Moratalla Introduction
The privileged situation of Moratalla favoured the establishment of the first residents as demonstrated by the rocks paintings and lithic remains, testimonies that the primitive hunter lived in these lands. Locations like those of Cañaica del Calar, Fuente del Sabuco, Molino de Capel, Andragulla, La Risca o El Molino, means that Moratalla possesses more than 50% of the rock paintings in the Region of Murcia, and have deserved to be declared UNESCO Patrimonio de la Humanidad in 1998.
In the Neolithic period, the first shepherds and farmers established their houses, appearing in places which they could defend - promontories, cornices or fortified places and next to springs.
In this period belongs Villaricos, location near to the Calar de la Santa. Another sample of the life in towns of the Iberian culture is The Castillicos or Molinicos, studied by the archaeologist Lillo Carpio. And also those of the Cuevas de Zaén, Priego, Benizar and La Nariz. Some of the rural nuclei of the municipal area - El Sabinar, or the Castle of Moratalla and that of Benizar were raised on Iberian establishments.
When Escipión took Cartagena in 209 AD after the defeat of Hannibal, the Romans went on to occupy the Iberian Peninsula, which they called Hispania. 
The Visigothic period and Islamic domain are equally little known. The story of the Hispanic-Arabic historian al-Jatib, refers to the event of 1147, when Yusuf Ibn Hilal rebelled against his cousin Ibn Mardanix (King of the Taifa of Murcia) and took possession of three castles. After the Muslim invasion and the conquest of Hispania, different Berber clans occupied dispersed zones like: Mazuza, Priego, Benizar, Zaén, Bagil, Zacatín, Inazares and Benámor, and others. These groups of rural communities were subject to the jurisdiction of the Hisn of Muratalla (Arab name for the town).
After the battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, the might of al-Ándalus began to decay. The Military Orden de Santiago, taking advantage of the Muslim weakness, came to Segura de la Sierra and to conquer. The Castilian King Fernando III, in a letter of donation, signed in Burgos on 21st August 1242, granted Segura with all its terms to the Order.
After the repopulation of the 13th century, and the allotment of lands, many were abandoned in the face of the insecurity of the border with Granada. The Mudéjar population had fled and the fields were practically uninhabited. In order to favour the public, the Orden de Santiago granted privileges and exemptions.
The insecurity was evident outside of the castles, due to the incursions of the Moors from Granada, and the mountains of Moratalla staged many raids. The weakness of Al-Ándalus and the negotiations for peace in Granada, in which the commander of Moratalla, Diego de Soto, acted as mediator because of his knowledge of the language and Muslim customs. That seemed to improve things.
In 1493, a papal decree by Inocencio VIII, incorporated the town to the Crown of Castile.
By virtue of a Royal Provision of Felipe II (1566), the town council authorized the establishment of the Convent of San Francisco, belonging to the Order of the Franciscans, giving them the hermitage of San Sebastián and adjacent lands.
The demographic growth in the 16th century consolidated the town, with the construction of the church of Santa María de la Asunción from 1520, in principle under the plan of Francisco Florentino and Juan de Marquina and after 1563, the project was reformed by Pedro de Antequera.
Also in the second half of the 16th dates the definitive establishment of the Franciscans in the convent of San Sebastián and with continuous expansion, completion the works of the tower and façade in the first third of the 18th century.
The miraculous apparition, so in vogue in that moment, it gave invaluable help for the definitive establishment of the Christian faith, maybe still not very ingrained among a population with Moorish ascendancy. The apparition of Jesus Christ in the Benámor Mount in 1493 and that of the Virgen de la Rogativa, in 1535, bequeathed to the culture and traditions a fundamental contribution. Immediately they built the hermitage and latterly a convent of the Casa de Cristo.
Moratalla continued its agricultural growth and urban based on expansion the cultivation of the olive grove and the vineyard, their forest wealth, cereals and important cattle ranches that will peak in the 18th century.
