Village
Cieza is a municipality and city in the Region of Murcia, capital and seat of the judicial district of the Vega Alta del Segura comarca. With more than 35,500 inhabitants it is the tenth most populous municipality in the community. It sits at the confluence of the Segura River valley and that of the Rambla del Judío. It preserves a rich archaeological heritage from different periods - cave paintings, Iberian settlements, Roman remains and the Muslim site of Siyasa, on the slope of the castle and displayed in the city museum - besides its Holy Week and San Bartolomé festivities. Following the arrival of the Tajo-Segura water transfer, its orchards of stone fruit, famous for their spring blossom, are today the municipality's main source of wealth.
Monument
The basílica de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción is Cieza's main church, with an octagonal bell tower and interior paintings by Rafael Ximeno and Ignacio Pinazo. It was built in the 18th century on the site of an old parish church of Santa María, enlarged from 1703, when it took the name of la Asunción, at a time of economic growth in the town following its support for Philip V in the War of the Spanish Succession. Its main facade is baroque, while the interior is closer to the Herrerian style, with three naves and chapels showing Renaissance influence. After a fire in the 19th century, the architect José Marín Baldo built the present tower in 1873, in a historicist style, topped with an octagonal body. The church, with twelve altars, was declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) on 20 October 2000.
Monument
Former medieval tower in Cieza turned into a church in the 18th century, which houses the city's patron saint and has a viewpoint known as 'el conjuratorio'.
Nature
Muslim settlement of the 11th to 13th centuries on the slope below Cieza castle, with two full-size reconstructions of medieval Islamic houses, one of only two museums of its kind in the world along with the one in Cairo.
Nature
A protected natural area on the upper course of the río Segura, between the municipal areas of Cieza and Calasparra, with vertical walls that in places exceed a hundred metres in height. Covering 116 hectares, it is home to wildlife such as the otter, the Spanish pond turtle or the increasingly scarce Bonelli's eagle, listed as endangered in the Región de Murcia, along with vegetation of tamarisk, oleander and poplar. Its walls preserve two sites with rock art, the Cueva de los Monigotes and the cave-sinkhole of La Serreta, with remains from the Chalcolithic and Ibero-Roman periods, declared a World Heritage Site by Unesco in 1999. It is reached from Cieza via the RM-532 road to the Almadenes hydroelectric plant, from where a walking route sets off through the gorge.
Nature
The Barranco de los Grajos, in Cieza, brings together several rock shelters with prehistoric rock art included in the Catálogo de Arte Rupestre del Arco Mediterráneo, and for that reason declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. Next to it is the Cueva de la Serreta, with views over the Cañón de Almadenes, which holds the remains of a Roman villa, the only one found to date inside a cave anywhere on the Iberian Peninsula.
Activity
Historical re-enactment in Cieza commemorating the Moorish incursion of 6 April 1477, when the troops of Abu-l-Hassan Alí (Muley Hacén), king of Granada, attacked the town. Since 2010 it has been held on the second-to-last weekend of April, organized by the Brotherhood of San Bartolomé and the Ermita de San Bartolomé cultural association. Six Christian companies and eight Moorish tribes take part; the central act, La Invasión, re-enacts the assault and ends on Sunday morning with the handover of hostages. Unlike most Moors and Christians festivals in Spain, here the Moorish side wins, as recalled in the motto on the Cieza coat of arms: “Por pasar la puente nos dieron la muerte”.
Activity
Olive stone spitting competition in Cieza, started in 1995 and drawing more than 20,000 spectators.
Activity
Holy Week in Cieza (Region of Murcia), more than 600 years old and the town's most popular event with visitors. It was declared of Regional Tourist Interest in 1993, of National Tourist Interest in 2011 following an unprecedented citizens' movement, and of International Tourist Interest on 23 March 2023. Its processions are notable for following the chronological order of the biblical narrative. The city's eighteen brotherhoods organize parades involving more than 5,000 people, with a total of 43 processional floats, most of them carvings by renowned sculptors such as José Capuz, Romero Zafra, Álvarez Duarte and José Planes, as well as local sculptor Manuel Juan Carrillo. It also has its own musical repertoire, with pieces by the Cieza-born composer José Gómez Villa.
Monument
Islamic city-state of the 11th century on the Cerro del Castillo, the political capital (madina siyasa) of the Cora de Tudmir, with some 750 houses and around 4,000 inhabitants at its height. It is one of the best preserved and best presented Islamic sites in Europe, with full-scale reconstructions of its original structures.
Nature
Cavity hanging on the left wall of the Almadenes canyon, discovered by cavers in 1972, with Levantine and schematic rock paintings declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1998 as part of the Rock Art of the Mediterranean Basin.
Monument
The convent of San Joaquín y San Pascual, in Cieza (Region of Murcia), is a complex of Discalced Franciscans from the late 17th century, built from 1685 onwards on the site of the hermitage of San Sebastián, outside the city walls, to put an end to the rivalry that divided the population into factions. The works were carried out by the friars themselves, and the complex, with a single-nave church and a two-storey cloister with five semicircular arches per side, was inaugurated in 1699. Disentailed in 1836 and transferred to the Town Council in 1839, it later served as a barracks for the Civil Guard, a school, an old people's home and a maternity clinic. Declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection) in 2000, today the church is the parish seat, while the area around the cloister houses the municipal library.
Monument
Church raised on the Cabezo de las Horcas around 1612, following the legend of a team of oxen that refused to go any further with the image of Christ. The present neo-Gothic building was completed in 1879 after the original hermitage was pulled down.
Nature
Area of gullies or 'badlands' in the Cieza countryside, an almost lunar landscape shaped by torrential rain eroding soft rock, crossed by walking routes with a viewpoint known as the Alto del Solvente.
Activity
The work of architect Julio Carrilero, the food market was built between 1927 and 1929 on Plaza de España in Cieza, as an example of early 20th-century commercial architecture in the town, with modernist ornamental elements based on plasterwork. It was raised at a time of great economic boom for the town, driven by the esparto and food industries, which by the late 1930s led Cieza to surpass several Spanish provincial capitals in population.
Nature
The Ibero-Roman settlement of Bolvax and the Argaric necropolis of the Cerro de las Beatas form part of the extensive archaeological heritage of the Cieza district, which documents continuous human occupation over more than 40,000 years.
Curiosity
One of the busiest roads in the south-east of the peninsula in Roman times ran through the district of Cieza, linking Carthago Nova with Complutum. A milestone from the time of the emperor Trajan found near the town attests to its use.
Curiosity
The largest pedanía of Cieza, with more than 700 inhabitants, which came into being in the late 1960s at the initiative of a farming company that sank wells to bring the area under irrigation and to house its workers.
Activity
A landscape and tourist phenomenon in which some 13,000 hectares of peach, plum and apricot trees in the Segura valley are covered in pink and white blossom, with viewpoints and routes laid out for touring the fields in bloom.
Activity
Fair and patronal festivals of Cieza in honour of its patron, Saint Bartholomew, with a central procession on 15 August and an extensive fairground programme that runs through the rest of the month; they coincide with the peach harvest season.
Monument
Islamic citadel on a crag of the castle hill, at about 500 metres above sea level, the most inaccessible part of ancient Siyâsa, which controlled the crossing of the River Segura and the surrounding roads.
Nature
The Sierra de Ascoy rises beside the Cieza hamlet of the same name, three kilometres north of Cieza, in an area that became an irrigated farming centre in the late 1960s thanks to the sinking of water wells. On its slopes, the Region of Murcia's first wind farm was installed in December 1998, made up of nine wind turbines with a combined output of 660 kW.
Nature
Emblematic viewpoint in Cieza of great scenic and historical value, near the Los Cuchillos rock art site, declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
Curiosity
On the slope below Cieza castle many remains of Arab decorative architecture have been found, with finely decorated arches, polychrome pottery, glass and metalwork from ancient Siyâsa.
Monument
The convent of the Poor Clares of the Inmaculada Concepción, on the calle Mesones in Cieza, was founded in 1750 by Matías Marín-Blázquez; the first nuns came from the monastery of the Encarnación in Mula. In later years extension work was carried out, soon insufficient for the high number of nuns who had entered. The convent and its church form an 18th-century Baroque work arranged around a square courtyard of notable architectural quality. Within its cloister are kept paintings, sculptures and objects by various artists, a heritage of religious imagery linked to the Holy Week of Cieza.
Monument
Town viewpoint built on the remains of Cieza's old fortress and wall, with views over the old town and the Segura floodplain.
Monument
A religious arch from the late 18th or 19th century, raised because of a cholera epidemic, with a niche dedicated to the Virgin. It marks the entrance to the callejón de la Virgencica from the calle Larga in Cieza, and its glass-fronted niche shows the image of the Virgin that gives its name to the arch and the alley. It belongs to the custom of placing images of saints at various points around the village to protect residents from epidemics; of all those arches it is the only one to have survived to the present day, although a couple of new arches with similar glass cases have recently been built in nearby alleys.
Monument
Former noble house of the early 18th century with a polychrome façade, wrought iron balconies and coats of arms, restored as the home of the Maestro Gómez Villa conservatory.
Monument
The Museo de Siyâsa, housed in the building of the former Casino de Cieza (1912) in the town centre, displays finds from the Andalusi site of Hisn Siyâsa, also called Medina Siyâsa, on the top of the nearby cerro del Castillo, on the banks of the río Segura. This settlement, developed between the mid-12th and early 13th centuries, came to have 4,000 inhabitants and 787 dwellings with large cisterns, and was protected by two walled enclosures, the albacar and the celoquía, as well as a cemetery with graves facing Mecca. After passing to the Crown of Castile in 1243, the Mudejar revolt of 1266 led to the hill being abandoned in favour of what is now the town centre of Cieza, in the vega del Segura. The museum recreates, with original elements, two full-size dwellings, and one of its porticoes was displayed at the Seville Expo in 1992.
Monument
Museum devoted to the processional heritage of the Holy Week brotherhoods of Cieza (Region of Murcia), a festival more than 600 years old that was declared of Interés Turístico Regional in 1993, Nacional in 2011 and, finally, Internacional on 23 March 2023 (regional, national and international-level tourism designations in Spain, respectively). Its processions are known for following the chronological order of the biblical account and bring together the locality's 18 brotherhoods, with a total of 43 pasos, most of them carvings by recognised sculptors such as José Capuz, Romero Zafra, Álvarez Duarte or the Cieza-born sculptor Manuel Juan Carrillo. Several sources put at more than 5,000 the number of people who take part each year in the processions organised by the brotherhoods.
Monument
Former flour mill of 1507, in the Estrecho area and fed by the Andelma irrigation channel, restored as an ethnographic museum of traditional milling.
Monument
Museum space complementing Cieza's Esparto Museum, explaining the esparto industry, a craft and industrial activity that shaped the local economy for generations.
Monument
Cinema and theatre hall in Cieza (Vega Alta del Segura, Murcia) opened in 1955, which at the time was the largest-capacity theatre in the province of Murcia. The original building was demolished and rebuilt in the early 2010s, and the new Teatro Capitol, restored as a municipal cultural venue, was opened by Queen Sofía in 2013.
Monument
Railway station located at kilometre point 393.4 of the line linking Chinchilla with Cartagena, today with no passenger service. It opened on 8 October 1864 with the entry into service of the Murcia-Cieza section, as part of the project to extend the Madrid-Alicante line to Murcia and Cartagena, with works carried out by the MZA company; it gave its name to the barrio de la Estación de Cieza. In 1941, with the nationalisation of the rail network, it came under the management of RENFE, and since 2004 Renfe Operadora has operated the line while Adif owns the facilities. The section is single-track and not electrified.
Nature
The Mirador de El Olmico is one of the viewpoints set up around Cieza (Vega Alta del Segura) for watching the blossoming of the fruit trees in the vega del Segura, between the second half of February and the end of March, when the Cieza market gardens offer a landscape marked by their flowers. During those dates the comarca organises activities linked to the blossoming, such as hiking routes, descents on the río Segura, poetry recitals, concerts, photography contests, talks and exhibitions.
Nature
An observation point overlooking the huerta of Cieza, especially popular during the February and March blossom season.
Nature
A panoramic viewpoint over the terraced fruit orchards of Cieza, one of the three official viewpoints on the Blossom Route.
Nature
A tributary watercourse that marks part of the boundary of Cieza, Murcia. After the severe floods the area suffered, as early as October 1948 plans began to be considered for building a flood-control dam along its bed, a work completed in 1995 that has since been essential for protecting the town of Cieza.
Activity
The feast of San Antón, in honour of San Antonio Abad, is held on 17 January and is one of the most typical and distinctive in Cieza (Vega Alta del Segura, Murcia): bonfires that bring residents together are lit in every neighbourhood. The bonfire in the plaza Nueva, also called plaza de los Carros, stands out in particular, drawing the largest crowds and hosting the traditional Quema de la Vieja that has been held there for years, carried out by several residents and accompanied by fireworks.
Activity
Popular festival of Cieza held on 3 May, one of the most notable days on the local calendar, with crosses decorated at various points around the town. Its central act is the procession of the Santísimo Cristo del Consuelo, which leaves the church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción for its hermitage accompanied by the townspeople.
Activity
Festival Internacional de Folclore en el Segura, organised by the Grupo de Coros y Danzas de Cieza (Murcia) on the weekend before the fair in honour of San Bartolomé; in 2012 it celebrated its twenty-fifth edition. Folk groups from several countries take part every year, displaying traditional dance, song and craftwork. On Friday a craft market is set up with outdoor performances; on Saturday there is a street parade, a flag-raising and performances at the Gabriel Celaya auditorium; on Sunday, the groups perform in other towns of the comarca.
Activity
Ethnographic celebration held in November by the peña huertana El Caracol cultural association, which revives traditional trades, customs and cuisine from the Cieza market gardens. The programme includes craft displays, ethnographic exhibitions and oral-tradition sessions. In recent years its musical side, the Cieza Caracol Folk, has gained prominence, with performances by artists such as Manuel Luna.
Activity
Open-air summer film season organised by the Club Atalaya in its courtyard, with screenings of arthouse cinema, animation and silent films with live music.
Curiosity
Besides Ascoy, the municipal district of Cieza is organised into the outlying villages of Barratera, Bolvax, Canadillo, Fuensantilla, Ginete, Horno, Maripinar, La Parra, Perdiguera and Las Ramblas, each with its own local representative.
Activity
A popular canoeing race covering some 12 kilometres of the River Segura between Cieza and the Jarral dam in Abarán, passing through Blanca.
Historical milestone
After the Mudejar rising of the kingdom of Murcia and the intervention of the Aragonese troops of James I, between 1264 and 1266, the settlement on the castle slope was left deserted. Its inhabitants came down to the Segura plain, beside the present Balcón del Muro, where the Christian core of the town was born.
Historical milestone
Alfonso X, who reigned between 1252 and 1284, handed over Cieza to Pedro Núñez, Master of the Order of Santiago, in exchange for Abaniella, present-day Abanilla. The exchange brought Cieza under Santiago rule and explains the later construction of the Casa de la Encomienda in the center of the village.
Historical milestone
Troops of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada stormed the town on Easter Sunday 1477, killed part of the inhabitants and carried off the rest as captives. Cieza was left deserted and had to be resettled with people from Jumilla; from that blow comes the motto "Por pasar la puente nos dieron la muerte".
Historical milestone
Alfonso XIII, who reigned between 1886 and 1931, granted Cieza the title of city and its town council the honorific 'excelentísimo', in recognition of the demographic and industrial growth of the town, which in those years had a larger population than several Spanish provincial capitals.
Historical milestone
For much of the 20th century, esparto grass gathered in the hills around Cieza sustained workshops making pleita (woven mats), cordage and footwear that employed much of the local population, until the arrival of synthetic fibers sank the sector, later replaced by canning and export fruit.
Food and drink
Fair held in March, coinciding with the blossoming of the fruit trees, in the Príncipe de Asturias park. It brings together close to thirty restaurants and companies of the sector in tastings, talks, live demonstrations and samplings of tapas made with local produce.
Food and drink
Table olive variety proper to the municipal district, with fleshy pulp that comes away easily from the stone and a marked, bitter flavour. It is dressed in brine with fennel and garlic, and is the protagonist of the summer stone-throwing contest.
Food and drink
The irrigated land of the municipal district is largely given over to the peach, the nectarine and the flat peach, with staggered harvests that supply the European markets from spring onwards. The harvest marks the local calendar and ends with the August fair.
Food and drink
The pastries of Cieza have in the trenza their best-known piece: puff pastry filled with egg yolk cream, macerated raisins, walnuts and peaches from the municipal district. They are accompanied by the orange rings and the tortas de pan dormido, made in the traditional bakeries of the municipality.