Wikipedia
Murcia ( or , ) is a city in south-eastern Spain, the capital and most populous city of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia, and the seventh largest city in the country, with a population of 442,573 inhabitants in 2009 (about one third of the total population of the Region). The population of the metropolitan area was 689,591 in 2010. It is located on the Segura River, in the Southeast of the Iberian Peninsula, noted by a climate with hot summers, mild winters, and relatively low precipitation.
Murcia was founded by the emir of Cordoba Abd ar-Rahman II in 825 with the name Mursiyah مرسية and nowadays is mainly a services city and a university town. 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.
Murcia is the capital city of the Region of Murcia in Spain.
Murcia may also refer to:
Murcia is one of the 52 electoral districts ( Spanish: circunscripciones) used for the Spanish Congress of Deputies—the lower chamber of the Spanish Parliament, the Cortes Generales. The method of election is the D'Hondt method and a closed-list proportional representation, with a minimum threshold of 3%.
Murcia, with over 400,000 inhabitants, and Cartagena, with over 200,000, are the largest towns and together account for almost half of the district's electorate and population. Lorca are the only other municipalities with more than 50,000 inhabitants. The district has produced some of the strongest historical performances for the People's Party in the 2008 and 2011 elections, and for any party in a Spanish electoral district.
Murcia was a little-known goddess in ancient Rome. Her name occurs as a surname of Venus.
According to Livy she had a temple at the foot of the Aventine Hill near to the Palatine Hill. Murcus is said to have been an old name for the Aventine Hill itself; hence the adjective murtius (= murcius) was applied to the turning-posts of the Circus Maximus, which was also situated in a valley between the Aventine and the Palatine Hills.
The name Murcia was linked to the name of the myrtle tree (Latin myrtus) by folk etymology; hence the spellings Murtia and Murtea. This association with myrtle, which was a sign of Venus, led to her naming as "Venus of the Myrtles". Christian writers, in their turn, connected Murcia with the adjective murcus or murcidus "lazy, inactive", thus interpreting her as a "goddess of sloth and laziness".
Usage examples of "murcia".
Here, after subduing the Comarca, he decided on an invasion of far-off Murcia, the garden-land of the south, a realm of tropic heat, yet richly fertile and productive.
Monnino, who was afterwards known under the title of Castille de Florida Blanca, and is now living in exile in Murcia, his native country.
If my frame of mind had been a more pleasant one, I should have travelled through the kingdoms of Murcia and Grenada, which surpass Italy in beauty and fertility.
The remainder of Spain, Gallicia, and the Asturias, Biscay, and Navarre, Leon, and the two Castiles, Murcia, Valencia, Catalonia, and Arragon, all contributed to form the third and most considerable of the Roman governments, which, from the name of its capital, was styled the province of Tarragona.