The Region of Murcia is a single-province autonomous community in south-eastern Spain, between Andalusia, Castilla-La Mancha and the Valencian Community. It has one of Europe's hottest and sunniest climates, with over 300 days of sunshine a year, and a landscape of contrasts: arid mountains, the fertile huerta of the Segura river, farmed since Arab times, and a coast, the Costa Cálida, with a unique inland sea.
The cities
- Murcia, the capital, is a lively university city founded by the Arabs in 825, with a cathedral with a spectacular Baroque façade, the Casino, the Museum of Salzillo, the great Baroque sculptor of processional images, and a famous Holy Week.
- Cartagena, founded by the Carthaginians as Qart Hadasht and then Roman Carthago Nova, is a large naval port with a beautiful Roman theatre uncovered in the 1990s, Modernista buildings and coastal fortresses.
- Lorca, the "city of the sun", with its castle and Baroque mansions, hit by an earthquake in 2011 and restored; famous for its Holy Week with horse and chariot parades.
- Caravaca de la Cruz, one of the five holy cities of Catholicism with a perpetual jubilee year, keeps the relic of the True Cross.
The Mar Menor and the coast
The Mar Menor is a salt lagoon of about 170 km², the largest in Europe, separated from the Mediterranean by a 22-kilometre strip of sand, La Manga, built up with apartment blocks and hotels. Its warm, shallow water suits families and sailing, and the mud of the San Pedro del Pinatar salt pans is used for therapeutic baths. In recent years farm pollution has caused serious ecological crises, and in 2022 the Mar Menor became the first European ecosystem with legal personhood, following a citizens' initiative. The Costa Cálida also has wilder beaches and coves, such as those of Calblanque park, and resorts such as Águilas and Mazarrón.
Flavours
Murcian cooking is based on huerta produce: zarangollo of courgettes and eggs, pisto, tomato salads, the caldero of the Mar Menor, rice cooked in fish stock, puff-pastry pies and the marinera, Russian salad on a ring-shaped breadstick topped with an anchovy. Jumilla and Yecla are the region's red wines, made mainly from Monastrell grapes.
Getting there
The Region of Murcia International Airport is at Corvera, and Alicante airport is less than an hour away. Murcia is linked to Madrid by high-speed train. Below you will find a map of our guides and the municipalities.
Destinations on the map
Guides to the community
Cartagena
Founded by Carthage, a Roman capital and base of the Spanish fleet: Cartagena is three thousand years of history gathered around a great…
Murcia
A lively, sunny city surrounded by one of Europe's most fertile irrigated plains, with a spectacular Baroque cathedral and extraordinary…
San Pedro del Pinatar
Between pink salt pans, flamingos and the black mud of the Mar Menor, San Pedro del Pinatar is the natural paradise of the Murcian coast.