Orihuela

DESTINATIONS orihuela

Orihuela

Orihuela truly has something for everyone. Excellent beaches, impressive natural expanses, unrivalled golf courses combine to create the landscape of the poet Miguel Hernández. The town's rich history and cultural heritage includes many areas listed as Assets of Cultural Interest, traditional festivals, and a varied gastronomy.

Miguel Hernández Poet Gastronomy Accommodations

Miguel Hernández Poet

Miguel Hernández Gilabert was born in Orihuela in October 1910. He studied in the Ave María schools attached to Santo Domingo College and in the college itself until he abandoned his studies to work with his father. The first of his many poems was published in 1930. He later voluntarily enlisted in the Republican militia, and was later sentenced to 30 years in prison for revolutionary activity. His works are beloved by locals and visitors alike.

Gastronomy

The rich culinary traditions of Orihuela combine produce from the land and sea, transforming time-honored recipes into works of art and culture. Some of the most traditional dishes include cocido con pelotas (stew with meatballs), arroz de las tres pumas (rice stew with three types of pulses), rice with vegetables, rabbit, shellfish, and more. Salted fish is a key ingredient in many local dishes, and the area is known for its high-quality sausages. The local artisan sweets, with their Arabic origins, are carefully preserved in the enclosed convents and never fail to delight visitors. These treats include zamarras, pasteles de Gloria, meringues, and tarta de Santa Clara almond cake. Orihuela boasts a diverse array of restaurants where you can savour these delectable dishes, offering a complete and varied culinary experience.

Accommodations

Do & See Cafes Bars & Nightlife Shopping Tourist Information

Do & See

Orihuela boasts an extensive artistic and historical heritage, making it a destination of great cultural interest. With numerous museums, churches, palaces, and monuments, visitors can immerse themselves in the city's rich traditions. The vegetable plantations of Orihuela highlight the area's agricultural prowess. Fertile lands, cultivated by various cultures throughout history, characterize this quintessential farming region. The beaches of Orihuela are renowned for their quality and have earned numerous certifications from organizations and institutions that oversee and maintain quality standards. These recognitions include Blue Flags, "Q" tourist quality certificates, SICTED distinctions, Qualitur Flags, and ISO certifications for Quality and Environment.

Miguel Hernández House-Museum

This house was home to the poet and his family between 1914 and 1934. It was a farmhouse, much in line with others which existed in the same street in the early 20th Century. The museum retains the furniture and fittings typical of the area's homes from the last century, tougher with photographs from …

Palmeral de Orihuela

Palmeral de Orihuela constitutes an interesting agricultural system of intensive irrigation of Islamic origin with date-trees situated on the borders of the banks, paths and irrigation canals. You can either reach this area by means of path tracking through el Collado del Oriolet, or go jogging or cross-country through the orchards of palm …

Medieval Market

Every year the old part of the town becomes the ideal setting for recreating the middle ages when it puts on its Medieval Market. Visitors are taken back to the past in a special ambiance where the smell of spices, the colour of the craftsmen's work and products and the taste of foods at …

Celebration of Reconquest of Moors & Christians

The celebration of the Reconquest of Orihuela has a secular tradition, which has been documented for more than 600 years, and it is for this reason that the Moors and Christians Festival in its present form, founded in 1974, revolves around this event and this celebration so that they have become inextricably linked. The main …

Holy Week

Designated as an International Tourist Interest event, Holy Week in Orihuela is one of the oldest religious and cultural celebrations in the southeastern region of Spain. Easter in Orihuela is renowned not only for its monuments, landscapes, traditions, and Mediterranean light but also for its rich history and artistic qualities. Art and passion intertwine during this …

Diocesan College Santo Domingo

This building is composed of a church, convent and university, all completed at different times. On the exterior, there are two striking renaissance doorways, featuring the founder's family coat of arms and the shield of the Dominican Order. The Baroque entrance to the University shows an allegorical figure representing wisdom. Human figures adorn the …

Orihuela Cathedral

Built on the remains of the old Moorish mosque, the building started out as a Parish Church, ascending in importance, as Archiprestal (1281), Collegiate (1413) and finally becoming a Cathedral in 1510. Building started at the end of the 13th Century. It is of Levantine Gothic Style, with three naves and a gallery, a transept …

Episcopal Palace of Orihuela

Built on the land occupied earlier by the Corpus Christi hospital, one of the city's medieval hospitals. In 1558 the city exchanged plots with Archishop Esteban Almeyda and the hospital was relocated to the Parish of Santiago. The building may have started in the 16th Century, soon after the establishment of the Orihuela Bishopric. It …

Town Wall Museum

The Wall Museum is located in the basement of the "Casa del Paso" building, on the Salesas Campus of the Miguel Hernández University. It also houses an interesting and well organised archaeological site, set up after various stages of excavation between 1998 and 2000. Significant architectural heritage sites are well conserved: The town wall, four watchtowers …

Royal Salesian Monastery

It was built on a site of a Jesus college. It was a foundation, set up by clerics from Madrid's Royal Monastery (Monasterio de la Visitación), under the patronage of the princes Carlos María Isidro de Borbón and his wife, María de Asís de Braganza y Borbón. The monastery was built in neoclassical style, between …

Church of the Santas Justa y Rufina

Built upon the remains of a mosque, this church is dedicated to the city's patron saints, whose martyrdom coincides with the traditional date of the city's reconquest, believed to have occurred on July 17, 1243. The structure is a single-nave Gothic temple, featuring side chapels between buttresses that date back to the 14th and 15th …

Regional Archaeological Museum San Juan de Dios

The Orihuela Archaeology Museum has its origins in the former Santo Domingo Museum of Antiquities, established in 1902 by Jesuit priest Julio Furgús, who donated numerous pieces. Created by the Orihuela Town Council, the museum has been housed in various locations, including the Palacio de Teodomiro, the Municipal Hospital, the Rubalcaba Palace, and since …

Parish Church of Santiago

Constructed on the site of a former mosque from the Islamic city, this church dates back to between 1402 and 1417, according to the oldest documented evidence. Featuring a single nave design and side chapels nestled between buttresses, the original Gothic structure has undergone significant modifications due to restorations and extensions carried out between the …

Sanctuary of Our Lady of Monserrate

According to tradition, this church was constructed on the site of the former Gothic Parish of Saint Julian after the image of the Virgin Mary was unearthed following the city's recapture from Moorish rule. The building is a Baroque temple designed in the shape of a Latin cross, with a Neoclassical facade displaying the anagram …

San Isidro's Murals — An Urban Museum

In may 1976, a great wave arrived in Orihuela, coming from many parts of the world this was the tribute to Miguel Hernández. An actual "cultural spring" bloomed in the plazas and streets of the city, particularly in Barrio San Isidro, reviving the life and the work of the poet. To that historic birthplace came …

Sierra de Orihuela

The Sierra de Orihuela is a 9.4 km long limestone mountain range that looms over the city of Orihuela. Its highest peak, Peña de Orihuela, stands at 634 meters, and the range's sheer cliffs have made it a popular destination for rock climbers. Hikers venturing up Monte St. Miguel can explore the ruins of …

VOY Y VENGO GASTROBAR

Mediterranean food. * We have a menu from Monday to Sunday (drink, coffee and dessert included) / Rice on …

BOMBÓN BOSS

The mission of BOMBON BOSS is that you enjoy a special time at any time of the day you choose to visit us. We have been offering since 1992 our delicatessen and our …

TAPERIA DH

Come and enjoy healthy Spanish food, try it and you will not regret it, we work for and for …

CAFÉ BAR JUANI

New Bar Juani, completely renovated with new staff and new tapas. Enjoy meals, dinners and the best tapas …

GASTROBAR EL LÍO

In El Lío gastrobar we have a commitment to quality tourism, we offer our products with guarantee, taste and design, at unbeatable prices. The best service in fast food, homemade desserts and premium …

VOY Y VENGO GASTROBAR

Mediterranean food. * We have a menu from Monday to Sunday (drink, coffee and dessert included) / Rice on …

CHIRINGUITO PUNTA PRIMA

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CHIRINGUITO CALA MOSCA

In keeping with the needs of the environment, the company has focused much of its policy on sustainability and environmental conservation. And there is a very marked communion between Chiringuitos del Sol and Oriolan beaches, where our company has been developing a great commitment to the maintenance of this magnificent coastline. Proof of this …

CHIRINGUITO CALA ESTACA

CHIRINGUITO CALA CERRADA

CHIRINGUITO CALA BOSQUE

CHIRINGUITO LA CALETA

CHIRINGUITO CALA CAPITAN

CHIRINGUITO AGUAMARINA

CHIRINGUITO LA GLEA

CHIRINGUITO BARRANCO RUBIO

CHIRINGUITO MIL PALMERAS

LIZARRÁN

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TAPERIA DH

Come and enjoy healthy Spanish food, try it and you will not regret it, we work for and for …

CAFÉ BAR JUANI

New Bar Juani, completely renovated with new staff and new tapas. Enjoy meals, dinners and the best tapas …

Shopping

In Orihuela there are a great variety of shops, where you can find all the things you can need. From shoes, clothes (for women, men, children), even evening dresses, to food, electrical household appliances, furniture, opticians, toy shops, photography, tobacconist's, greengrocer's, newsagent's, computers, baker's, cars, sport shops, florist's shops, travel agencies, ice-cream palou, hairdresser's...and so on. Come to Orihuela and you will enjoy throughout the town by going shopping. And do not forget any of our shopping centres!!!