Village
Jumilla is a municipality and town in the north of the Región de Murcia, in the comarca of Altiplano, internationally recognised for its wines made from the monastrell grape, under the Denominación de Origen Jumilla (Jumilla's protected wine designation of origin), and also for its pears. Its name is thought to derive from Latin, transcribed into Arabic as Gumalla, the form under which it appears cited in 13th-century Arabic texts; in the Carche area, where Valencian is also spoken, it is called Jumella. Covering 972 km², its municipal area is the second largest in Murcia and one of the ten largest in Spain, with mountain ranges such as the Sierra del Carche, at 1,372 metres. To the northwest lie the Minas de La Celia, a volcano of geological interest for its deposit of jumillite, a rock unique to the southeast, mined in the early 20th century for phosphate fertilisers. It has around 27,500 inhabitants.
Monument
Jumilla Castle rises above a hill overlooking the Murcian town of Jumilla, in the Altiplano district, and is one of its symbols. A fortress with origins in the Bronze Age, later settled by Iberians, who fortified it as a large hillfort, and by Romans, who built part of the wall still preserved today. The Arabs fortified it from the year 713 onwards over the Roman ruins and held it for five centuries, until the Treaty of Alcaraz of 1243 brought Jumilla into the Crown of Castile. Peter I of Castile conquered the castle on 27 April 1358 and granted the town its privileges and its present coat of arms; in 1461 the Marquis of Villena, Juan Fernández Pacheco, had the fortress rebuilt practically as it is known today, with three floors, a basement and a terrace.
Monument
The Church of Santiago, the main parish church of Jumilla, is one of the city's most important architectural monuments; it was declared a Monumento Nacional (Spain's highest heritage-protection status until 1985) in 1931, not only for its architectural value and the rich collection of religious imagery it holds, but for being the first church with a large dome over the crossing built in the Diocese of Cartagena. Different styles come together in it owing to the long period of its construction, begun in the 15th century: most striking is the Renaissance-style dome, joined to the Gothic body of the main nave, together with the bell tower.
Monument
Museum housed in the hermitage of San Antón in Jumilla, devoted to the local Semana Santa.
Activity
The patron saint festivities of Jumilla (Altiplano, Murcia) are held in the week of August that coincides with the feast of the Virgin of the Assumption, on 15 August, patron saint of the town, and last around ten days. They include the Grape Harvest Festival, which begins on the Friday before the feast of the Virgin and ends on the following Sunday, with more than thirty events organised by more than thirty-five peñas (local social clubs), as well as parades of Moors and Christians, concerts, sports competitions and other recreational and cultural activities.
Monument
The Iberian complex of Coímbra del Barranco Ancho, dating from the 4th to the 2nd century BC, lies within the municipality of Jumilla, on the slope of the cerro de El Maestre, a spur of the Sierra de Santa Ana, at 780 metres above sea level and 4.5 kilometres from the town. It comprises a walled settlement about 3,000 metres in perimeter, a sanctuary of which only terracottas survive, and three necropolises, those of the Poblado, the Senda and the Barranco, with tombs dated between 400 BC and the 2nd century BC. Among the finds, held in the Jerónimo Molina Museum in Jumilla, a funerary cippus decorated with horsemen stands out. Excavations, begun in the 1950s, have continued since 1985 under the direction of José Miguel García Cano.
Curiosity
Funerary stele found in tomb number 70 of the Coimbra del Barranco Ancho necropolis, in Jumilla, decorated with horsemen and a farewell scene, among some hundred excavated graves.
Activity
Annual re-enactment of Iberian funerary rites with actors at the Coimbra del Barranco Ancho site in Jumilla, with reproductions of pottery found there.
Monument
Gothic church begun in the 15th century and declared a Monumento Nacional (Spain's heritage designation in force until 1931) in 1931, with a 16th-century Renaissance chancel housing an altarpiece by the Ayala brothers, a Plateresque doorway and a neoclassical door with Ionic columns.
Monument
El Casón is a late Roman family funerary mausoleum from the end of the 4th century, in excellent condition and considered one of the best-preserved Early Christian monuments on the Iberian Peninsula. It stands in the San Antón district of Jumilla, on a small square that until the 1970s was a spot on the outskirts of the village. It has a Greek-cross floor plan, with a central body covered by a barrel vault and two attached apsidal chambers, covered by quarter-sphere vaults, which may have served for offerings or storage; its walls, almost 50 cm thick and made of sturdy stone bonded with lime mortar, explain its good state of preservation. The ancient looting of the tombs makes it impossible to know whether its occupants were pagan or Christian. It was declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico (Spain's heritage-protection status in force until 1985) in 1931.
Monument
Neoclassical church built between 1775 and 1868, with a Latin cross plan, three naves and a hemispherical dome clad in blue and white tiles laid in a spiral. Its central nave is 50 metres long and the paintings on its vaults are the work of Manuel Muñoz Barberán.
Monument
Defensive tower built in 1573 by Antonio Rico to protect shepherds and farmers on the border between the former kingdoms of Castile and Aragon. It gives its name to the Jumilla pedanía where it stands and was declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico (Spain's heritage designation in force between 1931 and 1985) in 1982.
Monument
Museum in Jumilla devoted to the wines of the Jumilla Denomination of Origin, housed in the home of its founder Juan Carcelén Herrero and opened in 1970, which covers 5,000 years of local winemaking tradition across eight exhibition spaces with Roman, Greek and pre-Columbian amphorae, old barrels and coopering tools.
Monument
Museum housed in a 16th-century Mannerist building on the Plaza de Arriba, holding pieces from sites in the municipal district, among them Coimbra del Barranco Ancho and the castle itself.
Nature
The Sierra del Carche, part of the Prebetic system, extends mainly across the municipality of Jumilla, though it also reaches that of Yecla, and gives its name to the protected regional park that includes it together with the Sierra de las Pansas and the Cabezo de la Rosa, where a salt diapir is found. It is a mostly limestone terrain, with geological formations such as thrusts and faults, crossed by ravines like those of San Cristóbal, la Guarafía and la Yedra. Next to its highest peak there is a 17th-century snow well, similar to those of other nearby ranges such as Espuña or Mariola. Listed as a Lugar de Interés Comunitario (a European Union protection status for natural areas) for its more than 600 plant species, including regional endemics, it is home to birds of prey such as the short-toed eagle, the booted eagle, the hen harrier and the eagle owl. Bronze Age and Iberian archaeological sites have also been found in the area, as well as Roman settlements for farming and livestock use.
Nature
Botanical garden in the pedanía of La Estacada, a farming colony founded around 1950, which has become the main attraction of this rural settlement in the Jumilla countryside.
Curiosity
The grapevine seed remains found at the El Prado site date back 5,000 years, and the Jumilla Denominación de Origen, established in 1966, is the oldest in the Región de Murcia. Monastrell, a native grape variety, accounts for around 80% of the region's vineyards.
Curiosity
On 17 July 1911 King Alfonso XIII granted Jumilla the title of city and its council the style of 'excelentísimo', in recognition of the economic growth brought by the wine trade after the European phylloxera crisis.
Curiosity
Popular tradition around the Monastery of Santa Ana del Monte includes stories of miracles and even a supposed exorcism, among them the legend of a friar whose body remained incorrupt after his death, feeding the monastery's fund of legends for generations.
Activity
Declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico in 1980, a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Nacional in 2003 and a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Internacional in May 2019 (categories that recognise, in ascending order, a festival's tourist value in Spain), the Semana Santa of Jumilla has more than 600 years of history and is one of the oldest in Spain; in 2000 it also received the Gold Medal of the Region of Murcia. It is the most important celebration in the city's festive calendar, in which more than three thousand nazarenos take part, and it stands out for the artistic richness of its thrones and images, with the Good Friday procession of the Santo Entierro (Holy Burial) as one of its most solemn moments. It begins on Friday of Sorrows and continues until Easter Sunday.
Activity
Festival of Regional Tourist Interest created in 1972 at the initiative of local winemakers, which includes the opening of the wine fountain, the offering of grapes and must to the Niño de las Uvas and a parade of floats with traditional Jumilla dress.
Activity
Patron saint festivities moved to August in the late 19th century to coincide with the feast of the Virgen de la Asunción, patron saint of Jumilla, organised together with the Federation of Peñas and the Moros y Cristianos Association.
Monument
A mountain monastery of Discalced Franciscans located near Jumilla, next to the Jarra spring, in the Sierra de Santa Ana; it opened for worship in 1573 and remains inhabited by Franciscans of the Order of Friars Minor. It hosted San Pascual Bailón and the blessed Andrés Hibernón, and it has been the destination of the Bajada del Cristo procession since 1848. In its church is venerated the 17th-century Cristo de la Reja, and the chapel of the Cristo de la Columna holds a carving by Francisco Salzillo in cypress wood, the only one to leave the convent, in a pilgrimage; the main altarpiece is presided over by a 15th-century image of Santa Ana, and two 1613 reliquaries preserve relics brought from Italy by the Marquis of Villena.
Monument
A modernist house from 1911 on Calle Cánovas in Jumilla, the work of a collaborator of Gaudí, the most significant modernist building in the Altiplano. Commissioned by José Mª Guardiola Porras from the Catalan architect Joan Alsina i Arús, a disciple of Antoni Gaudí, it is a three-storey single-family building on a corner plot, with a Gothicist language, a pronounced overhanging eave and a bay window with ironwork above the main floor. On the outside, the treatment of the wall stands out, with ashlar masonry at the base and rustic-cut stone in the rusticated blocks. Restored in 1988, it is listed as a protected asset for its importance.
Nature
A volcano in Jumilla that gives its name to jumillite, an ultrapotassic rock described in 1906, almost exclusive to south-eastern Spain, with apatite deposits of worldwide geological importance.
Nature
Trace fossils of prehistoric animals in the district of Jumilla, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO.
Curiosity
A Greek bronze sculpture found in Jumilla in the late 19th century, today kept in the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.
Curiosity
An international racing circuit in Jumilla at the site of La Raja, 2,400 metres long, one of the largest in the world.
Curiosity
Jumilla is home to some of the best-known wineries of the Denomination of Origin that bears its name, protected since 1966, such as Juan Gil, BSI, Luzón and Casa de la Ermita, heirs to a winemaking tradition built around the monastrell grape.
Monument
An 18th-century Baroque church in Jumilla, declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection), one of the most notable churches in the historic centre alongside the Church of Santiago.
Monument
The church of Santa María, also known as Santa María del Rosario or del Arrabal, was built in the 15th century in Jumilla, following the preaching of San Vicente Ferrer in 1430, and was the first Christian church built outside the castle walls. It stands on the remains of an Islamic necropolis of the 12th and 13th centuries, on a plain to the west of the town where the first settlement outside the walls, the Arrabal, arose; alongside it developed the first public square, that of los Gastos, the site of the weekly market. It was the main parish until 1530, when the Iglesia Mayor de Santiago was built, and it housed the town's first Holy Week brotherhood, that of the Vera Cruz and the Santo Entierro. Today the building is half in ruins.
Monument
A hermitage in Jumilla dedicated to San Antón, one of the minor churches of the town alongside the hermitages of San Agustín and San José.
Monument
A convent of Dominican nuns in Jumilla, part of the historic religious heritage of the city alongside the Franciscan monastery of Santa Ana del Monte.
Nature
Three rock shelters with cave paintings of the schematic and Levantine art of the Mediterranean arc in the district of Jumilla, included in the UNESCO World Heritage declaration.
Activity
The Palm Sunday procession in Jumilla in which a carving by Salzillo is brought from the Monastery of Santa Ana del Monte to the city to take part in the Semana Santa events.
Activity
A traditional day out in the open air held in Jumilla two Sundays before Palm Sunday, at which people share hornazo, a sweet typical of the local Lent.
Activity
A flamenco competition in Jumilla with fifteen editions held so far, including guitar contests and flamenco singing and dance performances. The programme also includes round tables and audiovisual screenings about the genre, a flamenco guitar contest, another dedicated to young singing talents, a tourist visit around the town and various live performances.
Activity
The Semana Cultural de Jumilla is a programme of activities held in the Murcian municipality of Jumilla in the last week of April, in commemoration of the capture of the town's castle by the infante don Fadrique. It combines cultural events with the commemoration of this episode of the Christian conquest, and is one of the notable dates on Jumilla's festive calendar.
Curiosity
An Augustinian friar born in Jumilla on 11 March 1610, who studied Philosophy and Theology and graduated as a master in Theology at the University of Gandía. Confessor to the Duke of Arcos, he travelled with him to Italy when the duke was appointed viceroy of Naples, and in 1646 he was named bishop of Tropea; in 1656 he moved to the diocese of Mazara, in Sicily, and in 1668 he was promoted to archbishop of Palermo. In that see he lived through the most delicate episode of his career: during the Messina revolt of 1674 he refused, by order of the viceroy, to arm the population, which earned him accusations of treason and forced him to flee. At the end of 1676 he returned to Spain to take up his post as bishop of Plasencia, but he died the following year at the monastery of Yuste, where he was buried.
Monument
The only theatre in Jumilla, the work of the architect Justo Millán Espinosa (1843-1928), also the author of the Teatro Romea in Murcia, who adapted his design to the foundations of an earlier attempt at a coliseum begun in 1867 and abandoned for lack of funds. The works, directed by the master builder Bernardo Moreno Ramos, were put out to tender in 1882 and the theatre was inaugurated on 14 August 1883 with a performance of the zarzuela La Tempestad, featuring the tenor Lacarre, the baritone Bueso, the bass Miguel Soler and the sopranos Nadal and Latorre. In 1890 it was named Teatro Vico in honour of the actor Antonio Vico, at the suggestion of José Guardiola Peral. Declared an asset of cultural interest in 1995.
Monument
The Casa Modernista in Jumilla is an urban mansion built in 1911 on Calle Cánovas del Castillo, on the corner with Cura Navarro, commissioned by José María Guardiola Porras. It is the work of the Catalan architect Joan Alsina i Arús, a disciple and collaborator of Antoni Gaudí, and is considered the most outstanding modernist work in the Murcian Altiplano. It combines a language of Gothic roots with a pronounced eave and a bay window with ironwork on the main floor; the exterior alternates ashlar masonry at the base with rusticated stone in the upper bodies. Restored in 1988, it is protected for its architectural value and remains one of the most distinctive civil buildings in Jumilla.
Historical milestone
The Iberian oppidum built above the ravine was violently razed at the beginning of the second century BC, in the context of the Roman expansion through the southeast of the peninsula; its necropolises and its sanctuary were left sealed and today supply the local archaeological museum.
Historical milestone
After the agreement signed in 713 between the Visigothic count Theodemir and Abd al-Aziz, the territory of Jumilla was integrated into the cora of Tudmir, a pact that allowed the native population to keep its property and its religion in exchange for tribute.
Historical milestone
The Castilian troops of the infante Alfonso, son of Ferdinand III, occupied the town in 1241 and incorporated Jumilla into the Crown of Castile for the first time, within the advance on the Muslim kingdom of Murcia and its northern lands.
Historical milestone
In 1445 Juan Pacheco received from Prince Enrique the title of marquis of Villena together with several towns of the old lordship of don Juan Manuel, Jumilla among them, which was subjected to a seigneurial rule prolonged for centuries.
Historical milestone
The narrow-gauge train known as el Chicharra reached Cieza in April 1921 and completed the link of the Altiplano with the Chinchilla-Cartagena line; the track, closed in 1969, served above all to carry out the comarca's wines.
Historical milestone
The vineyard of Jumilla, which had largely escaped the phylloxera of the nineteenth century thanks to its sandy, stony soils, suffered in 1989 a devastating attack that forced replanting on American rootstock and precipitated the modernization of its wineries.
Food and drink
A stew of game — rabbit, hare or partridge — and mountain snails cooked over pieces of unleavened wheat flatbread, which serves as both plate and bread; the leftover flatbread is eaten afterwards rolled up with honey or with anchovy.
Food and drink
One of the most deeply rooted rice dishes of the Altiplano: rabbit, snails gathered in the hills of the district, ripe tomato, saffron and parsley cooked in a paella pan, and traditionally served as a working meal in the fields.
Food and drink
A pear of the ercolina variety, introduced into the district around 1957 and covered by a protected designation of origin approved in 2004: a small, very sweet fruit with light green skin that turns yellow with a crimson blush on the sunny side.