About Murcia

MURCIA BY NIGHT:

Murcia by night

OUTSKIRTS:

Heart of Jesus Christ, Castillo de Monteagudo

Villena, Elda, Novelda

ABOUT Murcia:

Population: 443 000 (metro 690 000)
Tallest building: Las Atalayas (95m) and Cathedral (95m)
Language: Spanish
Founded: 825-831
Province: Murcia
Autonomous community: Murcia
Area: 882 km²
Year visited: 2016

Murcia is the 7th largest city in Spain, and the largest in the Murcia autonomous community. It situated in southeast Spain, surrounded by mountains and the Segura Valley. Murcia features a warm, beautiful atmosphere with a rich history, good food and an interesting mix of old and new. Murcia has a nice Old Town with beautiful historical buildings, surrounded by a bit dull modern midrise buildings, though the outskirts are quite gritty. Central Murcia is known for its many baroque buildings, especially churches. The Cathedral of St Mary (Catedral de Santa Maria) is the most prominent landmark in the city. Plaza Santo Domingo, where the nice twin tower church Iglesia Santo Domingo is situated, nearby Plaza Julián Romea (where the theater is) and Plaza Cardenal Belluga next to the Cathedral, are the city's main squares. At the latter one you find the red rococo palace Palacio Episcopal and the modern, controversial New Town Hall. Calle Traperia is a pedestrian street with beautiful historical buildings that connects these two squares. The old Casino can be found at Traperia, and the one of the University's main buildings can be found at Plaza Universidad. The Segura River flows right to the South of the city center. Crossing the river are both very old traffic bridges and a futuristic pedestrian bridge. Gran Via Escultor Francisco Salzillo divides the city center. Most historical sites can be found on the East side, but on the West side you find the beautiful squares Plaza Santa Catalina, Plaza Flores, the dull modernist square Plaza Santa Isabel, the beautiful modernista building Casa Diaz Cassou in Gaudi style and Jardin San Esteban, a huge area next to a department store, with ancient moorish ruins that were found during excatvations for a parking garage. Currently the government don't know what to do with it.

Jardin del Salitre is a very beautiful park that was a powder factory centuries ago. Today it is filled with nice sculptures, flowers and public areas.Jardin Botanico, the botanical gardens, can be found between the square Plano de San Francisco and Segura River, right in the city center. It is open to public and features and arch of triumph among all flowers and trees.

In the Northern outskirts, you find Monteagudo, a rock with a controversial neglect but impressive statue of Jesus, The Heart of Jesus Christ, that can be seen all over the city and is placed on top of an ancient Moorish castle. Even though many tourists pass Murcia due to its proximity to Costa Blanca, it is more of a "normal" services city and university town then a typical tourist city, so you can find very valuable hotels here. Murcia was founded as Mursiyah by the emir of Cordoba Abd ar-Rahman II in 825 AD. Murcia is also known as a fruit, vegetable, and flower producer.

There are modern lightrail trams in the city, passing just North of the city centre. We arrived by car, but we didn't have use for it during our stay, the best way to discover Murcia is on foot. Really large traffic circles with sculptures and fountains in the middle also pass to the North of the city centre, the largest one is Plaza Circular. Just like most major Spanish cities, the roads are filled with intense traffic. Though there are many dull mid or highrises around the core, there ere are not many really tall buildings in the city, except for the twin glass skyscrapers Las Atalayas next to our hotel, a few other office highrises in glass and Torre Norte, meant to be a skyscraper but currently (2016) only a construction site on hold, an abandoned concrete shell!

MY EXPERIENCE:

In February 2016, we made a trip to Costa Blanca, Murcia and Valencia. After visiting Benidorm, we drove to Murcia for one day. The next day we left for Valencia. The weather was warm for February, 23 degrees, Murica is an inland desert city so it is usually warmer then the coastal cities, with 300 sun days a year, but it in the late afternoon it became really windy! It was mixed sunny and cloudy weather during the day, but we got enough sun to snap some nice pictures. It was easy to walk through the city center, and a bit to the South of the river from our hotel. We found Murcia, at least the city center, to be a beautiful, but the outskirts are both a bit dull and rough in the edges. We passed the outskirts and the Jesus Christ statue on the way to Valencia the second day. Occasionally we happend to see a bike competition, a dramatic event where police vehicles were clearing the way to make way for the bikes at Gran Via Escultor Francisco Salzillo, one of the city center's main roads.

We stayed at Hotel Nelva, a great 4-star hotel near the city center. It was modern and large, had a really good price and a nice darkish interior (review can be found in this part).

We also visited Alicante, Benidorm and other cites at Costa Blanca; Elche, Calpe, Altea, Villajoyosa.

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