Murcia regional authorities have launched a user-friendly digital platform for visitors planning to join this year’s Holy Jubilee Year pilgrimage. The platform includes essential details about restaurants, accommodation, places to visit and main events integrated into an interactive map of the region.
The Camino de Levante is being highlighted as the main route for visitors wanting to follow an alternative pilgrimage trail through the region to Caravaca de la Cruz. Held every seven years and with a tradition dating back almost eight centuries, the celebration attracts thousands of visitors from around the world.
In the last Jubilee Year in 2017, around 500,000 pilgrims and travellers gathered in Caravaca.
Located in the north-western area of the Murcia region, Caravaca de la Cruz is the fifth Holy City of Catholic Christianity. In 1998 Pope Paul II granted the city the privilege of celebrating a jubilee year in perpetuity (every seven years), together with Rome, Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela and Camaleño/Monastery of Santo Toribio de Liébana.
In a news release announcing details of the route and digital platform, the Spanish tourism board (SpainInfo) noted, “Off the back of a growth in demand for holistic experiences that provide the opportunity for introspection and the revival of religious outdoor walks in Europe as shown in reports by the religious source Catholic World Report, more and more people are looking to embark upon a pilgrimage.
“Whether it be religious, spiritual or historical reasoning for following the path, the alternative pilgrimage route, Camino de Levante, which leads to Caravaca de la Cruz, sees thousands of walkers arrive in the Murcia region each year.
“According to religious history and the Christian faith, the Holy Cross of Caravaca contains a fragment of the Lignum Crucis; that is, the cross on which Jesus Christ died. Along the route, there are inspiring stops, interesting not only to those making the journey for religious reasons but also for hiking enthusiasts.”
The Camino de Levante route follows the River Segura, passing through fields and orchards on a 120-kilometre hiking route to Caravaca. “Not only do most pilgrims choose to travel the Camino de Levante to celebrate the Jubilee Year, but it is also incredibly popular among holidaymakers wishing to experience the atmosphere of the celebrations non-theistically.”
Offering a rich variety of culture, nature and gastronomy, the pilgrimage route comprises five sections.
- Orihuela-Murcia: a 24-kilometre journey beginning in the neighbouring Alicante province and continuing into Murcia.
- Murcia-Alguazas: discovering the orchards of Murcia (26 kilometres).
- Alguazas-Mula: 26 kilometres exploring ruins and the Barrancos de Gebas (badlands).
- Mula-Bullas: a 21-kilometre stroll through vineyards and landscapes (close to the Sierra Espuña regional park, the first area in the Murcia region endorsed by the European Charter for Sustainable Tourism).
- Bullas-Caravaca de la Cruz: 21 kilometres to finish the route “in style” at the Basílica-Santuario de la Vera Cruz.
“The Mystery Man”
Meanwhile, “The Mystery Man” exhibition – described as a “hyper-realistic recreation of the man in the Holy Shroud” – will remain on show in Caravaca de la Cruz until 31 July.
At its official presentation earlier this year, minister for tourism, culture, youth and sport Carmen Conesa said the exhibition uses innovative technologies to introduce visitors to a “historical, scientific and artistic journey on the figure of the man in the Holy Shroud, a relic full of science, mystery and faith”.
She said the linen Shroud of Turin presents, “in a mysterious way, the imprint of a man who was wrapped in it and who shows signs of having suffered the tortures that, according to the Gospels, Jesus of Nazareth suffered: the blows, the lashes, the marks left by the nails in the hands and feet, the spear in the side and the crown of thorns on the head”.
In addition to the recreation of the “Man in the Holy Shroud”, visitors will also be able to view the contents of six rooms containing 30 denarii similar to those used to pay Judas for his betrayal, the recreation of two types of Roman scourges and the “Titulus Crucis”, and a collection of eight Roman spears of different models, including the one believed to have been used to spear Jesus. Also on show is a reproduction of the Cross and the Holy Sepulcher, as well as a recreation of the mediaeval crypt in which the Shroud was found.
