Village
Blanca is a municipality in the Vega Alta del Segura, in the Region of Murcia, located in the Ricote Valley at 147 metres above sea level, with 6,882 inhabitants (INE 2025). For more than three hundred years it has held a famous bull-running (encierro). The earliest traces of population date from an Iberian settlement of the 5th-2nd centuries BC at Loma de La Tendida; in Muslim times it was an alquería with a fortress or hisn, and after the Christian conquest it passed to the Order of Santiago in 1285 under the name Negra. That name changed to the current one, Blanca, between 1353 and 1362, through the influence of Doña Blanca de Borbón, queen of Castile, abandoned by King Peter I and defended by the Order of Santiago.
Monument
Fortress of the 11th and 12th centuries built on the Peña Negra as a lookout for the defence of the Valle de Ricote, with a large hollow central tower. After the Reconquest it became a symbol of the seigneurial power of the Order of Santiago.
Monument
Church built on the foundations of a former Mudéjar mosque, designed in the 16th century with Renaissance solutions and rebuilt in the late 18th century by the stonemasons Lucas and Antonio de Lastra.
Monument
Building designed by the architect Martín Lejarraga beside the River Segura as it passes through Blanca, home to the Pedro Cano Foundation created in 2008, which brings together works by the Blanca-born painter and a collection of some two thousand drawings.
Nature
Rocky outcrop of volcanic origin, of ophitic composition, on which much of the town of Blanca and the remains of its Arab castle stand. A viewpoint at its summit looks out over the Segura valley.
Nature
Outstanding vantage point over the Segura floodplain and the ramblas running down towards the Ojós reservoir, one of Blanca's main scenic attractions.
Curiosity
The municipality preserves dwellings cut into the rock more than three hundred years old, such as the one known as Calblanca, evidence of the traditional cave architecture of the Valle de Ricote.
Activity
The patron saint festivities of San Roque de Blanca are held in August with religious acts, open-air dances and activities for all audiences, and are especially known for the bull run, a tradition going back more than three hundred years. The town also dedicates a week of festivities to its patron saint after Holy Week: on the Friday following Good Friday, the image of San Roque is carried in pilgrimage to his hermitage, near the N-301 road, where families and friends spend the day in the countryside before the afternoon procession brings the saint back to the town.
Monument
Bullring of Blanca, in the Vega Alta del Segura (Murcia), the final point of the traditional encierro during the fiestas of San Roque. This bullfighting event, held for more than three hundred years, has been declared of Interés Turístico Regional (a regional-level tourism designation in Spain).
Activity
Bull run in Blanca, a tradition more than three hundred years old and declared of Regional Tourist Interest, along a course of some 800 metres from Calle Barrio Nuevo to the bullring, by way of the church square.
Monument
17th-century hermitage in Blanca (Vega Alta del Segura, Murcia), dedicated to San Roque, patron saint of the municipality, standing beside the N-301 road. On the Friday after Good Friday a pilgrimage is held in which the patron saint's image is carried to the hermitage. In August, during the fair held in his honour, a traditional encierro takes place, declared of Interés Turístico Regional (a regional-level tourism designation in Spain), which has been run for more than three hundred years and is described as a unique event in the Region of Murcia, enlivened by the dances and street parades of the charangas.
Nature
A mountain range reaching 554 metres in altitude beside the town of Blanca, in the surroundings of the Valle de Ricote. It closes off the municipality to the north and has rugged terrain, crossed by numerous rambles and gullies typical of this semi-arid landscape of the valle del Segura.
Nature
A bathing area laid out on a still stretch of the River Segura as it passes through Blanca, popular in the summer months.
Nature
A viewpoint over the Segura valley and the town of Blanca, one of the municipality's panoramic spots.
Nature
A recreational area laid out around the traditional quarter of cave houses dug into the rock in Blanca.
Monument
A museum devoted to the importance of the River Segura for Blanca, from traditional irrigation systems to hydroelectric power.
Monument
The historic theatre of the municipality of Blanca, used as a cinema and as a performing arts venue.
Monument
An eclectic-style country house built in the 19th century among the orchards of Blanca by Caridad Despujol y Rigalt, first Countess of Montornés, as a summer residence.
Monument
A traditional waterwheel whose origins go back to the 17th century, restored in 2002 and an example of the historic irrigation system of the Ricote Valley in Blanca.
Monument
The first public centre in Spain devoted exclusively to promoting video art, housed in two restored vernacular dwellings in the old town of Blanca.
Activity
Patronal festivities of the Alto del Palomo neighbourhood in Blanca, held in late June in honour of San Pedro.
Activity
Patronal fiestas of the barrio de la Estación de Blanca, a hamlet that grew up around the former Blanca-Abarán railway station, now disused, on the Chinchilla-Cartagena railway line. They are held on 12 October in honour of the Virgen del Pilar, with a procession and a gathering of giants and big-heads.
Nature
A small diversion weir on the River Segura as it passes through Blanca, historically used to irrigate the huerta.
Historical milestone
The place appeared in medieval documentation as Negra and came to be called Blanca in the middle of the 14th century, a change usually related to Queen Blanca de Borbón. The new form already figures in a stable way in the documents of 1382.
Historical milestone
By royal privilege of 10 September 1591, Felipe II raised the place to the category of villa with its own jurisdiction. The measure allowed the residents to appoint a council and to separate from the administrative tutelage exercised by other towns of the valley.
Historical milestone
The Order of Santiago held seigneurial rights over the villa from the 13th century, and they were not definitively extinguished until the middle of the 19th century. The process liquidated revenues, tithes and appointments that had conditioned local life for almost six hundred years.
Historical milestone
During the First Republic, in 1873, the cantonal movement that arose in Cartagena found an echo among the people of Blanca, who joined the insurrection. The episode reflects the deep roots of federal republicanism in the villages of the Segura plain.
Food and drink
Gastronomic gathering held in Blanca with displays of the comarca's products, cookery workshops and live preparations. It serves as a showcase for recipes shared by the towns of the valley, such as the rice with rabbit and snails made in a paella pan over a wood fire.
Food and drink
The winter cooking of Blanca revolves around pot and pan dishes: the empedrao of rice with beans, the atascaburras of potato and salt cod, the encebollado and the gachasmigas. On the sweet table appear the Easter cakes and the paparajotes.