Mula, Spain

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Mula, Spain
View of Mula
Country:	Spain
Autonomous Community:	Murcia
Province:	Murcia

Mula is a municipality in the northeast of the autonomous community of Murcia in Spain, with approximately 16,000 inhabitants (2005, INE figures).

It is best-known for the tamborradas (drumming processions) made during the Holy Week, which in southern Spain are traditional of a region formed by Mula, Moratalla, Hellín and Tobarra.

[edit] Geography

[edit] Districts and Neighborhoods

The neighborhoods of Mula include Fuente Librilla, Yechar, Los Baños De Mula, Puebla De Mula y Casas Nuevas.

[edit] Municipal Limits

Mula is bounded by:

• Calasparra, Cieza and Ricote to the North
• Ricote, Campos del Río, Albudeite, Alcantarilla and Murcia to the East
• Librilla, Alhama de Murcia and Totana to the South
• Bullas, Cehegín and Lorca to the West
• Pliego surrounds Mula completely.

[edit] Economy

The economy of Mula is sustained mainly by agricultural and ranching operations. The manufacturing industry in Mula focuses on the food and beverage sectors.

Currently, work on the first phase of the industrial zone, called "El Arreaque," has begun, located along the Mula-Yechar highway.

[edit] Government

The Vice Mayor en Mula is from Izquierda Unida Jose Luis Alvarez Castellanos Rubio

[edit] Demographics

Demographic Change of Mula (in green) compared to the entire district.

This graph shows the changes in the population of Mula from 1900 to 2005.

[edit] Monuments of Mula

[edit] Religious Monuments

Saint Michael's church (la Parroquia de San Miguel) is located in Mula's City Hall Square (La Plaza del ayuntamiento de Mula). With its two towers, including a clock tower, it forms a large monumental complex that often serves as the representation of the municipality.

The destruction of this church during the Spanish Civil War was extensive; only the entraceway was saved. The rest of the decorative paintings and sculptures were completely destroyed. It is known that the canopy of the old altar shared the Baroque flavor of the paintings on the walls, and was quite tall for its era. The church contains several very important chapels. To the right, the Chapel of Marquess Vélez, and to the left, the Chapel ofSan Felipe. The latter chapel contains relics of the saint brought from Sicily by Marchioness Vélez in 1648. The alterpieces of these chapels were created by the artist Aralafe Ángel Moreno Rubio. The portrait of San Felipe, made by Anastasio Martinez, dates back to the end of the nineteenth century. The carvings of the church were made by Vicente Benedicto of Valencia, of San Miguel, the patron saint, San Felipe (based on a painting in the parish's collection), and San Expedito. By Sánchez Lozano the church has San José (the child from before the war) and the Virgen of Dolores de Francisco. The church also has San Pedro, a work by P. Gomara. Many works, such as "Christ on the Cross," were obtained through the personal donations of the family of Pérez de los Cobos.

This church has a museum of painting brought into existence by a donation from Doña Pilar de la Canal, widow of Don Pedro Luis Blaya, in 1940. Theirs was a family with a fondness for buying works of art and donating them to outside causes, such as decorating the church after the desolation of the Spanish Civil War. The church contains works from the sixteenth century to the twentieth century. Paintings from France, Holland, and Mexico are found, among others, along with works in wood, canvas, copper, and glass. The paintings vary in medium and theme, from the religious to the mythological. Among the most widely-featured painters are Ribera, Mengs, and Juanquin Campos. All of their paintings and those of the other artists are now in a parochial museum founded in the 1950s by Father Esteban Monreal y Monreal.

[edit] Secular Monuments

[edit] Castle of the Velez Family

The first thing that attracts the attention of a visitor to Mula is the castle that watches over the daily lives of the city's inhabitants from above. The passage of time has left numerous traces in this emblematic construction built not to protect the people but to subject them.

There are many documented sources that tell of the castle. Emilio Molina, in his "Aproximación al estudio de Mula islámica" references the famous traveler of the twelfth century, Al-Idrisi, who writes of the existence of a fortress in Mula. Alfonso X makes reference to the fortress and writes, "Mula, is a well-located and well-fortified village, and its castle rises high and strong [above the city]." According to the study of Don Juan González Castaño, the fortress in the fifteenth centry had a massive wall to the North. The first wall protected the cisterns of the city, while the second watched over the city's two parishes recently converted to Christianity. These walls still remain a fundamental part of the castle.

The great-grandson of Alonso Yáñez Fajardo, Don Pedro Fajardo (Adelantado-Mayor del Reino de Murcia y Marqués de Los Vélez) was humiliated when in 1520, the vocal citizens of Mula made him swear to respect the privileges that Ferdinand III of Castile gave to the village. In this way the dispute against the marquess over the municipal government council began. The marquess pre-empted the situation with the construction of his fortress to make his rule over the people of Mula assured.

[edit] Construction of the Castle

Before the construction of the castle, the marquess encountered two fundamental problems. One was the existence of a previous fortress. The second and more important one was the ban on the construction of new fortresses in Spain (except Christian ones) laid down by Carlos I and other Catholic kings. According to Nicolás Acero y Abad, the marquess put up a fake tablet in the torre del homenaje, that permitted its construction

"Marchio Petrus Fagiardus Primus hanc turrin erexit, marcentenque arcem olim ab Antinino Augusto Pio structam reaedificavit, inmperante Carolo Caesare IIIII. Hispaniarum Rege domino suo."

Though the inscription is written in Latin, the fortress was not Roman but Muslim. The reconstruction began in 1524 according another tablet. According to historian Juan González Castaño, an inhabitant of Mula, Luis Fajardo led it as the possible house manager of the Vélez.

The greater contribution to the study of the Castle of Mula was made by Edward Cooper, who made a comparison between the white castle of the Vélez and the Cuevas de Almanzora in Almería, all of which belonged to the marquess.

The architecture of the castle is Renaissance in its defensive character nad simple forms, situated over a crag of rock. Of the two entrances, one of them accedes better to the high part of the wall and the towers of the old Muslim fortress in addition to a drawbridge. It contains four differentiating elements: the torre del homenaje, a central nave with a barrel vault, a structure semidetached from the nave and a cistern. The cistern is an indication of Muslim influence because it is an essential element of a mosque.

The works were created in four phases: the first was very crude, the second and third completed the cistern and the tower, and the final phase finished the barrel vault, the basement staircase, and the dungeons.

Access to the torre del homenaje is gained by means of an ascending passageway, that currently has been substituted for a permanent bridge. If the castle is taken over by the enemy during a conflict, the garrison would be able to resist in the interior of the tower, which is provided with water by a system that catches water falling on the courtyard and carries them to the cistern along with the tower.

[edit] Decoration and Inscriptions

El castillo carece de decoración ya que no es la residencia oficial del Marques, sin embargo deja constancia de su persona en lo ocho escudos de armas pertenecientes a la familia Fajardo y Silva.

En menor mediada se pueden apreciar las marcas de canteros que nos aclaran las etapas de construcción del castillo.

Estructura del Castillo Accedemos al interior del castillo por un puente levadizo, podemos disfrutar de una bella vista del valle del Rió Mula en la cara norte de la construcción, entrando directamente a la nave donde podemos admirar la bóveda de medio cañón, y podemos observar la chimenea de la guarnición, y unos puntales de piedra sobre los que se apoyaba el antiguo techo de madera. Nos encaminamos hacia las escaleras de ascensión a la azotea baja, donde podemos disfrutar una vistas del municipio incomparable. La visita al castillo es una parada imprescindible del visitante, es una pena que actualmente el ayuntamiento de Mula se encuentre en litigio por la propiedad de este y no pueda realizar acciones sobre el.

[edit] Culture

[edit] Museums

• "El Cigarralejo". In this museum are exhibited the remains, ceramics, and utensils of the Iberian epoch, which have been taken out from the ruins of a town, necropolis, and sanctuary of that time.^[1]
• Casa Pintada (many-colored house): The museum is located in a Renaissance palace, and contains a collection of many of the works of Cristobal Gabarrón.
• The "Castle of Alcalá" or castle of La Puebla, is also near to visit, situated on a hill near the La Puebla district. The castle is Muslim and one can visit the gateway and the cisterns that supplied the water to the city.

[edit] National contest of rapid painting

This is called each year on the second Sunday of November, coinciding with the Craft Bazaar "Las 4 Plaza". On the first occasion (November 11, 2007) 114 painters, coming from all over Spain, met on a sunny, spring-like day. It was in every way a success that did not distance the residents and visitors, given the beauty and variety of places that Mula possesses. It was one more occasion to visit this historic and welcoming Murcian city.

[edit] Spanish Film Week

Since 1988 the "Second Cinema Club of Chomon" has been coming together as a denominational competition of the Spanish Film Week, and since 1993 the National Contest of Film Shorts. Both events are now obligatory appointments of the aficionados of the seventh art, each year in spring. It's an occasion to benefit from the actors, directors, and invitations to enjoy the historic resources, cultural inheritance, excellent temperature, and partake of the rich gastronomy of the region.^[2]

[edit] Sports

In sports, Mula counts some swimming pools, situated around the soccer field. Mula has two municipal soccer fields (one of grass and the other waits to become artificial). There is a soccer pavilion, hall, "Grand Route" and a sports center with another pavillian, an outdoor pool, and tennis and basketball courts.

[edit] Festivals

[edit] The Night of the Drums

The origin of the playing of the drum in Mula is difficult to narrow down, but it seems to have taken place during the 14th century, as a form of protest. It is not presently clear that the first mention written that we have of the playing of the drum through the streets of Mula go back to the municipal ordinances of 1859, where it is written that only those persons authorized through the Brotherhood of Carmen were allowed to go through the streets with drums, and only in the procession. For this reason it is supposed that already at that time in the Saint Week of that year the people went out to play drums through the streets.

It is believed that this tradition of playing drums comes from the principles of the fourteenth century. It is possible to think that through the ages in which the playing of the drum in this locality, Saint Week, it could have been thought that it is a form of religious demonstration, but it is not at all the case that the people of Mula begin to play drums in protest of the restrictions and prohibitions imposed by the civil and catholic authorities in the locality.

The night of Saint Tuesday and Saint Wednesday, in the plaza of the town hall, thousands of persons dressed up in black tunics with huge drums plan to come, intent on entering the plaza but already it is impossible. It is almost twelve at night, the lights of the plaza are dimmed, people seek a great outcry, when suddenly, the little drummers raise their hands and begin to shake their drumsticks in the air, they begin to seek a heart beat, and sound the so hoped for fanfare of trumpets, finish the music and thousands of drums begin to play at once, the ground begins to tremble... and in this way begins the Night of the Drums of Mula.

The little drummers don't stop the playing of the drums in all of the night. Hour after hour they do not stop the beating of the skins of the drums with their big drumsticks, give equal age, sex and their origin. We are allowed to see little boys carried by their fathers in small chairs, until persons very good play their ancient drums, of which that long ago were used with cords to tauten. The drums do not understand the age or sex, they envelop you with their peculiar sound, from the night until the following day the only thing that is sought for anyone in the area is the playing of the drum.

It is a magical mixture, the night, the noise, the people dressed in black, and about all the quaint must of anise that is consumed for the stamina of the body, that is offered to them for the pains of the drums. In that way they make sure that until the dawn the body has stamina.

[edit] The drum

The instrument is fabricated in a homemade form by craftsmen from Mula. The modern drum may have changed over the length of the years, perhaps losing something of the originality, taking many of the elements of the next town of Moratalla. But moving toward perfection in many perceptions.

The instruments, whose diameters seldom approached 45 centimeters, had a like complement of drumsticks with fine points, that served to drumroll and beat without great force. Now, the drum that is highly valued is that with large dimensions (55, 60 or 65 centimeters in diameter) and drumsticks with point in form of a "club" with which one can strike with force on the skin of the drum.

The method of manufacture of the drum also has changed. In the past it was not possible to commission a blacksmith for a box and screws. The people used their ingenuity with laths, to constitute the base of the drum. In those cases the skins were tightened using some holes punched in the rings and winding a cord to constrict them. The strings were made with intestines of animals. In the present day, the drums are made with a metallic box, screws to tighten and the strings are guitar cords.

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Coordinates: 38°03′N, 1°30′W

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