Village
Alguazas is a municipality in the Region of Murcia, in the Vega Media del Segura comarca, between the Segura and Mula rivers, with about 10,400 inhabitants. Its name comes from the Arabic Al Waza, 'the one in the middle', due to its position between the two watercourses, and the territory was inhabited from the Bronze Age, as shown by the burials at Loma de los Peregrinos. After the 13th-century Christian conquest it was granted to Queen Violante of Aragon, wife of Alfonso X, and until 1321 passed through other queens - Constanza of Aragon and María de Molina -, which earned it the nickname 'village of queens'; it achieved municipal independence in 1590. Under the ecclesiastical lordship of Cartagena, the Torre de los Moros fortress was restored in the 14th century, in the orchard by the Mula River.
Monument
Defensive tower of Alguazas (Vega Media del Segura, Murcia), also known as Torre Vieja or the Bishop's Tower, next to the hermitage of la Purísima. It was built in the early 12th century, during the period of Almohad rule, on an old Muslim cemetery, on the left bank of the Mula river, and was restored in the 14th century. It served as a watchtower to warn with smoke signals of incursions by Moors from Granada towards Murcia, as a refuge and ecclesiastical prison for bishops of the diocese of Cartagena, and as a military base; it was sacked and burned by Boabdil the Younger. Today its upper floors house a small ethnological museum of the huerta, while its ground floor hosts concerts and other social events.
Nature
The Los Torraos waterwheel, in the spot of the same name next to the Segura river, is one of the largest on the river and is unusual in that no wood was used in its construction: it was built in 1789 on the Acequia Mayor of Alguazas with a metal skeleton of zinc, sometimes alloyed with aluminium to prevent corrosion. It is eleven metres in diameter, with fourteen spokes and fifty-six buckets with curved blades that make better use of the force of the water. Remodelled several times, most recently in 2001, it remains in operation today, raising irrigation water.
Curiosity
Historic irrigation channel that waters the huertas of Archena, Alguazas, Ceutí and Las Torres de Cotillas, with remains of an old Islamic aqueduct over the River Mula in the pedanía of La Florida.
Monument
Temple begun in 1574 that combines a Mudéjar central nave with an apse end, a west end and a tower of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It preserves a sixteenth-century Mudéjar coffered ceiling and a Baroque pipe organ, and has been declared a Bien de Interés Cultural (Spain's highest level of heritage protection).
Monument
Tower of Almohad origin from the 12th century built over an old Muslim cemetery still preserved around it. Its upper floor houses a small ethnological museum.
Monument
A late 18th-century church located in the Purísima quarter of Alguazas (Vega Media del Segura, Murcia), to which it gives its name. It is the seat of the Virgin of the Purísima Concepción, patron saint of the quarter, whose image is venerated inside.
Curiosity
Emblematic relics of Alguazas' industrial past, linked to the canning industry boom that shaped the municipality's economy during the 20th century.
Activity
Principal festivals of Alguazas in honour of its patron saints Onuphrius and Anthony of Padua, held in June — Saint Onuphrius on the 12th and Saint Anthony of Padua on the 13th — with a procession, open-air dances, competitions, children's activities and fireworks.
Curiosity
The Loma de los Peregrinos is a site of collective burials from the Bronze Age, dated to around 2000 BC, located in the municipal district of Alguazas. It ranks among the oldest human settlements documented in the area, along with other sites from the period such as the flint workshop of the Cabezo de la Zobrina and the Campo del Alfarero.
Curiosity
An archaeological site in Alguazas linked to a flint-knapping workshop, dated to the Bronze Age, around 2000 BC. The Cabezo de la Zobrina, where it is located, is also the highest point in the municipal district, at 214 metres above sea level, situated next to the Embalse de los Rodeos reservoir, to the east of Alguazas.
Monument
Hermitage of the Carmen district of Alguazas, a recent remodeling of a small chapel enlarged with the adjoining house, which had belonged to the parents of Mateo Lisón. It is the starting point of the Holy Wednesday Way of the Cross.
Monument
Second-oldest religious monument in Alguazas after the parish church, located next to Calle Mayor. Devotion to the Purísima is documented since 1703; in 1796 the hermitage was even used as the main burial site. It was extended in 1850 with a sacristy and hermit's house, and restored in 1997.
Activity
A dance tradition of the Semana Santa of Alguazas, in which the images carried in procession 'dance' to the rhythm of the music.
Nature
A 186-metre rise located in the municipal district of Alguazas, next to the Carmen neighbourhood. It gives its name to the Monte Anaor state school, located in the centre of the town.
Historical milestone
The floods of the Segura and the Mula forced the residents to abandon the low-lying houses and to install themselves on a higher rise. On the new site the church of San Onofre was raised, built between 1529 and 1534, which fixed the layout of the present-day town.
Historical milestone
The townspeople gathered the money needed to buy from the Crown their own jurisdiction and free themselves from the lordship exercised by the see of Cartagena, a singular case in the Region of Murcia. From 1590 Alguazas figured as a behetría (community free to choose its lord), with a council elected by the inhabitants themselves.
Food and drink
The recipe repertoire that the town council itself recognises as local revolves around the huerta: fried tomato, pepper and aubergine, chard potage, zarangollo and rice with rabbit. For dessert, paparajotes made with leaves from the lemon trees of the municipal district.