Village
Águilas is a coastal municipality of nearly 38,000 inhabitants (37,811, INE 2025) in the Alto Guadalentín, Región de Murcia, famous for its carnival, declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Internacional (the highest tourism distinction the Spanish State grants to a festival) in 2015. Its toponym, documented since the 11th century as Acla-Aqila, referred to the defensive castle raised on the crag now crowned by the Castle of San Juan de las Águilas, around which, on an ancient tombolo, the town grew up between the bays of Poniente and Levante. The municipality, with 28 kilometres of Mediterranean coastline, is surrounded by the Sierra de la Carrasquilla and the Sierra de la Almenara, the latter protected for its environmental value, whose Talayón peak, 881 metres, is the highest point in the municipal area. It shares with Lorca the Cabo Cope y Puntas de Calnegre regional park.
Monument
The castle of San Juan de las Águilas is a military fortification standing above the town of Águilas, declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) since 1982 and considered the town's most emblematic monument, with views over the whole bay. In 1579, under Philip II, a watchtower was built on this headland, that of San Juan, as part of the project to defend the Mediterranean coast against Berber pirates entrusted to Vespasiano I Gonzaga; an earthquake damaged it in 1596 and the Berbers eventually destroyed it in 1643. After an order for its reconstruction in 1652, it was not until the mid-18th century, under the reign of Ferdinand VI, that the engineer Sebastián Feringán designed the present castle, with works completed in 1756. Restored, it can be visited today.
Monument
The Isla del Fraile is a steep, rocky islet of 6.8 hectares off the east coast of Águilas, in the Bahía del Hornillo, with occupations ranging from the late Roman period, when a garum factory with several salting vats was set up there, to the Islamic era and the early 20th century; an archaeological research project has been excavating the site since 2020. Declared a Protected Natural Area, it hosts inframediterranean vegetation and one of the richest seabeds in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, with extensive Posidonia oceanica meadows; it is a passage for dolphins and holds an important colony of gulls. Geologically it belongs to the Subbetic ranges and is a popular spot for water sports.
Monument
Remains of 4th-century Roman baths preserved in Calle Canalejas in the town centre, evidence of the Roman past of the ancient Urcis or Alba, the historical forerunner of Águilas.
Monument
The Torre de Cope, also called the Torre del Santo Cristo, is a 16th-century watchtower built beside the sea, north of Cabo Cope, by the concejo of Lorca to warn fishermen and shepherds of attacks by Berber corsairs. Its construction, ordered in 1539 by Charles I, was completed in 1574 following the involvement of the engineer Juan Bautista Antonelli and Vespasiano Gonzaga, and it was permanently guarded by three or four watchmen. Square in plan, it retains battlements, arrow slits and a machicolation, with a raised door reached by a retractable ladder. It was restored between 1990 and 1991, and in 1801 its rooms were used as a store for almadraba (tuna-trap) products.
Monument
Museum devoted to the mining railway that linked Águilas with the inland workings, in operation between 1890 and 1967; it forms part of a heritage route that includes the railway monument, the old station, the tunnel and the El Hornillo pier.
Activity
A festival declared Fiesta de Interés Turístico Internacional (Spain's highest official recognition for festivals), one of the oldest and most participatory in Spain, with parades of murgas, comparsas and floats through the streets of the town. Declared in 2015, it was the third Spanish carnival to reach that category, after those of Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Cádiz, both from 1980. Oral accounts of it go back to the 19th century and the earliest surviving images date from 1903, although some sources place it as early as the 18th century, under Charles III; municipal bylaws of 1886 already regulated the hours for masks and banned carrying weapons or throwing water and flour. Largely banned during the Civil War and the Franco dictatorship, it survived through disguised costumes, and today it chooses its representative characters each August, at a gala of peñas.
Nature
Protected natural area on the Águilas coast taking in the unspoilt beaches of Calarreona, La Carolina, La Higuerica and Cocedores, of great scenic value because they remain undeveloped.
Nature
Águilas has more than 30 beaches and coves along its 28 kilometres of coast, from blue flag town beaches such as Levante and Las Delicias to wild coves with clear water on its southern shore.
Curiosity
The extensive municipal district of Águilas (some 251 km²) is organised into six diputaciones - Águilas, Barranco, Campo, Cope, Cocón and Tébar - which take in small inland hamlets such as Tébar and La Majada, among dry-farmed fields and ramblas.
Monument
The Hornillo pier, also called the Hornillo bridge, is located 1.5 kilometres from Águilas, in a small bay protected by the Punta del Caballo to the west, the Punta del Cambrón to the east and the Isla del Fraile to the north. It was built on the initiative of the British engineer Gustavo Gillman, with works carried out by the Great Southern of Spain Railway Company, to boost the Águilas-Lorca-Baza railway line by exploiting the iron mines of the sierra de los Filabres, including those of Las Menas, in Serón, and Bacares. It was opened in 1903, though it did not operate at full capacity until 1904, once improvements to the initial project were completed; the ore arrived via the Almendricos-Águilas line, extended that same year to link up with the pier itself. Declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 2009, it is considered the second most important pier of its kind in Spain, and since 2017 it can be visited as a railway museum.
Curiosity
Calabardina is a small fishing hamlet of Águilas, sheltered from easterly storms by the mountains, whose activity dates back to the almadraba tuna-trapping already practised here by the Arabs, although the present-day settlement was populated only from the 19th century; that fishery has now disappeared. It forms part of the Parque Regional de Cabo Cope y Puntas de Calnegre and has become a tourist town, valued for its diving grounds and its beaches, that of Calabardina and that of La Cola. Next to it lies the access to the Torre de Cope, a former coastal watchtower of the area.
Nature
The Parque Regional de Cabo Cope y Puntas de Calnegre has protected, since 1992, more than 17 km of unspoilt coastline between Águilas and Lorca, along the bahía de Mazarrón, with slate cliffs, coves and fossil dunes; it is a Special Protection Area for Birds (SPA) and is crossed by the GR-92 trail. Neolithic remains have been found in its caves, along with an Argaric settlement on the Cerro de la Cruz, and the torre de Cope stands out, from the 16th century, raised against attacks by Berber pirates. In 1974 it was the scene of opposition to a nuclear power plant project, led by Mario Gaviria, Paco Rabal and professors from the University of Murcia, who achieved its withdrawal four years later.
Monument
A municipal market opened in August 1928, conceived as a spacious, bright and well-ventilated building that became the town's commercial landmark at a time when there was no refrigeration. It remains an emblematic part of the architectural heritage of Águilas.
Activity
Processions more than two hundred years old organised by nine brotherhoods, among them the Azules of the Virgen de los Dolores and the Morados of Jesús Nazareno, the oldest in the town. The highlight is Viernes de Dolores, with the serenade and floral offering to the Virgin and her night-time procession carried on shoulders, accompanied by manolas dressed in mantillas.
Curiosity
The cooking of Águilas revolves around seafood such as red mullet and red prawn, alongside fishermen's stews such as caldero, arroz a la marinera, cuttlefish in sauce and gurullos with octopus, a legacy of the fishing tradition of its port.
Nature
Águilas has around thirty coves and 36 beaches, many of them unspoilt, among the trails of the Parque Regional de Cabo Cope y Puntas de Calnegre, a protected area the municipality shares with Lorca. In the Marina de Cope area, within the natural park, there are coves such as La Galera, Las Pulgas and el Pozo de las Huertas; in the protected landscape of las Cuatro Calas, Calarreona, La Higuerica and La Carolina stand out, with blue-flag status, along with La Tortuga and the playa de los Cocedores.
Historical milestone
The count of Aranda proposed in 1765 to build in this bay a settlement independent of Lorca; the project was afterwards promoted by the count of Floridablanca, who appointed his brother-in-law Antonio de Robles Vives superintendent of the Royal Works.
Historical milestone
During the reign of Carlos III (1759-1788) a royal order granted the new town of Águilas a jurisdiction of two leagues around it, consolidating the Enlightenment-era repopulation that in a few years had multiplied its population and aroused the suspicion of Lorca and Vera.
Historical milestone
After decades of political and economic lawsuits with Lorca, which tried to halt the aid to the new settlement, in 1834 the definitive municipal council of Águilas was constituted and the long process of municipal emancipation was closed.
Historical milestone
The British company The Great Southern of Spain Railway opened in the 1890s the line that linked Lorca with Baza and the branch to the port of Águilas, conceived to provide a sea outlet for the ore of the inland ranges of Almería and Murcia.
Food and drink
A humble dish of the coast: potato boiled and crushed with a paste of fried garlic, cumin and dried pepper, which gives the whole its reddish color; on the Águilas coast it is often served accompanying fish or as a garnish for broth.
Food and drink
The caper bush grows wild on the dry land and watercourses of the district and its flower bud, gathered by hand in summer and cured in brine or vinegar, is one of the identity products of the Águilas larder along with the tomato and the red mullet.