisingly high quality, and this small region has three denominaciones de origen: Bullas, Jumilla, and Yecla.

Language. Castilian Spanish. In rural Murcia, there is a dying Spanish dialect called Panocho, which includes a lot of vocabulary derived from Arabic and is pretty well incomprehensible to ordinary Spanish speakers, but you are not likely to come across it.

Getting There. Murcia's San Javier Airport has long been popular for charter routes, and Ryanair now operates flights to it from Glasgow, Liverpool, Nottingham and London Stansted and Luton.