Highlights for visitors include the Cathedral of Murcia and a number of baroque buildings, renowned local cuisine, Holy Week procession, works of art by the famous Murcian sculptor Francisco Salzillo, and the Fiestas de Primavera (Spring Festival).

The city, as the capital of the comarca Huerta de Murcia, is called "Europe's orchard" due to its long agricultural tradition and its fruit, vegetable, and flower production and exports.

A construction of the late Roman period in the Iberian Peninsula is a fortress, Castillo de los Garres, located in the south of the northern half of the municipality.

The city in its present location was founded with the name Madinat Mursiyah (مدينة مرسية 'city of Murcia') in AD 825 by Abd ar-Rahman II, who was then the emir of Córdoba.

[15] Umayyad planners, taking advantage of the course of the river Segura, created an imaginative and complex network of irrigation channels that made the town's agricultural existence prosperous.

After the fall of the Caliphate of Córdoba in 1031, Murcia passed under the successive rules of the powers seated variously at Almería and Toledo, but finally became capital of its own kingdom with Ibn Tahir (أبو عبد الرحمن بن طاهر).

At this time, Murcia was a very prosperous city, famous for its ceramics, exported to Italian towns, as well as for silk and paper industries, the first in Europe.

[15] The Christian population of the town became the majority as immigrants poured in from almost all parts of the Iberian Peninsula, with Muslims confined to the suburb of Arrixaca.

These measures led to the Muslim popular revolt in 1264, which was quelled by James I of Aragon in 1266, conquering Murcia and bringing Aragonese and Catalan immigrants with him.

The Murcian duality: Catalan population in a Castillian territory, brought the subsequent conquest of the city by James II of Aragon in 1296.

[17] Murcia's prosperity declined as the Mediterranean lost trade to the ocean routes and from the wars between the Christians and the Ottoman Empire.

In this century, Murcia lived an important role in Bourbon victory in the War of the Spanish Succession, thanks to Cardinal Belluga.

The city has an elevation of 43 metres (141 ft) above sea level and its municipality covers approximately 882 square kilometres (341 sq mi).

[26] In addition to the orchard and urban zones, the great expanse of the municipal area is made up of different landscapes: badlands, groves of Carrasco pine trees in the precoastal mountain ranges and, towards the south, a semi-steppe region.

A large natural park, the Parque Regional de Carrascoy y el Valle, lies just to the south of the city.

[28][29] The Segura river's Valley is surrounded by two mountain ranges, the hills of Guadalupe, Espinardo, Cabezo de Torres, Esparragal and Monteagudo in the north and the Cordillera Sur in the south.

The municipality itself is divided into southern and northern zones by a series of mountain ranges, the aforementioned Cordillera Sur (Carrascoy, El Puerto, Villares, Columbares,[30] Altaona, and Escalona[31]).

The historic city center is approximately 3 square kilometres (1 sq mi) of the urbanised downtown portion of Murcia.

The official record for Murcia stands at 46.2 °C (115.2 °F) and at Alcantarilla airport in the western suburbs on 4 July 1994 with 47.0 °C (116.6 °F).Murcia has 460,349 inhabitants (INE 2021) making it the seventh-largest Spanish municipality by population.

[50] Other buildings in the square shared by the cathedral (Plaza Cardinal Belluga) are the colorful 'Bishop's Palace' (18th century) and a controversial extension to the town hall by Rafael Moneo (built in 1999).

Located in Trapería is the Casino, a social club erected in 1847, with a sumptuous interior that includes a Moorish-style patio inspired by the royal chambers of the Alhambra near Granada.

The name Platería refers to plata (silver), as this street was the historical focus for the commerce of rare metals by Murcia's Jewish community.

Life-sized, finely detailed sculptures by Francisco Salzillo (1707–1783) are removed from their museums and carried around the city in elegant processions amid flowers and, at night, candles, pausing at stations which are meant to re-enact the final moments before the crucifixion of Jesus.

The festival seeks to foster understanding and reconciliation between the three cultures that have cohabited the peninsula for centuries, if not millennia: Christians, Jews and Muslims.

[88][89] The economy of Murcia is supported by fairs and congresses, museums, theatres, cinema, music, aquariums, restaurants, hotels, shopping centres, campings, sports, foreign students, and tourism.

[99] There is also a highway named MU-30, which connects Alcantarilla municipality and El Palmar district, so it occurs in the northwestern quarter of Murcia.

[100] Region of Murcia International Airport (RMU) is located 20 km south from the city centre, in the suburban district of Corvera.

[103] Bus service is provided by two companies: Transportes de Murcia [es], an UTE (Joint Venture) formed by Ruiz, Marín & Fernanbús, who operates the urban lines, and Transporte de Murcia y Pedanías [es] (TMP), who operates the interurban lines.

Line 1 runs from the Espinardo Campus of the University of Murcia to the Estadio Nueva Condomina, with a central stop at Plaza Circular in the city center.

Murcia also offers Adult Education for people who want to return to complete high school and possibly continue on to the university.