Village
Cehegín is a municipality in the Murcian Noroeste comarca, with about 14,500 inhabitants, situated at 570 metres above sea level, inhabited since prehistory by successive cultures: Iberians, Romans, Visigoths, Arabs and Christians. At Peña Rubia, a limestone massif southwest of the city, caves are preserved with cave paintings around 4,400 years old, declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1998 together with the rest of the Mediterranean arc of the Peninsula. In Iberian times Begastri arose here, raised to municipium status after the Roman conquest; its inhabitants destroyed much of the city to build a ring of walls against the barbarian incursions of the 3rd century. The historic centre was declared a conjunto histórico-artístico (Spain's heritage-protection category for urban ensembles of the greatest historical and artistic value) in 1982.
Monument
Declared a Historic-Artistic Site in 1982, it brings together vernacular architecture from the 12th to the 19th centuries and manor houses in Renaissance, Murcian baroque, rococo and neoclassical styles, such as the Palacio Villar de Felices, the Palacio de Jaspe and the Casa del Conde de Campillos.
Monument
Main church of Cehegín, set on the Plaza del Castillo, within a historic centre declared a Conjunto Histórico-Artístico (Spain's heritage designation in force between 1931 and 1985, applied here to an urban ensemble); itself declared a Monumento Histórico-Artístico Nacional, it is a sixteenth-century remodelling of a fifteenth-century temple.
Nature
Ancient Visigothic city and episcopal see located three kilometres from the centre of Cehegín, at the so-called Cabezo Roenas, with remains spanning from Iberian times to the Middle Ages. It was a settlement of Iberian origin that became a Roman municipium and, after the arrival of the Visigoths, an episcopal city, gaining great importance after the destruction of Cartagena, until it became the most important city in the area. In 1878 the Ara de Júpiter was found, a marble altar with an inscription confirming the existence of the Roman municipium, and the Cruz Monogramática de Begastri is also preserved, one of the oldest in Spain. The excavations, directed by university archaeologists since 1983, are today in the charge of Rafael González Fernández.
Monument
Museum on the Plaza del Castillo in Cehegín covering local history from the Neolithic to the early modern period, including material from Begastri.
Activity
Cehegín celebrates its patronal festivities in honor of the Virgen de las Maravillas from the 8th to the 14th of September, with processions and days dedicated to Sevillian dress and traditional huertano (market-gardener) costume.
Activity
The fiestas de San Sebastián of Cehegín are held on the weekend closest to 20 January. In the plaza del Castillo a great bonfire is lit, around which migas, empedrao and rabbit rice are prepared, and a pilgrimage is organised at the mesoncico. As a traditional sweet, the so-called Flechas de San Sebastián are handed out, almond biscuits typical of these winter patron saint festivities.
Monument
A 16th- to 19th-century palace in Cehegín, an example of the noble architecture of the historic centre.
Monument
The Palacio de Jaspe, or Casa Jaspe, is an 18th-century Baroque-Rococo palace located in the historic centre of Cehegín (Murcia), part of the complex declared a Conjunto Histórico-Artístico (a heritage-protection category) in 1982. It takes its name from the local jasper, a stone typical of the sierra de Quípar, present in its fabric. It belonged to the Salazar and Massa families until it was acquired by the Town Council in 1973, which today has its municipal headquarters there.
Monument
The church of la Soledad is a small Renaissance church built in Cehegín (Region of Murcia) by the local craftsman Ginés de Egea in the 16th century. The Cofradía de la Virgen de los Dolores, drawn from the local upper bourgeoisie, financed its construction, and the Chamarreta family donated the plot. When Cehegín joined the Order of Santiago in the 13th century, the council banned costly hermitages, so it was built with modest materials, with a single nave and a gabled roof; its completion is documented before 1595. In the 17th century it was extended to three naves. The bell tower, from 1788, is Classicist Baroque, crowned by a wrought-iron weathervane. The hexagonal chapel is covered by a false ribbed vault. It is declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) and is still maintained today by the same confraternity.
Nature
A Roman-Visigothic city located 3 kilometres from Cehegín, on the Cabezo Roenas, considered the most important settlement of this kind in Spain. Continuously inhabited from Iberian times until the 11th century, it reached its peak in Late Antiquity, when it served as a bridgehead for the Visigothic kingdom of Toledo against the Byzantines after the destruction of Cartagena. Among the finds, the Ara de Júpiter stands out, a red marble altar key to identifying the site, and the Begastri Monogram Cross, one of the oldest Christian bronze crosses in Spain, along with Roman inscriptions and late Roman and Visigothic fortifications. Excavations continue under university direction, and part of the finds are displayed at the Archaeological Museum of Cehegín.
Monument
The origins of the hermitage of the Purísima Concepción de Cehegín, which crowns the Plaza del Castillo and shapes the silhouette of the old town, date back to the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century; it was consecrated on 9 January 1556, as recorded by an inscription beside the main altar. Built in Renaissance style, it has three naves with a raised choir at the foot and columns of the Tuscan and Ionic orders; the presbytery displays a wooden coffered ceiling with star and mocárabe motifs, and it is notable for its important Mudéjar roof, with an octagonal ribbed vault bearing painted inscriptions, unusual for buildings of its period. It was declared a Monumento Nacional (a former top-level Spanish heritage protection category) in 1980.
Monument
The recently restored remains of a 16th-century hermitage in the historic centre of Cehegín.
Monument
The sanctuary of the Virgen de la Peña de Canara stands at the foot of an imposing rocky crag in Canara, the most populous hamlet of Cehegín (Murcia), and is home to one of the oldest Marian devotions in the Region of Murcia. As early as 1256 a warden charged with guarding the fortress and the temple of the sanctuary is recorded. The Virgen de la Peña is the patron saint of Canara and was also that of Cehegín until the eighteenth century. Her festival is held from 14 to 19 August, with a pilgrimage (romería) and popular celebrations.
Monument
A hermitage built in the 18th century by the residents of the hamlet of Campillo de los Jiménez, near the Argos reservoir, documented since 1792.
Activity
Patron saint festival of the hamlet of Canara, in the municipality of Cehegín, in honour of the Virgen de la Peña, celebrated from 14 to 19 August with the descent of the image from the hermitage to the village church and its later return in a pilgrimage (romería). The sanctuary of la Peña, with its fortress and temple, was of great importance in medieval times, and this devotion was also the patron saint of Cehegín until the eighteenth century. During the festival days there are open-air dances, bull-running events (encierros), musical performances, fireworks and other festive activities typical of the calendar of this farming community devoted to fruit, market gardening and flower growing.
Activity
Festivities in honour of the Purísima Concepción held in the outlying village of Campillo de los Jiménez, beside the Argos reservoir.
Historical milestone
The city of Begastri, on the hill that dominates the Quípar valley, reached the rank of episcopal see during the sixth century; its bishops signed at the Visigothic councils and its name disappeared with the coming of Islam.
Historical milestone
With the Mudejar revolt put down, James I of Aragon handed Cehegín to the Templars, who administered the commandery until the dissolution of the order in 1312; afterwards it would pass into the hands of Santiago along with Caravaca.
Historical milestone
The Ministry of Culture declared in 1982 a historic-artistic site the old quarter of the town, a maze of steep streets with armorial houses of the 16th to 18th centuries raised over the old medieval enclosure.
Food and drink
Traditional stew from Cehegín, in the Noroeste comarca of the Región de Murcia, whose main ingredient is rice, to which white beans and seasonal produce from the market gardens of Cehegín are added. It arose among the humblest families of the town, who at first prepared it only with rice and beans or haricot beans, and, as the family economy allowed, gradually added other cheap local products, such as Burete saffron milk caps. Today its most common ingredients are white beans, tomato, dried salted cod, rice, olive oil, tender garlic, saffron milk caps, saffron, dried pepper, parsley and clams, a heterogeneous mix of land and sea products typical of a winter fasting dish.
Food and drink
Almond biscuits distributed among the residents during the feast of San Sebastián; their name alludes to the arrows of the saint's martyrdom and their making remains tied exclusively to those days in January.