PROPERTY SEARCH
Caravaca de la Cruz has just unveiled a new square and what they found underneath it was an unexpected bonus
Plaza José María Faquineto opens in the historic centre, completing a major regeneration project and revealing a hidden 19th-century wine cellar beneath the site
Caravaca de la Cruz has a new public square and it came with a surprise. Work on Plaza José María Faquineto, which opened on Tuesday September 30 on a previously unused plot beside Calle Nueva and Callejón de Frías, unearthed an old traditional wine cellar beneath the site, complete with 23 ceramic jars still partially buried in the ground and the original channels used to carry grape must.
The Ayuntamiento plans to preserve and open it as an educational and exhibition space, giving visitors a glimpse into a winemaking tradition that shaped the local economy before phylloxera wiped out the region's vineyards at the end of the 1800s.The square itself covers around 300 square metres within the Historic-Artistic Site, and has been designed to sit sympathetically within its surroundings, with terracotta and cobblestone paving, wrought iron detailing, landscaped areas, trees, benches and a circular ornamental fountain at its centre. There is also a children's play area, and a large mural on one of the walls reproducing a historical photograph of the Wine Horses, one of Caravaca's most distinctive cultural traditions.
The project cost €185,500, funded through European Next Generation funds and the Region of Murcia's Works and Services Plan. It forms part of the broader Camino a Caravaca Tourism Sustainability Plan, which has channelled nearly €5 million into around twenty projects across the town.
Mayor José Francisco García described the plaza as the plan's final chapter. "Each of these projects contributes to bringing life back to our historic centre, creating new public spaces, improving the urban environment, and making our historic neighbourhoods increasingly livable, accessible, and enjoyable for residents," he said.
The square is named after José María Faquineto, a 19th-century civil engineer and politician born on the same Calle Nueva where the square now stands. He was instrumental in improving communications in and around Caravaca, linked to projects including the Calasparra station road, bridges over the Argos and Quípar rivers, and the arrival of both the telegraph and the railway.The new square sits alongside Los Huertos del Vicario, the neighbouring green space that won the Region of Murcia Architecture Prize for its own regeneration work on this site.
Images: Ayuntamiento de Caravaca
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Calle De Las Monjas, 19, 30400 CARAVACA DE LA CRUZTel: 968 702424 / 968 701003
Caravaca de la Cruz tourist office
More information about the places of interest which can be visited in the municipality of Caravaca de la Cruz, along with what's on and local news can be found in the Caravaca Today.
Caravaca de la Cruz, in the north-west of the Region of Murcia, is one of only 5 Holy Cities in the Roman Catholic world, a centre of pilgrimage, along with Rome, Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela and Santo Toribio de Liebana, and is home to the Cross of Caravaca, the Vera Cruz.
The status of Holy City was bestowed by Pope John Paul II in 1998, granting the City a Permanent Jubilee year every 7 years for perpetuity, the first one held in 2003 and the next in 2024.
The strategic and natural advantages of Caravaca de la Cruz have attracted the attention of settlers for more than 800,000 years, the Cueva Negra yielding remains of Homo Heidelbergensis, forbears of the Neanderthals and the municipality also houses important archaeological remains from the Argaric, Iberian and Roman cultures. many of these can be seen in the Municipal Archaeological Museum.
As a border town caught between the Catholic forces of Castille and the last remaining Moorish stronghold in Spain, Granada, Caravaca had a turbulent medieval history, but it was during this period that the legend of the Cross of Caravaca was born, bringing the religious orders which shaped the structure of Caravaca today, with its impressive hilltop castle and eclectic collection of churches and monasteries, religious tourism today being a backbone of the town´s economy.
Caravaca de la Cruz is a municipality with important natural resources, including extensive forests, part of which have protected status due to their wealth of flora and fauna, and due to the abundant water supplies is also a major area for canned fruit production, apricots in particular being an important crop.
Caravaca is renown for its important May Fiestas, held in honour of the Vera Cruz, which also incorporate the Moors and Christians celebrations and the Running of the Wine Horses.
Caravaca de la Cruz is also the home of Europe´s largest collection of ethnic instruments at Barranda, the Museo de Música Étnica Barranda and is the location of the Barranda festival de Cuadrillas, which celebrates the Region's ethnic music traditions.
The municipality is home to around 26,000 inhabitants and shares boundaries with Moratalla, Cehegín, Lorca, Puebla de Don Fadrique in the province of Granada and Vélez-Blanco in the province of Almería.
Tourist office opening times:
Weekdays: 10.00 to 14.00 and 16.30 to 19.30
Saturdays: 10.30 to 14.00 and 16.30 to 19.30
Sundays and public holidays: 10.30 to 14.00
Click for map, Caravaca de la Cruz Tourist Office
