Village
Los Alcázares is a municipality in the Región de Murcia situated on the shore of the Mar Menor, on the plain of the Campo de Cartagena, with 9 kilometres of coastline; until 1983 it was divided between the municipal areas of Torre-Pacheco and San Javier, the year it split off and unified as an independent municipality. It has two protected natural areas: the Playa de la Hita, a reed-bed wetland where black-winged stilts, little terns and grey herons nest, and the Marina del Carmolí, a salt marsh with halophyte vegetation such as sea-blite and glasswort, home to the fartet, an endangered fish endemic to the Mediterranean. Developed from Roman thermal baths, it has become a summer tourist destination with its own military base and industrial estate. It has 20,408 inhabitants (INE 2025).
Monument
Museum devoted to the history of what was Spain's first seaplane base, founded in 1915 to make use of the calm, sheltered waters of the Mar Menor. It brings together photographs, documents and objects on the development of the Los Alcázares air base up to the present day.
Monument
Defensive tower of late medieval origin, probably rebuilt between 1618 and 1623 to protect the coastal lands from Barbary pirate attacks. Inside, spontaneous graffiti from the 17th to the 20th centuries survive, with drawings of ships, human figures and even Civil War aircraft.
Monument
Remains of a large Roman coastal villa of the 3rd century with cold, warm and hot baths, marble columns and mosaics, evidence that the area was a privileged spot within the territory of Carthago Nova during the 1st and 2nd centuries.
Curiosity
The place name comes from the Arabic 'al-Qasr' (palace or fortress) and would refer to buildings raised by Ibn Mardanish, known as the Wolf King, reusing the remains of the old Roman villa. The name has been attached for more than eight hundred years to the oldest settlement on the Mar Menor.
Activity
Main festival of Los Alcázares in honour of its patron saint, with an evening procession that begins on foot and ends with a boat trip across the Mar Menor accompanied by fireworks.
Activity
Seaplane festival that revives the memory of Spain's first seaplane base, bringing amphibious aircraft and floatplanes of different periods together on the waters of the Mar Menor.
Nature
The islands of the Mar Menor, together with several stretches of coastline, make up the open spaces and islands of the Mar Menor, protected sites of the Natura 2000 network shared between Cartagena, San Javier and Los Alcázares. They are five islands of volcanic origin: Mayor or del Barón, the largest, at 93.8 hectares and 104 metres high; Perdiguera, the most visited, at 25.8 hectares; del Ciervo, at 16.3 hectares, which until recently was linked to La Manga by an artificial causeway now removed; and the smaller Redonda and del Sujeto, the latter just 2.4 hectares. They were formed by the activity of ancient underwater volcanoes that shaped the Mar Menor basin, which also includes El Carmolí, the remains of another, now-extinct Quaternary volcano on the Cartagena coast.
Activity
Medieval-themed fair set up in the streets of the town with craft stalls, shows and street entertainment.
Activity
International folklore festival held during the last two weeks of August in tribute to the Region of Murcia's standing as the market garden of Spain, with traditional dance and music groups taking part.
Monument
The name of Los Alcázares comes from the Arabic word al-Kazar, castle or fortress. The remains that give rise to the place name belong to a Roman settlement, over whose ancient baths the Muslims built a fortified nucleus in the Islamic period. Those archaeological remains, the oldest in the municipality, were declared a Monumento Nacional (a former category of heritage protection in Spain) in 1931.
Monument
Watchtower built in the 16th century in Los Alcázares to give warning of Barbary raids.
Monument
Thermal establishment in Los Alcázares dating from 1904 that retains its original structure. The Hotel Balneario de la Encarnación was built in the late 19th century next to the old wooden spa houses raised on the Mar Menor, when the area became a summer destination for the bourgeoisie and farmers from inland, drawn by the therapeutic properties of its waters.
Activity
Festivities in Los Alcázares whose main day is the feast of the patron saint, Nuestra Señora de la Asunción.
Monument
A parish church begun in 1898 on the site of a small oratory of 1890; its five-tier bell tower was raised in an extension of 1953 and its interior preserves frescoes in the Murcian Baroque style.
Nature
Urban beach of Los Alcázares on the shore of the Mar Menor, located between Avenida del Carril de las Palmeras and Plaza de la Pescadería, where the “Monument to the Fisherman” stands. It extends from Las Palmeras beach to Manzanares beach and is lined by a promenade with night lighting, spaces for sports activities and beach bars. Its name refers to the calm state of the water, as it is a stretch well sheltered from the waves.
Nature
Playa de Los Narejos is one of the seven beaches in the municipality of Los Alcázares, in the Region of Murcia, on the shore of the Mar Menor, between the Salinas and Palmeras beaches. It takes its name from the district of the same name and lies between Avenida de Mariano Ballester and Calle del Pintor Delacroix. It is an urban beach equipped with services, lined by a promenade with night lighting, sports areas and beach bars, and is home to the Infanta Cristina public High Performance Centre, dedicated to specialisation in sailing, windsurfing and canoeing.
Nature
Playa de las Salinas, on the coast of Los Alcázares by the Mar Menor, takes its name from a former salt works in the area. It extends from Playa de la Hita, which it shares with the neighbouring municipality of San Javier, to Playa de los Narejos. Being an urban beach, it has night lighting, spaces for sports activities and beach bars.
Nature
Playa de las Palmeras is an urban beach of Los Alcázares (Murcia), on the shore of the Mar Menor, next to the town's seafront promenade. It takes its name from the palm-tree vegetation that borders it and extends between Avenida del Carril de las Palmeras and Avenida de Mariano Ballester, linking Playa de Los Narejos with Playa del Espejo, one of the seven beaches that line the coastal front of Los Alcázares. Equipped with services, it has a promenade with night lighting, spaces for sports activities and beach bars. During the bird migration season it is a good spot to watch their movements over the Mar Menor.
Nature
Playa de Carrión is an urban beach of Los Alcázares, on the shore of the Mar Menor, which extends between Calle de José Fontes and Calle de Telégrafos and has held a tourist quality certification since 2007. It lies between Playa de Manzanares and Playa de la Concha, and along its promenade stands a monolith commemorating the separation of Los Alcázares from the municipalities of Torre Pacheco and San Javier in 1983, marking the former boundary between them. It has night lighting, bicycle parking, special facilities for people with disabilities and beach bars.
Monument
On Playa de la Concha in Los Alcázares, by the Mar Menor, a replica is preserved of a traditional bathing establishment of the kind used in the first half of the 20th century on the area's main beaches. These facilities allowed direct access from the changing rooms to the water by way of stairs and were raised on platforms supported by wooden stakes or piles; the most important of all was the Balneario de la Encarnación. The beach, urban and equipped with services, has held a tourist quality certification since 2007.
Activity
Historical re-enactment evoking the Berber pirate attacks suffered on the shores of the Mar Menor, with dramatised landings on the coast of Los Alcázares. In the late Middle Ages and early Modern era a series of coastal watchtowers was built to defend the lagoon from these pirate attacks; the towers of Rame, Silva, Blanca, Negro and Saavedra can still be seen today, witnesses to the historic danger that the re-enactment commemorates.
Activity
A popular food day in Los Alcázares devoted to caldero, the traditional fish and rice dish of the Mar Menor towns.
Historical milestone
The calm, shallow waters of the Mar Menor led to the installation here in 1915 of the first military seaplane base in Spain, the origin of a long aeronautical presence that is still alive in the municipality.
Historical milestone
After the favorable report of the Council of State of July 1983, the municipal council of Los Alcázares was constituted with land separated from San Javier, Torre-Pacheco and Murcia; it is the youngest municipality in the Region.
Historical milestone
A cut-off low pressure system dropped in September 2019 torrential rains on the Campo de Cartagena and the ramblas flooded the town center, which was left under water for days; the catastrophe forced a rethinking of the drainage of the whole basin.
Food and drink
The salinity of the lagoon gives these crustaceans an especially marked flavor; they are eaten boiled or on the griddle with little more than salt and lemon and are, together with the gilthead bream and the grey mullet, the basis of the municipality's seafaring cooking.