Mojacar

Mojácar is a city and a Spanish municipality in the province of Almería, in the autonomous community of Andalusia, located in the Levante Almería region and 90 km from the provincial capital, Almería. In 2021 it had a population of 7,257 inhabitants (INE).

Since January 2013, Mojácar has been part of the network of The Most Beautiful Towns in Spain.

Toponymy

As for the name of Murgis-Akra, it could be that the Greeks had given its name to some geographical feature on the coast (ακρα as a promontory, point or cape) but there are no archaeological remains or epigraphy on the existence of a Greek colony called Murgis-Akra.

In the 12th century Al Idrisi places Aqabat Saqar (Munt Saqar) in current Mojácar, which would later become Mujaqar.

Note that in the portulans of the XIV and XV Mojácar is identified with the name Morço.

As for the place name of Murgis, at the end of the 19th century the epigraphic and archaeological findings first made by the engineer Ricardo Sáenz de Santamaría in Cíavieja (El Ejido) represented confirmation that the Ibero-Roman population of Murgi cited by Ptolemy and Pliny was located in the Campo de Dalías.

Physical geography

Situation

The city of Mojácar is located in the eastern part of the province of Almería within the Levante Almeria region at an altitude of 152 m s. n. m. Its municipal area has an area of 72 km² and is bordered to the north by the municipalities of Garrucha and Vera, to the east by the Mediterranean Sea, to the south by the municipality of Carboneras and to the west by Turre.

Northwest: Vera	North: Vera	Northeast: Garrucha
West: Turre		This: Mediterranean Sea
Southwest: Carboneras	South: Carboneras	Sureste: Mediterranean Sea

Nature

Beaches

It has six blue flag beaches (2021): El Cantal, El Diseñodor, Lance Nuevo, Marina de la Torre, Piedra Villazar and Venta del Bancal-Ventanitas. In this way, together with Roquetas de Mar, it is the municipality with the largest number of beaches awarded with the blue flag in the province of Almería.

Seabeds of the Levante Almería

The Specially Protected Area of Importance for the Mediterranean (ZEIPIM) of the Levante Almeriense Seabed consists of a broad coastal strip 50 km long off the coast of Mojácar to Pulpí. It is characterized by the naturalness of its rich and diverse seabed, with an important presence of the largest oceanic Posidonia meadows in Andalusia and the existence of loggerhead sea turtles.

Sierra de Cabrera-Bédar

The Sierra de Cabrera is considered ZEC (Special Conservation Area), notable for the influence of its proximity to the coast. In the coastal areas, note the magnificent cornicals, rock and dune flora, as well as the endemic species of the Mojácar Immortelle (Limonium estevei).

History

Mojácar has been inhabited since ancient times, which is evident in numerous archaeological sites. There are testimonies of settlement in Cerro Cuartillas from the Neolithic and the culture of the thousands, whose findings were made by the archaeologist Luis Siret at the beginning of the century XX and are found in the Museum of Almería and in the National Archaeological Museum. At the Loma Belmonte site, testimonies of settlement of the Bell-shaped and Chalcolithic culture have been found, whose findings are found in the Archaeological Museum National.

There are also testimonies of settlements from the late imperial period (centuries III to V) when it belonged to the Roman province of Baetica. These are located around the Aguas River located in Alcudia, Las Pilas, in the town of Rumina and Cerro de la Nava. These rural settlements would be economically and politically articulated around Baria, the Roman municipality of Baetica. In the late Roman period (centuries V to VIII) some settlements are abandoned but settlement persists in Las Pilas and Alcudia and finds are located in the elevated Cerro del Picacho and the Mojácar Castle, which allow visual control of the entire Vera depression and the coastline.

From the 12th century Mojácar is close to the border of the Nasrid kingdom of Granada. Watchtowers and fortresses were built or reinforced along the border line and raids by both sides were common.

During the campaigns of the Granada War, Mojácar, Cantoria and Huércal were handed over on June 13, 1488. For their participation in the Granada War, the Catholic Monarchs granted various grants and lands as well as political positions to Diego López de Haro and Sotomayor, among them the distributor of the lands of Vera (1490) and Mojácar, which were royal, or the jurisdictional lordship of Sorbas and Lubrín (1502). The lands of the Marquisate of Carpio in Mojácar would continue in this lineage until the sale in the 19th century by the 15th Duke of Alba.

In the XVI and XVII the fear of the Barbary Corsican caused the population to wall itself off, just as happened in Almería or Vera. The church of Santa María (1560) was built on top of the mosque and also had defensive use.

According to the document from the National Library Vecindades de Andalucía, the city of Mojácar belonged to the district of Baza, which was the second largest in the Kingdom of Granada and in 1787 it had 2,654 inhabitants, belonged to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Bishopric of Almería and was attached to royalty.

In the middle of the 19th century, Mojácar began a new period of decline. State records reveal that several severe droughts caused this decline of the city, with subsequent emigration to northern Spain, Europe and South America. In 1848 the 15th Duke of Alba, Jacobo Fitz-James Stuart y Ventimiglia, sold his estates in Mojácar and Turre to the Veratense mining businessman Ramón Orozco. At the end of the XIX, in the heat of the mining operations of Sierra Almagrera (Cuevas del Almanzora) the Compagnie d´Aguilas, Sociedad Minera Anónima, put into operation in 1882 the mines of El Pinar (Bédar). This company already managed the Almagrera Drain and participated in railway and mining initiatives in the Mazarrón mining preserve. For the maritime transport of the mineral, the Bédar-Garrucha mining railway was built, which included, in addition to the railway tracks, overhead cables and hoppers. On the beach of the Cargador there was an unloading station and a masonry loading dock for transport from barges to ships, of which the hopper is preserved. In addition, on the beach of the Cargador there were warehouse buildings and the administrative building of the Marquis of Chávarri as well as a locomotive warehouse.

Since the second third of the XX century the lack of profitability of agricultural lands has led to emigration to industrial cities. from Spain and Europe. In the mid-1950s, the artist Jesús de Perceval linked the symbol of the indalo with Mojácar, leaving the indalo incorporated as a symbol of Almería by the artists of the Indaliano Movement, with wide national repercussion. In 1963, when Jacinto Alarcón Flores was mayor, the State acquired the land where in 1966 the Minister of Information and Tourism Manuel Fraga inaugurated the Parador de Mojácar on the Mojácar beach. Since the last third of the 20th century Mojácar has become a tourist town on the Costa de Almería. The urban development promoted by the mayor of Mojácar facilitated in some cases the interest in building as much as possible on the smallest possible land in Mojácar itself, putting at risk its picturesque character as a white Andalusian town, as happened with the construction of the Hotel Mojácar (1969).) and the Hotel El Moresco (1973) from the Spanish subsidiary of the John Laing Group.

Between November 1964 and February 1965, one of the most influential exhibitions of that time was held at the Museum of Modern Art in New York (MoMA): 'Architecture without Architects& #39; (Architecture without Architects). Its curator was the architect, critic and editor Bernard Rudofsky. Among all the images in the exhibition and catalog, two photographs taken by José Ortiz Echagüe stood out.

Demography

It has a population of 7,527 inhabitants (INE 2022).

Graphic of demographic evolution of Mojacar between 1842 and 2021

Population of law according to population censuses of the INE.Population in fact according to population censuses of the INE.

Main developments of foreigners in Mojácar (2022)

Country	Men	Women	Total	%	Proportion
United KingdomUnited Kingdom	1077	1136	2213	58.0%
Romania Romania	92	116	208	5.5%
ItalyItaly	100	67	167.	4.4%
France	69	76	145	3.8%
GermanyGermany	57	83	140	3.7%
Argentina	36	28	64	1.7%
Paraguay Paraguay	23	25	48	1.3%
MoroccoMorocco	21	16	37	0.9%
Russia Russia	11	26	37	0.9%
Venezuela Venezuela	13	22	35	0.9%
ChinaChina	15	19	34	0.8%
ColombiaColombia	11	22	33	0.8%
EcuadorEcuador	17	10	27	0.7 per cent
Ukraine Ukraine	7	15	22	0.5%
BrazilBrazil	8	13	21	0.5%
PakistanPakistan	13	8	21	0.5%
SenegalSenegal	9	12	21	0.5%
BulgariaBulgaria	7	12	19	0.4%
PolandPoland	4	12	16	0.4%
Portugal	7	5	12	0.3%
ChileChile	1	6	7	0.1%
Dominican RepublicDominican Republic	3	4	7	0.1%
CubaCuba	3	3	6	0.1%
Peru Peru	0	5	5	0.1%
AlgeriaAlgeria	1	1	2	0.05%
NigeriaNigeria	1	1	2	0.05%
Uruguay Uruguay	1	1	2	0.05%
BoliviaBolivia	1	0	1	0.02%

It has a population of 7,527 inhabitants (INE 2022). The population is concentrated in the city of Mojácar (1,586 inhabitants), 2.5 km from the sea, and in the new coastal developments, collectively designated as Mojácar Playa (4,959 inhabitants), which extend along a stretch 7.5 km of coastline.

Population distribution

The municipality is divided into the following population entities, according to the population gazetteer published by the INE (National Institute of Statistics). Population data refers to 2014.

Economy

Mojácar is a tourist town on the Costa de Almería. Point out more than 4000 hotel beds. It has several 4-star hotels from the Servigroup chains (Marina Playa and Marina Mar), Paradores de Turismo (Parador de Mojácar) and Alegría (Palacio Mojácar).

Evolution of municipal outstanding debt

The concept of outstanding debt contemplates only debts with savings banks and banks related to financial credits, fixed income securities and loans or credits transferred to third parties, therefore excluding commercial debt.

Graphic of evolution of the living debt of the City of Mojacar between 2008 and 2022

Living debt of the City Council, in thousands of euros, according to data from the Ministry of Finance and Public Service.

Infrastructure and equipment

Education

It is endowed with the Bartolomé Flores CEIP and the Rey Alabez Secondary Education Institute (IES). It also has an adult education center, the Murgis Akra.

Health

It is equipped with two medical offices, one in Mojácar and the other in Mojácar Playa. Its reference hospital is the La Inmaculada Hospital.

Culture

Since 1998, the Paul Beckett Poetry Prize organized by the Valparaíso Foundation has been held. Since 2011, the World Tunas Meeting has been held.

Heritage

The following are assets of cultural interest (BIC):

• Archaeological sites of Las Pilas - Mojácar la Vieja, Loma de Belmonte and Cerro Cuartillas.
• The defensive and surveillance buildings of Macenas Castle and the Watchtower of the Rock
• Church of Santa Maria of the CenturyXVI.

In addition, it is worth noting the numerous archaeological sites from the bronze and copper ages.

As a testimony to the mining and metallurgical activity of the 19th century that constitutes the Bédar - Garrucha mining railway, of which It preserves the unloading hopper and some remains of the auxiliary locomotive depot buildings, warehouses and the administrative building of the Marquis of Chávarri (1907), located on the beach of the Diseño.

Intangible heritage

The most important festivals in Mojácar are:

• Holy Week: Holy Thursday Procession of Jesus Nazarene through the streets of the old town. The most remarkable moment is the step under the old gate of the city in the Plaza del Caño; Good Friday: Procession of the meeting in the morning at the Square of the Caño and Procession of the Lord Christ at night.
• Romería de San Isidro on 15 May to the pedanía de El Sopalmo. Countryside food and Mass swept in the afternoon before return. It is celebrated next Sunday to May 15.
• Feast of Moors and Christians: weekend in which the peaceful capitulation of the Muslim Mojacar is reminiscent of the troops of the Catholic Kings. Night party in the old helmet divided by all the squares of the same. On Friday night, the pacts that allowed Mojacar to continue living their Arab colonizers, of Muslim religion, are remembered. On Saturday great disembarkation, and on Sunday afternoon great gala parade. Activities throughout the weekend in Mojácar and Mojácar Playa. The weekend is held closer to 12 June (date of the capitulations of the city).
• Night of the Sails on August 8.
• Festivities in honour of St. Augustine: Festivities held at the end of the month of August, on the dates closest to the 28th of the month. It is impossible not to miss the traditional cumshot of ribbons on horseback in which women in "age of deserving"—sunners—place their ribbons and the people's mozos gather them under them with horses even to the gallop.
• Day of Our Lady of the Rosary: Patron of the town.
• Christmas: the highlight of the above-mentioned festivals, due to its inclusive character and which has been celebrated for several years, is the traditional trade of "the nine readings and villancicos" (nine lessons and carols), which is celebrated together with the Anglican community residing in the municipality.

Sports

In Mojácar Playa there is the Club Marina Golf golf course designed by Ramón Espinosa. In addition, in Mojácar there is the Rey Alabez pavilion and the indoor pool, the Ciudad de Mojácar Soccer field,

Twinning

• Encamp, Andorra
• Peñíscola, Spain