Caravaca de la Cruz
Caravaca de la Cruz is one of only five cities in the world granted the permanent Jubilee Year privilege by the Vatican — alongside Rome, Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela and Santo Toribio de Liébana — yet it remains almost entirely unknown outside Spain. The fortified hilltop sanctuary at its heart, housing a relic of the True Cross, draws pilgrims but almost no international tourists, giving th
The Sanctuary and the Relic
The Basílica-Santuario de la Vera Cruz sits inside a 15th-century castle that crowns the old town like a stone crown. The relic — a double-armed cross said to have been brought by angels in 1232 to convert a Moorish king — is displayed in a magnificent silver reliquary and can be venerated daily. Every five years (next in 2027) the Año Jubilar brings hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and the town fills with processions, music and the remarkable Caballos del Vino festival.
The castle complex also contains the Museo de la Vera Cruz, which holds an outstanding collection of Baroque silver religious art, embroidered vestments and paintings by local Golden Age masters. It is a genuinely world-class small museum that almost nobody outside Spain knows exists.
The Town Below the Castle
Caravaca's lower town is a pleasure of unhurried Baroque streets, tapas bars serving locally produced wine from the Denominación de Origen Bullas, and a Thursday market that has been running since the 13th century. The Bodegas de Bullas, a 20-minute drive south, offer cellar tours and tastings of the region's characterful monastrell reds, often described as the most undervalued wine in Spain.
The surrounding countryside — rolling hills of lavender, wheat and almond groves — is spectacular in late spring. The Via Verde del Noroeste, a converted railway path, runs through the sierra and is ideal for cycling or walking with virtually no other visitors.
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