ARCHIVED - 13th February to 29th March, El Oasis de la Jara art exhibition in Cartagena

Artists pay tribute to the monastery of San Ginés de la Jara at the Muralla Bizantina in Cartagena

An exhibition entitled “El Oasis de la Jara” is open to the public from 13^th February to 29^th March at the Museo de la Muralla Bizantina in Cartagena, containing a collection of artwork featuring the historic 16^th century monastery of San Ginés de la Jara, which stands alongside the motorway leading to La Manga del Mar Menor in the Campo de Cartagena.

The medieval monastery and the tiny chapels on Monte Miral have been declared Items of Cultural Interest and stand in an area which has attracted human settlers since pre-historic times. This part of the Cartagena countryside is also home to a wide variety of flora and fauna and in geological terms boasts considerable mineral wealth, which has been exploited by successive cultures and civilizations over the last 3,000 years.

On the hill known as the Cabezo de San Ginés is the Cueva Victoria paleontological site, which contains fossils dating from over a million years ago and has been put forward as proof that Man first arrived in Europe at around that time. In addition, the area has been home to agriculture for many centuries, and has been cultivated successively by Iberians, the Romans, the Moors and then the Christians.

The area has also been chosen as the site for numerous places of worship, including a Moorish temple, the small chapels built by hermits and the monumental monastery which was occupied first by the Order of Saint Augustine and then by the Franciscans. In recent years, though, there has been concern over the condition of the monastery after it was included in the stalled Novo Carthago tourist resort on condition that it would be restored and maintained by the promoter, Hansa Urbana.

The exhibition at the Museo de la Muralla Bizantina in Cartagena opens from Tuesday to Friday between 10.00 and 14.00 and from 17.00 to 20.00, and at weekends from 11.00 to 14.00.

For more local events, news and visiting information go to the Cartagena section of Murcia Today.