Village
Archena is a municipality of nearly 21,000 inhabitants located on the banks of the Segura River, in the natural comarca of the Ricote Valley, 25 kilometres from Murcia. The territory has been populated since Iberian times, as shown by the Cabezo del Tío Pío site, and it was in the days of Ancient Rome that the use of its well-known thermal baths began. The present-day town arose in the Middle Ages, when it came under the dependency of the Order of Saint John within the commandery of Calasparra, and received a founding charter in 1462. During the civil war it housed a training school for tank crews of the Popular Army, with the new Soviet T-26 tanks. The town is presided over by the church of San Juan Bautista, begun in the 18th century on the site of an old mosque.
Monument
The balneario de Archena lies two kilometres from Archena, beside the río Segura, in a setting of eucalyptus, palm and lemon trees. Iberian settlements of the 5th century BC must already have used its waters, and the exploitation of baths there is attributed to the Romans; from the Middle Ages until the 19th century it belonged to the Orden de San Juan de Jerusalén. Between 1858 and 1878 it underwent its architectural transformation, with architect José María Aguilar y Vela and decorator Manuel Castaños, author of the star-shaped mocárabe dome around 1898; from that period date the eclectic Hotel Termas, with its Mozarabic interior, and the neo-Renaissance casino of 1878, along with the ermita de Nuestra Señora de la Salud. After a period of decline, it renewed its activity from the 1980s onward.
Monument
Church of Archena begun in the 18th century on the site of an old mosque, replacing an earlier 16th-century temple. It occupies a corner of the village, with no adjoining buildings, in a strategic spot overlooking the Segura valley and the old royal road. Its dedication to San Juan Bautista reflects Archena's historic allegiance to the Orden de San Juan, which held lordship over the town.
Monument
Renaissance building of the 15th century in Archena, built by the Orden de San Juan as a tercia house. In the 18th century it became the property of the Llamas family, and over time the building was transformed into the present town hall, seat of the municipal council.
Monument
Manor house of the late 19th century in Archena, today an interpretation centre for the Valle de Ricote since 2004. It was commissioned by the vizconde de Rías, on an estate surrounded by a park with abundant vegetation and palm trees, then on the outskirts of the village. The gardens accompanying the small palace now serve as a public park.
Nature
The Iberian necropolis of Cabezo del Tío Pío lies within the municipal boundary of Archena, settled since Iberian times. It gave rise to a type of pottery known as the Elche-Archena style, and among the pieces found is a notable Iberian oenochoe now kept in the Museo Arqueológico Nacional in Madrid.
Activity
Archena's men's patronal festivity around Corpus Christi, in a town that the Order of San Juan incorporated into the Encomienda de Calasparra and to which it granted a founding charter in 1462.
Monument
Archaeological remains of the baths built by the Romans beside the River Segura, in the grounds of the present-day spa, which show that these thermal waters have been used since antiquity.
Monument
The ermita de la Virgen de la Salud, today Santuario de Nuestra Señora de la Salud and patron saint of Archena (Murcia), is located within the grounds of the Balneario de Archena, a notable example of the 19th-century artistic atmosphere of the spa complex. It was the work of the architect José María Aguilar.
Activity
The Semana Santa of Archena brings together the set of acts, processions and brotherhoods the town has held during Lent and Holy Week for around 500 years; already in the 15th century there is record of the Domingo de Ramos procession, and in the 16th that of Jueves Santo was added, with penitents who walked the Way of the Cross. In the 18th century the cofradía de Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno was founded, the oldest of the current ones, and around that time the image of the Virgen de los Dolores was incorporated. Declared a Fiesta de Interés Turístico Regional in 1995, on the morning of Viernes Santo the Procesión del Encuentro Doloroso takes place, in which the images of San Juan, the Virgen de los Dolores and Nuestro Padre Jesús Nazareno meet in the plaza de España after leaving the iglesia de San Juan Bautista.
Activity
Archena's main festivities, in which the patron saint is carried in procession from the spa to the town, with the traditional Wine Float as one of the most popular events.
Activity
Held on the last weekend in June in honour of San Juan Bautista, the municipality's former patron saint when it belonged to the Order of St John of Jerusalem, and the dedicatee of the town's oldest parish church.
Curiosity
San Juan Bautista was Archena's first patron saint because of its links with the Order of Malta, but the great plague epidemic that swept the comarca around 1760 led the town to adopt San Roque, the traditional protector against epidemics, as its new patron.
Nature
A site excavated in 2001 opposite the La Capellanía industrial estate that documents a human presence in Archena going back more than four thousand years. The cave was used around 2300 BC, in the Copper Age, to bury a small community of some 23 individuals together with their grave goods.
Monument
A metal bridge in Archena whose construction, begun in 1933, was interrupted by the Civil War and which was finally opened on 19 November 1942, replacing a ferry boat that was constantly damaged by the river's floods.
Curiosity
Traces of the first fruit-canning factories set up in Archena at the beginning of the 20th century, when the apricot was the largest export product of the local canning industry.
Monument
A building of the Archena spa opened in 1868, with Arab-inspired decoration added around 1898 that includes a dome and, at the entrance to the thermal baths, a fountain that is a replica of the one in the Court of the Lions at the Alhambra.
Monument
A Neo-Renaissance building erected in 1878 by the Madrid architect José María Aguilar, who also designed the spa's Hotel Levante. Its lobby, imperial staircase and great ballroom, decorated by Manuel Castaños, stand out.
Activity
A stretch of about 19.5 km of the Vía Verde del Noroeste Nature Trail that runs on foot or by bicycle through the Ricote Valley from Archena, following the course of the Segura and old irrigation channels through Ulea and Ojós as far as the weir and Blanca.
Curiosity
The celebrated ceramic vessel decorated with Iberian warriors found in the necropolis of the Cabezo del Tío Pío in Archena, one of the best-known Iberian sites on the Peninsula. The original is kept at the National Archaeological Museum and a replica can be seen in the museum in Archena.
Historical milestone
Archena did not follow the fate of the rest of the valley: it was handed to the Order of Saint John and integrated into the commandery of Calasparra. The Hospitallers granted a carta puebla in 1462 to attract residents and sustained a lordship that lasted until the reforms of the 19th century.
Historical milestone
During the Civil War the Popular Army of the Republic installed in Archena, between 1936 and 1937, a school to train armored vehicle crews. It was directed by the Soviet colonel Semyon Krivoshein and the Spaniard Rafael Sánchez-Paredes, and from it came the first republican armored units.
Food and drink
Initiative promoted by Archena together with Abarán, Ricote and Ojós: every Thursday in July a different municipality offers in its restaurants a menu with its most representative dishes, from rice with rabbit to gachasmigas and the wheat stews of Morisco root.
Food and drink
Competition in which the bars and restaurants of the municipality compete with a tapa of their own creation, accompanied by dessert and cocktail sections. With more than ten editions held, it works as a showcase for the local cooking alongside the hospitality offering of the spa.