Leisure and free time
Many new activities are being developed for the visitor to enjoy in this area.
Activities to suit different ages and interests that include sport, fairs, festivals, concerts, cinema, conferences, theatre, exhibitions and many others added to which is the possibility of the visitor enjoying themselves in the hills.
For lovers of sport the choice of activity is great; canoeing, speleology, scaling, climbing, paragliding hang gliding, orienteering… a variety of disciplines across the area. In the Cierva Reservoir there is regional competition fishing and the heats of the Spanish National Championships for Subaqueous Orientation.
Interesting cultural opportunities abound; form studying the past in the archives in each municipality, examining information held in the magnificent reading rooms and libraries in the different Houses of Culture. The pretty theatres of Trieta de Moratalla, Thuiller of Caravaca and the auditorium in Calasparra all have a years programme planned, where activities like drama, cinema, exhibitions and conferences are organised. The specially organised thematic weeks are especially attractive.
In Mula we have to stress the Week of Spanish Cinema and the National Short Films Festival, celebrated in December, Theatre Meeting City held in September and the programming of Theatre Lope de Vega, included in the Regional Network of Theatres. The exhibition Hall of Mula displays examples of sculpture and other crafts.
The region has several geology museums located at; the Centre of Interpretation of the Nature of Las Fuentes del Marques in Caravaca; archaeological museums like the one in the Church of the Soltude, in Caravaca, in Cehegín in the old City Council and the one at Calasparra in the Encomienda building; ethnicological museums, in the Molinco at Calasparra; and in Caravaca housed in he Comprehensive School of San Juan de la Cruz, where the development of tools used by man in the past can be seen.
In Cehegín there is the personal collection of the Duke of Ahumada, an interesting collection, that includes examples covering ethnology and works of art.
And then there are the museums of Sacred Art and History, paintings, sculptures, vestments and religious ornaments. These are housed at; the Church of the Asuncon in Moratalla, the Church of Santa Maria Magdalena de Cehegín and the one at the Vera Cruz in Caravaca that, with the Museum of the Celebration have clothes and armaments of Moors and Christian era along with the embroideries of the “wine horses”.
In Mula, the Cigarralejo Museum is located in the Palace of the Marques de Menahermosa and has ten rooms where the best collection of Iberian Culture is exhibited. The Parish of San Miguel has the second most important collection of pictures in the region. The collection dates from 16th century to the present and is at the moment being restored. Some of the works can be visited in the small museum of this Parish.
At the Archaeological remains of Los Villaricos visitors can see the remains of a Roman House that includes the baths and oil mill.
In September the main music event takes place in Mula, “The Festival of the Sun”. It is of several days duration, thousands of people and outstanding groups of national and international reputation attend. It also has running parallel to the main events other cultural activities. Two other major festivals take place in Mula, the International Festivals of Folklore, March and May respectively.
