Archena is the cradle of great illustrious people, who have left a great cultural, artistic and intellectual heritage of which .
the cultural, artistic and intellectual heritage of which . of which Archena has always been proud.
On the route we are going to follow, we will find many points of inspiration which, together with poetry and the landscape, will allow us to
poetry and landscape will allow us to get to know Archena from its most fervent roots.
We begin our journey in a place that Vicente Medina Vera used to visit whenever he came to his native town of Archena, “La Presa de Archena”, an inspiring place for a poet who knew how to make tradition and the orchard a mark of identity to create his traditional poetry. Thus, along our walk along the river, we will find his poetry engraved in stone, more precisely in 10 marble monoliths, which remind us of the social and cultural wealth of Archena. From its orchard, religious traditions, such as Corpus Christi, which is very particular to Archena because of its unusual date and time of departure,
Our Virgen de la Salud, patron saint of the town of Archena and saved from various fires during the Civil War, our river, which establishes a strong link with the town and which, on many occasions, has caused disasters from which the town has recovered.
Halfway along the riverside walk, we can see the “Castillo de Don Mario”, a construction reminiscent of the old fortresses but which has always been used as an aviary or dovecote.
It belongs to the landscape of Archena and was donated by wealthy citizens to Doctor Don Mario Spreáfico, a favourite son of the town, who practised his profession altruistically and selflessly for his people, helping the most needy in difficult times.
Once we reach the iron bridge, built during the war so that tanks and militias could cross the valley and protect the town, we leave the promenade to continue our walk, crossing the Avenida Río Segura and arriving at the Basilio chimney, this unusual construction reaches 25 metres in height, it was built by a single person, due to the narrowness of the internal cavity; aided by metal hooks in the shape of a fork, he climbed up the walls which he raised to 25 metres in height.
It climbed to a height of 25 metres. The canning industry is the source of Archenera’s wealth and reminds us of the importance of maintaining this “landmark” of past times.
Today, a large part of this industry resides in the district of “La Algaida”. It was in one of these factories that the famous doctor Don Pedro Guillén was born. Maestro Pepe Street, on the right, will lead us to the main artery of the city, where there is a multitude of shops and the largest social and economic movement in the city.
The main street of the city is full of shops and the biggest social and economic movement in the city. Once we arrived at the colourful fresco of
Inocencio Medina’s colourful mural, we cross the street to contemplate it and meet our last two characters.
The school behind us is part of the most cultural history of the municipality of Archena, where Miguel Medina, father of Inocencio Medina and uncle of the poet Vicente Medina, taught. He was an exemplary teacher who was rewarded for his pedagogical work and taught many times in an altruistic way, for those who could not receive lessons, wrote letters for those who could not write, read for those who could not read and carried out acts of charity in order to help in moments of particular difficulty.
