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HUÈRCAL-OVERA is the result of the union of two medieval settlements which have existed far back into history.
A bell-tower dating from the middle Ages, when the town was linked with Vera, looms over the houses.
It later became integrated into the jurisdiction of Lorca, until it achieved its own municipal independence in 1668.
Huércal-Overa is made up of an orderly urban nucleus. Most prominent is the Parish Church de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, whose foundation dates back to 1505, but the current church was only begun in 1709, under the auspices of Cardinal Luis Belluga y Moncada, Bishop of Murcia-Cartagena; it was consecrated in 1739. The building has three naves, with a small dome over the transept, from whose keystone a cherub descends carrying a symbol of the Virgin Mary ascending into heaven. The retable of the main chapel was finished in 1748 by José Ganga Miró and gilded in 1754 by Pedro Berruezo Miró and Blas Garrido.
Across the wing of the Epistle of the transept lies the Capilla de Jesús Nazareno, built between 1740 and 1749 thanks to the work of one Fr. Juan Antonio Mann; it has a magnifent statue of Jesus of Nazareth carved in 1749 by the sculptor Francisco Saizillo.
Huércal-Overa’s Semana Santa (Holy Week) celebrations, when groups of statues are carred on floats by figures in white, brown or black robes, have been declared a National Tourist Attraction.
HUÈRCAL-OVERA