Cehegin is located in the northwest of the Murcia region 592m above sea level. With a population of around 15,000, it’s landscape boasts mountains, valleys, reservoirs, forests, various flora and fauna as well as orchards of soft fruits, olives and lemons.
The municipality, which was once the epicentre of southern Spain, dates back to prehistoric times. The site of Begastri, where you can discover how the first inhabitants lived, can still be visited today. Here you will see cave paintings and remains of the settlement.
But what mainly characterizes Cehegin now is the compact old town. Family houses and humble medieval dwellings combine to make a place of history and calm.
Its traditionally agricultural economy is now supplemented by natural stone extraction and the emergence of rural tourism.
Iglesia de Mary Magdalena, Cehegin
Cehegin is very well served by the main Spanish supermarket chains having recently opened a new Mercadona Supermercado as well as having an established Navarette supermarket on the high street (Gran Via). There are countless convenience or “corner shops” dotted around town as well as Spanish equivalents of many of the shops and services that you are used to in the UK. An English Hairdressing Salon is well established as part of the Mercadona complex.
The town has a health centre and there is a hospital 8km away in Caravaca De La Cruz. There is an indoor swimming pool and sports centre as well as an outdoor summer pool with a bar and picnic area. The many bars, tapas bars and restaurants offer an incredible choice of watering holes and places to snack or satisfy the hungriest appetites in typical Spanish surrounding almost 24 hours a day.
The main industry of Cehegin in
the past was shoemaking and avid shoe purchasers of the present will not be
disappointed by the number of shoe shops currently in the town as well as bags,
jewellery, clothes, furniture and a plethora of objets d’art not only
of Spanish origin but from many countries on this continent and Africa.
A panoramic view of the Old Town