Village
Fortuna is a municipality of more than 11,400 inhabitants, capital of the Eastern comarca of the Region of Murcia, known since antiquity for its mineral-medicinal waters and its archaeological heritage, with sites such as the Cueva Negra and Roman baths from the 1st and 2nd centuries. The Leana spa, one of the oldest in Spain, originated in a 1st-century Roman bathing nymphaeum; after it disappeared, the Arabs built another adjoining spa, used for more than five hundred years, until an earthquake shifted the spring. The current spa dates from the late 19th century, the work of Juan Cascales Font. In August the Fiestas de Sodales Íbero-romanos are held, declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Regional (an official designation recognising tourist interest at regional level), coinciding with the festivities of San Roque, patron saint of the municipality.
Monument
Church in Murcian Baroque style built between 1728 and 1744, facing the Plaza de la Tercera Edad. A 1998 restoration transformed the top section of the bell tower to recover its original Baroque features; the exposed-brick exterior displays four side buttresses.
Curiosity
Remains of Roman baths and the rock-cut sanctuary of the Cueva Negra, in Fortuna, singular sites in the whole Mediterranean basin. The bath sanctuary, known since 1999, is one of the most important Roman sites excavated in Spain and reached its peak in the 1st and 2nd centuries, with a religious complex with a tripartite apse arranged around a pool and a central channel. About 3 km away, in the sierra del Baño, the Cueva Negra brings together three sun-facing rock shelters beside a spring, where the Romans left tituli picti, painted texts among which fragments of Virgil's Aeneid stand out.
Activity
Fortuna celebrates San Isidro on the weekend following the 15th of May, with a procession of huertanos (traditional market gardeners) dressed in regional costume, one of its main festivities alongside San Roque (12th-17th of August).
Monument
The first church Fortuna had, built in the early 17th century at the end of the Avenida de San Roque. It houses the image of the patron saint and was for centuries the meeting place of the townspeople, including the first assembly to elect a mayor.
Monument
Church in the Murcian baroque style built between 1728 and 1744, with a high altarpiece that includes an image of the Dolorosa attributed to the school of Salzillo.
Monument
One of the oldest thermal sites in Spain, with healing waters emerging at 46 degrees which were already used by Iberians, Romans — with a documented origin in the first century AD — and Arabs; the present complex brings together three historic hotels: the Gran Hotel of 1863, the Hotel Victoria of 1895 and the Hotel España of 1935.
Nature
A regional park of 8,836 hectares in the Subbética mountain range, in the north-east of the Region of Murcia, shared between the municipalities of Fortuna, Abarán, Blanca, Molina de Segura and Jumilla. The Barranco del Mulo separates an eastern sector, with the peaks of La Pila (1,264 m) and Los Cenajos, from the western sector, dominated by the Caramucel (1,023 m); notable for their scenic and botanical value are the Fuente de la Higuera and the Umbría de los Cenajos, with holm oak and juniper woodland and endemic species such as Saxifraga latepetiolata. It is home to golden eagles, Bonelli's eagles and eagle owls, and to the red-billed chough, which led to its designation as a Special Protection Area for birds, as well as two bat species. It also preserves two 17th-century snow wells, formerly used to store and trade ice.
Nature
The Ajauque and Rambla Salada wetland is a protected landscape of 1,632 hectares shared between Fortuna, Abanilla, Santomera and Molina de Segura, with extremely saline waters, volcanic outcrops of fortunite and a large bird colony including the pied avocet; it was declared a Special Protection Area for birds in 2000. It collects water from nearby hills through a network of seasonal streams (ramblas) that only flow during rainy periods, usually scarce but sometimes torrential, which led to the building of the Santomera reservoir in 1966. In some areas groundwater surfaces to form permanent saline pools, although the rapid spread of reed beds threatens to displace the salt marsh.
Curiosity
In Arab times the town was called Yusor, meaning 'to be fortunate', from which its present name is said to derive. It is thought that the spring which gave rise to the Roman baths was a place of worship of the goddess Fortuna.
Curiosity
In June 1295 the Muslim nobleman Abrahim ibn Hud sold the whole lordship of Fortuna, with its towers, houses, waters and pastures, to Aparicio de Nompot for 3,000 maravedís, a key episode in the medieval history of the municipality.
Activity
Patronal festivals of San Roque, declared of Regional Tourist Interest, combining devotion to the patron saint with the historical re-enactment of the Sodales Íbero-Romanos, begun in 1997, with the Ibero-Roman Supper in the Cueva Negra and a great parade in togas and armour through the streets of the village.
Monument
Rock shelter and former pagan sanctuary in Fortuna with the 'Tituli Picti', Latin texts of the 1st to 3rd centuries AD painted in red on the rock, alluding to Virgil's Aeneid, beside a spring dedicated to the nymphs in Roman times.
Nature
One of the eleven pedanías of the Fortuna district, within the Sierra de la Pila Regional Park.
Curiosity
The district of Fortuna is made up of eleven pedanías: Garapacha, La Gineta, La Matanza, Caprés, Las Casicas, Peña de Zafra de Arriba and de Abajo, Los Baños, Fuenteblanca, Rambla Salada and Hoya Hermosa.
Activity
Traditional cooking of Fortuna with gachasmigas, empedrao, tortilleras, cocido with stuffing and trigo pelao, the typical dish of Maundy Thursday.
Monument
Modernista palace of 1906 with a Neo-Moorish courtyard, possibly designed by the architect Víctor Beltrí, one of the most notable civil buildings in Fortuna.
Monument
Modernista building of the early 20th century housing Fortuna's town hall, restored in 1989.
Monument
The most recent hermitage in Fortuna (Region of Murcia) houses the image of San Antón all year round and takes on special significance during Holy Week: on the night of Good Friday the Cristo Yacente is buried within it and remains on display until the afternoon of Holy Saturday, when it is carried once more in the Easter Sunday procession.
Monument
Scant remains of an Islamic fortification some 4.5 km from Fortuna, which commanded the natural route towards the Altiplano of Jumilla and Yecla.
Monument
Also known as the Torre Vieja, it stands 1.6 km south of Fortuna and preserves remains of an Iberian settlement with traces of later Arab occupation.
Monument
Sculpture of an Iberian bull made in the 1950s by the artist François 'El Suizo' in the pedanía of Peña de Zafra de Arriba.
Monument
Facility devoted to explaining traditional salt production and the natural values of the Rambla Salada wetland, in the pedanía of the same name.
Monument
Century-old washhouse in the pedanía of Hoya Hermosa that also served as a drinking trough for transhumant livestock.
Monument
Historic washhouse in the pedanía of Los Baños, linked to the thermal springs from which the village takes its name.
Nature
Small volcanic cones located in the southern part of the municipality of Fortuna, between the town centre and the village of La Matanza, evidence of the region's past geological activity and protected since 1917. They have been proposed as a Geological Site of Interest of international relevance by the Instituto Geológico y Minero de España, within the context of Neogene and Quaternary volcanism on the Iberian Peninsula. They are two small cones formed from an ancient volcanic vent amid marl terrain: the northern cone preserves the remains of a crater wall, while the southern one is very low and flattened, of irregular shape, where the mark of its former crater can still be made out. Their dominant rock is fortunite, also found at other points in the cuenca de Fortuna.
Nature
Mountain range that forms the backdrop to the pedanía of Caprés, within the hill country of the Fortuna district.
Nature
Circular rock formations that give the landscape of the pedanía of La Garapacha its character, the gateway to the Sierra de la Pila.
Curiosity
Rural village in Fortuna offering panoramic views with the Sierra del Corque as a backdrop, with a markedly rural way of life.
Curiosity
Small village surrounded by almond groves, on the way to the Sierra de la Pila Regional Park.
Curiosity
Pedanía of Fortuna known for its lemon groves, one of the area's traditional crops.
Curiosity
The pedanía of Peña de Zafra de Abajo is surrounded by open-cast quarries where marble has been extracted for decades.
Curiosity
Fortuna has had several local publications over its history, such as El Eco de Fortuna (1893-1896), Sodales (2000-2003), La Voz de Fortuna and the digital Diario de Fortuna.
Curiosity
Permanent karting circuit founded in 1998 next to the pedanía of La Matanza, home of the Region of Murcia karting championship.
Activity
Holy Week with eight brotherhoods and a dozen processional images, among which the silent procession of the Cristo del Perdón stands out. Over six days of processions more than 800 penitents take part; the Santísimo Cristo del Perdón brotherhood, the oldest, was founded in 1953. The Procession of Silence, the most solemn, takes place on Wednesday: it sets out at midnight, lit only by the penitents' torches and accompanied by three local bands. The current images are replicas of those that existed before the civil war, since a large part of Salzillo's original work was destroyed in the conflict.
Activity
The Kalendas Aprili pilgrimage is held on the weekend after Easter Sunday to recall ancient Roman traditions; it is organised by the federation of Sodales Ibero-Romanos, who climb up to the Cueva Negra, stay there during the day and come back down at seven in the evening accompanied by traditional music. The Cueva Negra, one of the archaeological landmarks of the Iberian southeast along with the Baños romanos, consists of three rock shelters beside a spring that served as a pagan sanctuary, where Roman visitors left painted Latin texts, among them fragments of Virgil's Aeneid.
Activity
Municipal programme of guided walks through the pedanías and countryside of Fortuna, with a tasting of traditional dishes at the end of each route.
Activity
Night-time walk through the town of Fortuna that revives legends and historical episodes of the municipality.
Activity
Walking route with an optional via ferrata section through the Cortao de las Peñas, near the pedanía of Las Casicas.
Historical milestone
The Romans built a nymphaeum beside the hot springs of Fortuna, and the site experienced its greatest splendor during the first two centuries of the Empire, the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, as documented by the abundant pottery found in the surrounding area.
Historical milestone
The archaeological work brought to light in 1999 the Roman sanctuary linked to the thermal waters, confirming that the cult of the healing springs was the remote origin of the spa that still operates in the municipality.
Historical milestone
The first documented local newspaper began to be published in 1893 and lasted three years; its appearance shows the vitality of a small town that then lived from the spa and from irrigated agriculture.
Historical milestone
The creation of this brotherhood renewed in the middle of the twentieth century a Fortuna Semana Santa documented since the eighteenth century, and added a new float to the processions that cross the municipality's streets each spring.
Food and drink
The municipality's typical dish is oven-roast lamb, accompanied by the vegetables given by the huerta watered by the traditional system of acequias; it is the meal of family celebrations.
Food and drink
Every 17 January the residents go out into the countryside to eat rice and to finish off the sweets left over from Christmas, a day of collective open-air eating that opens Fortuna's festive calendar.