Moratalla

Moratalla's territory has been occupied and marked by humans across an extraordinary span of time. More than half of all the rock art in the Región de Murcia lies within the municipality — around thirty cave sites in total. The first finds came in 1966 at Cañaica del Calar and Fuente del Sabuco I. Subsequent discoveries followed through the 1970s and 1980s: a local teenager found the Risca I–II shelters in 1979; historian Marcial García identified La Molata; the Andragulla group was recorded in 1984; and two further sites, Fuente del Sabuco II and Fuente de la Rogativa I–II, were found in 1987. Systematic survey from 1989 onward continued to expand the inventory, with a further site added in 2004 at Molino de Capel. The paintings divide into two traditions: Levantine art, made by the last hunter-gatherers around 10,000 years ago, and Schematic art, abstract imagery left by Neolithic and Bronze Age farming communities around 6,500 years ago. In 1998 the sites were inscribed as UNESCO World Heritage, as part of the rock art of the Mediterranean basin of the Iberian Peninsula. A regional interpretation centre opened in 2007 six kilometres from the town, though it closed in January 2013.

Elsewhere in the municipality, a dolmen at Bajil, Argaric-culture tombs and Chalcolithic walls at Cerro de Las Víboras, and an Iberian settlement at Los Molinicos point to continuous prehistoric and ancient presence.

The town's medieval history is less well documented. Its lands came under Muslim rule with the rest of the southeast, and Moratalla appears in geographical accounts of the Cora of Tudmir. During the taifa period it passed through the hands of Muhammad ibn Mardanis and then his cousin Yusuf ibn Hilal, who lost an eye defending it rather than surrender it peacefully. In 1243, under the Treaty of Alcaraz, Moratalla was formally incorporated into the Castilian Kingdom of Murcia, and in 1245 a military commandery was established here. Settlement remained thin, partly due to fear of raids from the Nasrid Kingdom of Granada. Population grew significantly after Granada's fall, reaching 534 households by 1530, and through the early modern period agriculture and livestock farming formed the economic base of the town.

Moratalla's monuments span prehistory through the early modern period. The castle-fortress dominates the town, and the Church of Nuestra Señora de la Asunción stands as the principal religious building. The old quarter also contains the Church of Santa Ana, the church of the former Convent of San Francisco, and the Sanctuary of La Rogativa.

Heraldic shields and manor houses survive in the historic centre. Outside the town, the former convent of Casa de Cristo sits in the Sierra del Buitre, and the archaeological sites of Los Molinicos and Mazuza are within the municipality.