Vicente Medina Route, located on a section of the Segura River promenade that runs along the left bank of the river.  This route as such, has ten limestone monoliths, which recreate the best views of Archena, accompanied by popular poems selected from the book “Aires Murciano” by the great Archena writer Vicente Medina. Poet and playwright, who knew how to transmit in his works the life of the men and women of the huerta. He soon became famous with his book Aires Murcianos, but economic hardship led him to emigrate to Argentina. There he focused on livestock and real estate business, relegating his literary activity to the background.

Later, two dramatic events would make him return to his publications: the outbreak of the First World War and the death of his wife.

In 1937, Vicente Medina died in Rosario (Argentina). He leaves us a great legacy of his work, including some unpublished works exhibited in the Museum of Archena.

Aires Murcianos, his main work, became a reference work of sentimental costumbrismo and social denunciation praised by writers such as Azorín.

From here we can see the Cabezo del Tío Pío, a hill on which the most primitive cultures of the Eneolithic, Bronze Age, Argaric and Iberian periods settled, which has left us the most remains. The most significant remains are the Vaso de los Guerreros, one of the most representative pieces of Iberian ceramics which appears as a reflection of a period and a style, known as Elche-Archena, and has become one of the most visited pieces in the national archaeological museum, arousing great interest. This funerary vessel was not the only piece found, but it was the most famous. In it we can see reflected the idiosyncrasy of the people who produced it, illustrating their aesthetic sensibility and beliefs, social customs, dress and everything that shaped their material and spiritual life. There lived in Archena a man called Enrique Salas, a native of Mallorca, painter, sculptor and adventurer, also an amateur archaeologist. It is said that he was the discoverer of the Vaso de los Guerreros, but the truth is that this man took possession of it and travelled to the most important museums to sell it, reaching Paris and London. He finally sold it to the Centro de Estudios Históricos in 1910 for 3,500 pesetas.

This magnificent landscape is further embellished by this view of the Castle of D. Mario in the background. This fortress-like construction, with historicist references, is a former dovecote, and is today one of the most characteristic landmarks of Archena. It belonged to the Fontes family who donated it to the person who today bears his name, Mario Espreáfico, an adopted son of the town, practised medicine in Archena. He was quick to respond to the call of any neighbour regardless of the time, the place, the unpleasant weather or the means of transport, and not only did he not charge his patients, but on occasions he even left them a little money under their pillow to help them improve their diet. All this dedication was rewarded by his neighbours when, in the 1920s, a group of friends and grateful patients agreed, with their contributions, to build a modest sanatorium that would be maintained by means of monthly fees. Operations, treatment and care were always free of charge when the patient had no financial means.

During the civil war, Don Mario was appointed surgeon of the military hospital that was established in Archena and at the end of the war, he was arrested, judged in a very arbitrary manner and sentenced to thirty years in prison. He was in various prisons and in all of them he continued to show his generosity, taking care of and sharing with his companions the food that a rich family from Mula sent him.

It was in the plenary session of 12th December 1930 when he was named an adopted son of Archena, in the same plenary session where it was agreed that the town council would double the annual contribution it had been making for the upkeep of the sanatorium from 500 to 1,000 pesetas and it was decided to name the street formerly known as El Esparto after him.

Iron Bridge. To cross the river, neighbours and strangers depended on a boat and a dock that often, due to the flooding of the river, were left without service and suffered considerable damage as they were unable to cross to the other side for traffic, mail and cultivation of the farms on the other side, and bathers who came to bathe in the water were also unable to access it. In addition, the boat only provided service during daylight hours, at night it was locked with a padlock.

Work began on the first bridge in 1860, but when it was being assembled and installed, a catastrophe occurred and a construction accident delayed the work. In 1865 the bridge was finally inaugurated and became known as the “Puente de Madera” (Wooden Bridge), its predominant material although it already incorporated some iron elements. The initiative to build the current bridge, known as the Iron Bridge, dates back to 1933, but work was interrupted during the Civil War, and it was finally inaugurated, with all solemnity, on 19th November 1942.

Basilio’s chimney. During the second half of the 19th century, Archena was endowed with new services at the same time as an incipient industrial production began to emerge. Among other innovations that came to the town were the construction of all the roads that today lead to the town, the first street lights and pavements in the main streets. There was also an increase in agriculture that made possible an important development of the canning industry, which was due to the fact that now there was land available from the disentailment process and the use of engines that allowed water to be brought to the dry lands. This is how Archena came to have a large number of factories, and the introduction of steam boilers made it essential to use chimneys to evacuate the fumes that were generated. The chimneys were built from the inside; a single man helped by metal hooks in the shape of a fork climbed up the walls that he himself raised until he reached a height of twenty metres.

In the 1960s, with the advent of industrial fuel oil, the chimneys were no longer necessary. Even today, five of these chimneys can still be seen in Archena and are listed as Historical Heritage.

Casa Grande, an Asset of Cultural Interest, was built in the 15th century in response to the need for the Order of San Juan to have a place to store and administer the tithes, the Order being the first owner of the Casa de la Tercia, as it was called. Later, after the disentailment, the house was sold to the Llamas family and it was in this century when the building was adapted as a home and had its moment of greatest splendour.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Town Hall building, which had been created for this purpose, was reduced to ashes by a huge explosion. It was the Llamas family who allowed the Council meetings to be moved to Casa Grande and the Ark with the three keys where the few documents that might have remained and the future ones that would be archived were kept.

In 1836 the house was divided for inheritance reasons. For this reason, the Town Hall began to rent other buildings, until a modern style house was built in the Calle Mayor, which was to become the Town Hall. The Town Hall acquired the Casa Grande, which at that time belonged to the Baron of Bellpuig, Antonio de Bustos, until the end of the 20th century, when the Casa Grande was again remodelled and restored and the Town Hall was moved, leaving the old one as the Municipal Archives.

When Archena residents who did not have any property got married, they turned to the Bustos and Ruiz de Arana brothers, who always gave them a plot of land to cultivate as sharecropping; in time they were able to access the property by stipulating good payment conditions that did not include interest. The Baron of Bellpuig was the last to make these deeds respecting the prices stipulated 30 or 40 years earlier. This family is largely responsible for the fact that land ownership in Archena is so widely distributed.

Miguel Medina School (Escuelas Graduadas Miguel Medina) is currently the oldest school in Archena. When the civil war broke out, Archena was chosen as the site for a Republican army base and school for tanks and armoured vehicles. The army decided to use this school to train soldiers in tank driving and shooting, as well as for repair and mechanical training workshops.

Don Miguel Medina Luna, father of the painter Inocencio Medina and uncle of the poet Vicente Medina, was an exemplary teacher.

He obtained his teaching post at the age of 28 and in 1858 he was awarded a prize for his merits by the General Directorate of Public Instruction. His popularity reached other towns, having pupils from surrounding municipalities.

For many years, he spent Sundays giving free lessons to young people and adults who had not been able to go to school; he also helped many neighbours by drawing up letters, documents and contracts; he often organised plays with his pupils, sometimes raising funds for charity. He did this, for example, to collect aid for the Santa Teresa flood in 1897 or for the soldiers in the war in Africa.

Mural by Inocencio Medina. Using the technique of thick acrylic paint with a palette knife which gives it an impressionist character, Carlos Callizo, a painter by profession as well as an urban artist at heart and in his spare time a sculptor and professor at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Murcia, created this magnificent mural to celebrate the centenary of the death of the painter and illustrator Inocencio Medina Vera, son of the teacher Miguel Medina and second cousin of the poet Vicente Medina.

From his early years, he showed great interest in painting and at the age of 17 he went to Madrid to study at the San Fernando Academy of Fine Arts. He returned to Archena in 1898 and since then he has been very active in all genres. He worked on the decorative paintings of the Romea Theatre in Murcia and the Palacio Consistorial in Cartagena, he illustrated the poetry books of his cousin Vicente Medina. In Madrid he worked for the satirical magazine Blanco y Negro and, encouraged by his cousin the poet, he moved to Argentina for a period of time where he worked on a number of works. He won the third medal at the National Painting Exhibition with his painting “A casa que llueve”, competing with the greatest painters of the time. A premature death at the age of forty-two interrupted the prolific work of Inocencio, of whom it is said that he could have become the Sorolla of Murcia.