The 3rd Republic on the Streets of Murcia

with nothing else better to do why not resurrect some old ghosts

the red, yellow and purple flag of the republicans

the king wanted for crimes against the state

a lengthy republican flag

It is not very clear why some seventy years after the civil war in Spain and thirty-five years of democracy following the death of Franco why that there would be a need to demonstrate and parade an old relic. Whether you are a royalist or not that the fact is that the current king Juan Carlos I reinstated parliament when he returned from exile in Greece in the 1970s Franco and the Church may have wanted him to continue the old system but that never happened.
The Civil war was ugly and the consequences continue today, Spain is a mix of the old and the new sometimes very juxtaposed. If you want to know a little bit more about the civil war and the myriad parties that made up the many fronts, you could read Hemingway's For Whom the Bell Tolls.

Mula mola!

A quick trip from Murcia capital inland and you will arrive to the lunar landscape of Mula, a small partially farmed region once inhabited buy the Visigoths 400a.d. There still exist thermal baths with temperatures that reach 36º C. Though to be honest a twenty Euros an hour as you can see it's a bit limited.

The town is a treasure, painted medieval buildings topped with Islamic period 700a.d castles

There is history on top of history in a small town like this and there are many like this in Spain. The Iberian people, the Romans, the Visigoths, the Mores, then the Catholics that built on top of the lot. Many of Spain's cathedrals and build directly on top of the foundations of mosques one of the most curios of these is in Cordoba where the Mosque is complete but inside is dressed up with dark-wood and biblical adornments. 
Moving out of Mula to the hills surrounding there are also Muslim palaces of course in ruins but there is a lot of treasure to be found.

the corner of the palace on top of a hill

 

Amongst the stones and rubble, don't forget that the Mores were forced from Spain and what they left behind was mostly disregarded. Scratching around the hill you can find pottery fragments and shards from the, Roman and Islamic periods we even discovered a large horse tooth that dates from around the same time. 
This is just the tip of the iceberg, if you are interested there are many interesting things out there. Here are a few photos.

tailor street (o mejor calle de-sastre)

Berenjena fritas con miel - Aubergine chips with honey, delicious

view across Mula towards the hill in distance

medieval door

the climb

From the hill looking towards the town

Islamic well without bottom at the top of the hill

Not graves but storage rooms, again all at the top of the hill