Alcantarilla

Alcantarilla has two health centres, the Centro de Salud Campoamor and the Centro de Salud San Pedro. The town also has a private Hospital, the Clínica San José. The town has not a hospital of its own due to the proximity of the Hospital Virgen de la Arrixaca, (the largest of the Autonomous Community of the Region of Murcia), less than ten kilometres away, in El Palmar, one of the districts of the municipality of Murcia.

Sporting facilities in Alcantarilla are numerous. These include an outdoor-swimming pool open during the summer and a heated indoor-swimming pool, open in autumn, winter and spring. Next to the indoor-swimming pool lies a large brand-new sports complex (2.053 m²), inaugurated in 2006. This complex (Pabellón Polideportivo de Entrevias) is next to the primary public school Jara Carrillo.

The town is host to several sporting associationations like the cycling association Peña Ciclista Guerrita or the football club Nueva Vanguardia -Alcantarilla C. F. A full listing of all the sporting associations and clubs in Alcantarilla can be found in the municipality's website.

Alcantarilla has a large number of shops, particularly along the Calle Mayor (Main Street), which crosses the town from one edge to the other. In addition, two huge street markets, one in the area of Campoamor and the other near Plaza de San Francisco (San Francisco Square) are also held every Wednesday.

Alcantarilla has many different squares, parks and gardens, where citizens typically gather to chat, play, walk, have drinks or in the ice-cream parlours, bars or restaurants found nearby. The squares include the Plaza de San Pedro, which contains the town hall, the Jardín de la Constitución (also known as Jardín de las Palomas) or the Jardin de Campoamor.

Alcantarilla boasts a large number of bars and pubs. Nightlife focusses mainly around the so-called "recinto de Entrevias", in the town centre, where a vibrant nightlife is found particularly on Friday evenings and where thousands crowd during the local festivities of May.As well as this it is the source for the international trade fair show.

Alcantarilla has several cultural facilities, most notably the Centro Cultural Infanta Elena, a centre for cultural activities inaugurated by one of King Juan Carlos the First's daughters, the Infanta Elena, from whom the centre takes its name. Regular cultural events and exhibitions take place in it and they engage a large number of citizens.

Alcantarilla hosts a Base of the Ejército del Aire de España. Paratroopers are trained there, and there is also a squadron of CASA C-212 Aviocar light transport planes.

• Rueda o Noria (Medieval water wheel)

This monument is formed by the hydraulic remains belonging to a traditional control system which irrigated the orchards of Murcia. When the Arabs first came to the Iberian Peninsula, they found a primitive form of a Roman irrigation network. After making scientific studies of the land, they greatly improved this network, constructing many hydraulic arrangements for irrigating the whole of their domain. Rivers and wells were exploited and underground sources of water were discovered. Channels were cut, even in solid rock, dams built and the windmill introduced from the East. The water-wheel or "noria" (from the Arabic naura) was also brought from the eastern lands. With ingenious feats of engineering they provided water everywhere. The Region of Murcia was no exception and, around or on the Segura River there were several mills operational between the 13th and 15th centuries. The water wheel or "noria" (from the Arabic naura) of Alcantarilla, on the acequia Mayor de Alquibla or "Barreras" acequia, goes back to medieval times. The first modern wheel was built in 1457. This first wheel and subsequent ones were wooden but in the nineteenth century, an iron wheel was built. The present wheel is from 1956, based on the proportions of the previous one from 1890 (11 metres high, 1.90 m wide).

• Casa Cayitas o de la Inquisición (18th century)

Also known as Casa del Santo Oficio (House of the Holy Office), it was built in the 18th century, and it hosted for many years the Tribunal Comarcal de La Inquisición or local Inquisition tribunal. The Inquisition was already present in Alcantarilla in the 15th century. However, factual documents date from 1742. The coat of arms found on the façade, the Cross flanked by a sword and a laurel, testifies to this former episode of this monument and the town. In 1982 it was declared "Monumento Histórico Artístico de carácter nacional", or nationally relevant historic monument and it was restored by local and regional authorities. At present, the monument houses Alcantarilla's Municipal Library. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the house was inhabited by Ms. Caya Arias Castellanos, and later on her daughter Ms. Caya López Arias and the present name derives from these owners.

• Casa Consistorial (Town Hall)
• El Puente de la Pólvora

• Iglesia Parroquial de la Asunción (20th century).
• Convento de los Padres Mínimos (1699–1704).
• Iglesia de San Roque (17th/18th century)
• Iglesia Parroquial de San Pedro Apóstol
• Ermita de Nuestra Señora de la Salud (1970s)
• Ermita Nuestra Señora de la Paz
• Ermita de la Voz Negra

• Museo Etnológico de la Huerta de Murcia

Inaugurated in 1968, this museum has been declared "National Artistic Historic Monument” by means of the Royal Decree 1757/1982. The museum has two main parts: an indoor area and an outdoor area. The indoor exhibition halls display collections of instruments and tools traditionally used in the Murcian Huerta (the traditional orchards around the town of Murcia) in past centuries and up to the first half of the twentieth century. The collections include pottery, handcrafted furniture, farming implements, metalware, local musical instruments, etc. Mannequins dressed up in ancient typical costumes (wedding and luxury dress, worker costume, lace-maker costume, sericicultural tasks carried out in the orchard and household activities (19th century) are also on display. In the outdoor area there are, among other things, a Barraca, the typical house in the orchards of Murcia, and outside of it: a Moorish oven or a water wheel or Noria, a monument formed by the hydraulic remains belonging to a traditional control system which irrigated the orchards of Murcia.

• Fiestas de mayo (May Festivities)

These are Alcantarilla's most colourful festivities par excellence and attract thousands of people from the town itself, other towns in the Region of Murcia, neighbouring autonomous communities and even from abroad. They are officially declared as a tourist attraction of on a regional scale. They are always held on the last two weeks of May. The festivities feature free public live concerts by national and internationally acclaimed artists as well as folkloric performances from different countries in a Folklore Festival. The "peñas" or party groups made up of people from the town play a major part in the festivities and take significant names such as Piscis, El Barco, El Sombrero, El Cencerro, Baco, Zeus, Vintitantos, El Clavel, Sol y Sombra, Los Flamencos, El Chache y sus  sobrinos, Atenea, El Beato, Campoamor, or Los Brujos. The day of the Ofrenda Floral (floral offering) to the patron saint, on the last Friday, is an explosion of colour and joy in which thousands of citizens dressed in the traditional regional costumes parade. The whole of the town takes part, either in the parades or as a member of the public. On the last Saturday, a parade involving featuring high floats overloaded with cheerful members of the "peñas" moves through the centre of the town, handing out the toys, plastic footballs and sweets fill their floats. The festivities also feature the "burning of the witch", symbolising the town's popular interpretation of the historical presence of the Inquisition during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in the town.

• February carnival

As many towns and cities in the world, Alcantarilla celebrates the Carnival Season with public celebrations and parades. The carnival parades in Alcantarilla include the so-called Carnaval Infantil (Children's Carnival) in which over 1,500 disguised children parade the town and hold a big party in the city centre with contests, performances, workshops and free shows. It is always held on a Friday afternoon. The adult carnival takes place on Sunday, when different "comparsas" (groups or masquerades) from both the town and elsewhere parade the streets of the town. Among the most important local masquerades are Orinoco, Korumbá, Iguazú, Denébola and Nuevos Pasos.

• Semana Santa (Holy Week)

The Holy Week festivities are amongst the most popular celebrations in Alcantarilla. The Holy Week processions consist of the marching of colourful brotherhoods bearing elaborate sculptured scenes depicting the most important events in the life of Jesus from the day he arrived in Jerusalem until his resurrection as told by the Bible.

• Navidad y Reyes (Christmas)

Like numerous towns and cities in Spain, these festivities feature the so-called Three Kings Procession. According to Hispanic tradition, gifts are exchanged on Epiphany rather than Christmas Day and children eagerly await the "Reyes Magos" (or Three Wise Kings), who bring them presents if they have been good or sugar candy coal if they have been naughty. Epiphany is celebrated by staging a big parade or "Cabalgata de Reyes" featuring the Three Kings, who shower the crowds of adults and children with sweets and little toys.