Murcia information
From the Plano de San Francisco to the Plaza de Santa Isabel
With the opening up of the Gran Vía in the middle of the
20th century, Murcia of the golden domes and white rooftop terraces
was split in two. The Moorish bathhouses and the Contraste de
la Seda, a handsome 16th century building, were demolished, while
the mansion of Count Roche, at one time occupied by the Inquisitor,
and the Almudí, a building used as a grain store dating
from Moorish times and opened in 1275 were saved. The Almudí
has a further storey added on top in the 16th century and later
the façade was decorated with a relief of a Mother which
symbolises the generosity of the Murcian people. Within the building,
the columns of the entrance hall and the 18th carved wooden ceiling
are noteworthy. The Almudí lens dignity to the Plano de
San Francisco, a name which has lingered on despiste the disappearance
of the convent it was named after. Formerly known as the Carretería,
one of the oldest streets of Murcia, we can find in a side street
one of the 95 majestic towers which formerly dotted the city walls,
hidden for centuries by the convent church of Las Verónicas,
which is now used as an exhibition hall and art decoration centre.
The tower is almost as high as the nearby Verónicas market
hall, where you can find the best fruit and vegetables from the
surrounding market- gardening land, juicy steaks, cooked meats
and dried and fresh fish, or the famous prawns from the Mar Menor.
To the south, bounded by the Malecón, lies the greenery
of the Botanical garden, where together with many species of plants
there is a small lake, fountains, ponds and the stone gateway
to the Huerta de las Bombas orchard, carved in the 17th century.
The Malecón is formed by a succession of flood protection
walls built from 1420 onwards to hold brack the River Segura after
heavy rainfall. It is now a delightful walkway with views over
the surrounding market garden area and away to the Cresta del
Gallo, Carrascoy and Pila mountain chains which embrace the city
on each side. Where the original valley- dwellers settled we find
the Fuensanta Pilgrimage Church, within the El Valle Natural Park.
From the summit of is hills we can see the Mar Menor Iagoon and
the Mediterranean. The Malecón, a flat pedestrian promenade,
is the ideal place for a stroll. It is over one and a half kilometres
as far as the statue of Jose Maria Muñoz and just about
half a kilometre to the Sarten, or Frying- pan, where the walkway
widens out and you can step down to the convent of the Clarisas
Capuchinas where a carved figure of Jesus of Nazareth by the Bussy
and another of Santa Clara by Salzillo are the object of popular
devotion. Every Maundy Thursday night a most original procession
leaves from the convent to follow the country lanes of La Arboleja:
the bearers, dressed in richly- worked typical costume, carry
along a study for the Virgen de las Angustias by Salzillo to the
clacking of castanets.
Many poets have evoked sunrise and nightfall over the Malecón
lined with orange groves, fields of lettuces and scented flowerbeds:
“on that Malecón between orchards, divine at sunset…”
wrote Jorge Guillén after a stay in Murcia, his habit at
the end of his walk being to cross the Plano de San Francisco
and slip into the narrow streets of Arco de Verónicas and
Aduana, on his way to the cheery Plaza de las Flores, named in
1630, when a rich landowner, Macias Coque, sold the Butcher´s
Guild building to the City Council. The Plaza de las Flores boasts
bay- windows and geranium decked balconies, orange trees in blossom
and a palm tree soaring into the blue. This city square is so
lively, baroque and sensuous that it has been copied by he neighbouring
square of Santa Catalina, which also has its necklace of orange
and jacaranda trees; in May, peeping out from behind the garlands
of blue flowers we see the pale coloured façade of Casa
Palarea, which houses the museum bearing the name of Ramón
Gaya, the famous painter who is one of the city´s most notable
inhabitants. In the museum, over 150 works by the painter and
his local contemporaries are to be seeing.
Until the reign of Felipe III, Santa Catalina was the most important
square in the city, with its ceremonies and official acts, courts
to decide on irrigation disputes, the handing out of public offices,
auto da fes and royal proclamations. The quaint little church
stands on the site of a mosque dedicated to the memory of the
Cartagena poet al- Qartayanni, who wrote from exile in Tunis:
“With such great love, my friend, did I love that garden
which was my homeland, that estranged from it my heart languishes”.
Founded by Alfonso X himself, it belonged to the Knights Templar
and was rebuilt in the 15th century; the statue of Saint Catherine
is by Nicolás Salzillo and his son carved a magnificent
Lady of Dolours with its expression of intense grief. The tower
dates from 1579; it originally had a clock and the sentry did
duty from its battlements, serving as a look- out post to warn
of attacks by the barbary corsairs; the carving of the immaculate
Conception is by González Moreno.
The Santa Catalina and Las Flores squares are liked a calendar:
when November is just around the corner, the pavements glow with
chrysanthemums and gladioli, the air is scented with sweet fritters
and in the neighbouring square of San Pedro, opposite the medieval
church, today´s new generation of craftsfolk sell fruit
preserved in syurp, candied pumpkin and other traditional delicacies.
At other seasons we find Easter buns with a hard- boiled egg embedded
in them and sweets to hand out at the Holy Week processions, and
at any time of year are meat pies, whose recipe was laid down
in official terms in 1691 under the orders of Carlos III.
In the side streets leading into the square there are niches for
statuary and old signs advertising woollen goods, blankets or
knives. On both sides of Calle Ruipérez are taverns packed
with discerning dedicatees of the tapa, one of the best- loved
customs of our city. There are so many varieties on offer that
often no one bothers with lunch, having eaten their way through
a whole long, narrow menu of tit- bits. The larders of our ancestors
contained the same foods: baby broad beans cool to the tongue,
sliced tomatoes, boiled potatoes with garlic mayonnaise, black
pudding (morcilla), scrambled egg with baby courgettes, potatoes
and onions (zarangollo), stewed dried beans (michirones), consome
with meat balls, portions of fried coagulated blood, little buns
with cheese and sobrasada (spicey paprika spread) or picked sardines,
or tuna with mayonnaise, or a “marinera”, an anchovy
perched on top of a pile of Russian salad, and of course dried
or smoked tuna or fish roe, exquisite to the palate.
After a break for refreshment, San Nicolás await us, a
street lined with the homes of the local aristocracy; a plaque
reminds us that here in 1812, General Martín de la Carrera
was shot down by the troops of the French Marshall Soult, when
trying with the aid of a handful of Spaniards to stop the advance
of the invaders. The church of San Nicolás dates from the
18th century, its main door having two medallions by Jaime Bort.
Opposite, on the corner of Calle Aistor is a shield and further
on the wall of a shady garden leads to Brujera, a by- way rampart
walk which points to the nearness of the city.
walls, a section of which has been uncovered in the nearby Calle
del Pilar, near the Vidrieros gateway where the Emperor Carlos
V entered the city in 1541. Over the years the historic gateway
gave way to the Arco del Pilar, which was demolished in turn in
1863 as it was too narrow. The façade of the present hermitage
of El Pilar dates from that time, founded two centuries earlier
by the side of a little pilgrims´ hostel by Pueyo the Viceroy,
a man of Aragon who financed work after was laid for him while
he went the rounds.
To the west walled Murcia reached as far as Calle Sagasta, and
the space between the two churches of San Antolín and San
Andrés was called the Arrixaca, where the Chirstians were
made to dwell until Aben Hud handed his kingdom over to Castille.
When Alfonso X arrived in Murcia in 1243, he proclaimed the Virgin
of La Arriaxaac as Patron Saint of the city, and a carving of
her is to be found in the San Andrés chapel, where it is
still venerated, although since the 17th century she is no longer
our Patron.
In the old walled quarter of the Arriaxaca, the passer- by will
be surprised to find squares of varying size and shape: San Antolín,
whose church was practically destroyed in 1936; San Ginés,
Sandoval, Yesqueros or San Agustín, the largest and pleasantest
on account of the garden which decorates it. The parish church
of San Andrés belonged to the convent of San Agustín;
two Corinthian columns, which come from the old castle at Monteagudo,
hold up the present façade, finished in 1762. Next door,
the church of Jesus has an elliptic interior. It is one of the
most popular places for visitors to the city, as it holds a permanent
exhibition of the most precious works of Francisco Salzillo, ranging
from the well- loved set of Christmas Crib figures to the majestic
groups of carvings carried through the streets on Good Friday
morning. Except for that which gives its name to the Holy Week
guild, Jesus of Nazareth, Salzillo made the other carvings between
1752 and 1777. There is no other morning in Murcia as glorious
as that of Good Friday. As dawn tinges the roof- tops with gold,
the blossom- scented city awakes, every citizen reverent before
the endless- seeming river of purple- clad penitents bowing down
under the weight of the invaluable statuary as they bear it through
the streets of the baroque quarters of Murcia.
The convent of Las Angustias, dating from the 18th century, faces
onto the Plaza de San Agustín. The main altar piece is
presided over by a San Agustín, work of Salzillo, but there
are over valuable carvings, such as that of Santa Cecilia by Roque
López, or San Miguel by Antonio Dupar. Centuries ago, the
coat of arms of Murcia bore a tower and palm tree, emblem of the
City Museum, opposite Las Angustias. The building, remodelled
in 1868, belongued to Gil Rodriquez de Junteron, secretary to
Pope Julian II. It is surrounded by a garden dating from Moorish
times, set out like a kitchen garden divided into different plots
with many scented plants and shady trees, such as the splendid
century- old magnolia and palms of different varieties. To the
rear is the Museum of Bullfighting, with an interesting display
of posters, bullfighters costumes, a library, paintings and sculptures.
To the left is the Handicraft Centre, where are you can buy anything
from a set of Christmas Crib figures to a bedspread, embroidery,
matting, wrought ironwork or papier maché toys. On leaving,
stroll through the spacious Salitre gardens which used to be part
of the old Gunpowder Works. Under the eucalyptus, palms, orange
and lemon trees, jacarandas, acacias, pines and cypresses are
children at play, gossiping mothers and the elderly shading their
eyes from the sunlight.
On the other side is the medieval church of Santiago, the oldest
building of any outside the city walls, and behind it Calle Jerónimo
de Roda which takes us to the San Esteban gardens and the Plaza
de la Fuensanta, where the main thoroughfares of the city meet:
avenida de la Libertad, Jaime I, Constitución and Gran
Vía, the nerve centre of local business. Here the neon
lights of the best- known chain stores and the most up- to date
fashion franchises compete. Their flashing lights up the craft
fair which has taken over one side of the garden of the Palace
of San Esteban, seat of the Regional Government. The church and
college of San Esteban, “the finest flower of the Company
of Jesus”, were set up in 1555 with a donation from bishop
Esteban de Almeyda. The doorway of the church, now used to house
exhibitions, is Plateresque, the slender nave has Gothic roof
tracery with its bosses and twin windows near the main door and
to the rear which let in a flood of sweet light. The most interesting
feature of the Palace is the courtyard with its renaissance arcades
and the handsome white marble staircase.
Calle Acisclo Díaz, called after a musician from Alhama,
lies between San Esteban and the church of San Miguel, built in
the second half of the 17th century. It holds an important collection
of carvings and altar- pieces, the main one being one of the best
examples of baroque carving in Murcia, commissioned in 1731 from
Jacinto Perales and Francisco Salzillo, who carved the four angels
and the Coronation group; he also carried out the Holy Family
group and a Saint Joseph with the Child Jesus, sharing work on
the latter with his father Nicolas Salzillo.
Down Calle Acisclo Diaz we can hear the bustle of the Gran Vía.
The Tax Offices stand on the corner, and to the right, opposite
the Bank of Spain building, is the square of Santa Isabel, newly
redesigned in an attempt to link past and present with its flower
beds and the silhouette of the Vizconde archway.