Murcia
Spain'S Seventh City, Founded 825 Under The Emirate Of Cordoba On The Segura, Centre Of The Irrigated Huerta And Holding A Baroque Cathedral Facade Of The First Rank · Murcia, Murcia
Spain's seventh city and one almost no foreign visitor reaches, which is the case for the row rather than against it. Murcia was founded by the Moors in 825 on the Segura, and the thing that made it was water: an irrigation system of canals and waterwheels built to turn a dry plain into the huerta, the market garden that still supplies a large share of Europe's vegetables. The city itself is flat, warm, prosperous and full of students, with a cathedral whose baroque west front is one of the best in Spain, a casino from 1847 with an Alhambra-pastiche patio, and a market culture that reflects the farmland around it. Holy Week here is a serious event and unusual: the processions are coloured rather than sombre, the figures are by Francisco Salzillo, and the brotherhoods hand out broad beans and boiled eggs to the crowd. Come for the food and the cathedral facade, not for a monument list, and do not eat the lemon leaf on a paparajote.
Plaza Cardenal Belluga, Murcia, Murcia, 30001, Spain
NO OPENING TIME HERE WAS CHECKED. The structure: the cathedral square is public and free at any hour. The CATHEDRAL, its museum and the BELL TOWER keep daytime hours with a LONG MIDDAY BREAK and restrict sightseeing during services. The REAL CASINO is a working private club with limited visitor hours. MERCADO DE VERONICAS is a MORNING market, closing early and shut on Sundays. HOLY WEEK overrides everything, closing the centre for hours at a time.