Mula

Situated in its fertile valley some 30 miles from Murcia the town of Mula offers the visitor aged palaces and monuments displaying the wealth that the Marquis de los Vélez invested in safeguarding his position against the local populace when he erected his imposing castle, a magnificent 16th-century construction dominating the plain below and which gives he impression of having simply emerged from the very rocky outcrop on which it perches.

The town itself has a great deal of charm spreading out as it does from around the Plaza Mayor, in which the church of San Miguel is of note. Among the steep and winding lanes of the old quarter, in the upper part of the town is the church of Santo Domingo, with its renaissance façade and Baroque interior, and also one of the region¿s finest examples of monastic architecture , the Real Monasterio de la Encarnación. Evidence of human presence in Mula goes back to the Neolithic with finds from the Argar period and Iberian artefacts, now housed in the Museum of Iberian Art in Cigarralejo, one of the best in dealing with the Spanish Iron Age and situated in the Palacio de Menahermosa.

Five kilometres outside the town in an idyllic setting are the famous spa baths, in use since Roman times, as well as through the Moorish period. These baths are highly acclaimed for aiding those suffering from rheumatic problems.