Village
Ojós is a small municipality in the Ricote Valley, in Murcia, beyond the Solvente Narrows, at one of the most enclosed points of the valley, next to the Segura River and its old irrigated orchards. Under Muslim rule it was called Oxox, and in 1228 it witnessed the uprising of Ibn Hud against the Almohads, the origin of the third Taifa of Murcia; from 1285 it formed part of the Santiaguist commandery of the Ricote Valley. Its Mudejar population converted to Christianity in 1501, and the town separated from Ricote as an independent council in 1588. In 1613 almost all of its Morisco population was expelled, a blow from which it did not recover until the 18th century. It lives on citrus farming and is a Living Water Museum thanks to its hydraulic infrastructure of mills, irrigation channels and waterwheels. It has about 550 inhabitants.
Monument
The church of San Agustín de Ojós (Valle de Ricote, Murcia) is a mudéjar church built in 1505. Nothing survives of that original building: the present structure, rectangular in plan, is an 18th-century reconstruction. It preserves decorated wooden panels from the original organ and is partly attached to buildings in the centre of the village. It was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) on 30 May 2008.
Nature
The acequia de Ojós-Ulea, which draws its water from the río Segura, irrigates lemon and orange orchards and preserves a set of hydraulic devices forming the so-called Museo Vivo del Agua de Ojós: the Noria de la Rivera, the Noria de la Coya, a suspended footbridge for pedestrians and a cement bridge that serves as a gauging station.
Activity
The Fiestas de San Agustín de Ojós are the patronal festival of this municipality in the Valle de Ricote (Murcia), celebrated from 26 to 29 August in honour of San Agustín and the Virgen de la Cabeza. On the 27th, Santa Mónica, mother of San Agustín, is celebrated. The main day is 28 August, marked by the use of large quantities of gunpowder after the procession: this is when the Cohetada or Descarga de Ojós takes place, presented as the most important mixed mechanised night-time fireworks display in the world, in which close to a tonne of regulated pyrotechnic material is burned in barely seven or eight minutes. The festival is financed through municipal contributions and voluntary donations.
Monument
Ojós has several suspension footbridges over the River Segura, among them a Tibetan-style bridge 80 metres long opened in 2018 at El Solvente, which has become one of the municipality's main tourist attractions.
Monument
The azud de Ojós is a gravity concrete dam built between 1975 and 1978 on the río Segura, in the estrecho del Solvente, between the municipalities of Ojós and Blanca. It holds back the river's floods, forming the embalse de Ojós, and constitutes the main distribution hub of the Tajo-Segura water transfer, whose first waters arrived in 1979; the project dates back to the 1933 National Plan for Hydraulic Works and was resumed, after the Civil War, in 1966. The dam, with three spillway bays and four bottom outlets, was founded by means of a double screen of piles driven down to 17 metres to reach the rock. Today it supplies water to 2.5 million inhabitants of southeastern Spain, a key 20th-century infrastructure for the hydrography of the Region of Murcia and the water supply of the Valle de Ricote.
Curiosity
An old legend of the Valle de Ricote telling the tragic story of the daughter of the Santiago commander of Ricote, in love with a brave Christian officer in the time of the Reconquest, whose ending gave this spot in Ojós its name.
Nature
Viewpoint built on a crag from which you can look out over the village of Ojós, wedged between the mountain slopes and the orchards that line the River Segura.
Nature
Small reservoir close to the town of Ojós, whose waters and setting are one of the municipality's natural attractions.
Activity
The patron saint festivities of San Agustín and the Virgen de la Cabeza, in Ojós, are held from 26 to 29 August, with a procession of both images and a striking pyrotechnic display closing the festivities. On the 27th Santa Mónica, mother of San Agustín, is remembered, and the 28th is the main day: the processions of both patron saints converge around eleven at night on the old puente del Barranco, where the Cohetada is set off, a mechanised night-time discharge that its organisers present as the most important of its kind in the world, using close to a tonne of pyrotechnic material and lasting seven to eight minutes. It is organised by the town council, the Peña Cohetera de Ojós and the Pibierzo fireworks company.
Curiosity
Century-old tree marking the spot where the Morisco aljamas of the Valle de Ricote once gathered to take community decisions, today a living witness to that Morisco past.
Monument
A museum opened in December 2013 in an 18th-century mansion known as the Casa de la Inquisición, connected to the church of San Agustín in Ojós, displaying nativity scenes from different countries around the world.
Monument
A group of stone manor houses in the town of Ojós whose façades preserve the coats of arms of families such as the Massa and the Marín y Melgarejo, who held municipal office in the 17th and 18th centuries.
Activity
The firework display of the San Agustín festivities in Ojós, considered the most important mixed mechanised night-time descarga in the world, with close to a tonne of explosive material fired in seven or eight minutes.
Historical milestone
The infante Sancho, the future Sancho IV, ceded in 1281 Ricote and its valley to the Order of Santiago in payment for the support received against his father Alfonso X. Ojós was integrated into the Santiago commandery, a seigneurial regime that conditioned its municipal life until the 19th century.
Historical milestone
After the Valle de Ricote was handed over to the Order of Santiago in 1281, Ojós eventually separated from the town of Ricote and obtained its own council within the Santiago encomienda, which allowed it to appoint mayors and councilmen and set its own boundaries, although the lordship of the military order continued to weigh on the place's revenues.
Food and drink
Dry rice cooked in a paella pan with wild rabbit, snails and vegetables from the huerta, one of the most deeply rooted dishes of the municipality. It is made over a wood fire at the San Antón meals and at the pilgrimage festivals, and admits variants with pepper, tender garlic or pork rib.
Food and drink
The traditional pastries of Ojós bring together the bizcochos borrachos, soaked in wine and syrup, and the rollos de San Blas that are blessed at the beginning of February. Quince paste and the Easter sweets made in the town's bakeries complete the repertoire.