The lower enclosure of the Castillejo de Monteagudo is gradually coming back to life. Two months ago, and after a hundred years in silence, the restorers and archaeologists returned to the pleasure palace of Ibn Mardanis, better known as the Wolf King, in the Monteagudo district, a few meters from the Castle. Declared a National Monument in 1931, this Andalusian enclosure is part of a larger set of remains from the Arab golden age in Murcian lands, collected in the so-called Fortalezas del Rey Lobo. They cover the districts of Cabezo de Torres and Monteagudo and occupy a total of 1.5 million square meters.
The first excavations were carried out by Andrés Sobejano in 1924, at which time the plan of the building and various architectural elements were uncovered, as well as a set of stylistically homogeneous plasterwork. There is, however, no technical memorandum on those works.
The mayor of Murcia, José Ballesta, accompanied by part of his team, visited the works this Wednesday, which are focused, in a first phase, on archaeological excavations, which will be followed by consolidation and restoration of the walls and perimeters of the towers of the lower enclosure (the upper and lower ones), and, finally, the conditioning of the accesses to the palace and the construction of the viewpoint that will show, in height, the views of the west of the municipality.
“I wanted the first visit of my new mandate to be to the historic enclave of Monteagudo, the cradle of ‘Las Fortalezas del Rey Lobo’ and which presents jewels that must be valued,” Ballesta pointed out after also recalling that this enclave keeps a special memory for him: he made his last visit here as mayor before the motion of no confidence in March 2021. Ballesta recalled that the Castillejo is part of one of the strategic projects on the revaluation of municipal heritage that will be launched by this legislature.
Even with 16 months to go (the project ends in September 2024), work was slowed down by the two weeks of heavy rains in May. The total investment is 1.2 million, of which two thirds are provided by the Ministry of Transport through the cultural 1.5%.
Both the municipal archaeologist, Carmen Martínez, and the director of the excavation, Eva Millán, explained yesterday that the upper towers of the enclosure are hollow and better preserved because they had various uses, such as storage. The lower ones, more solid, are in worse condition.
In these two months, ceramic remains, original bricks (which can be reused) and fragments of an inscription have been recovered: Al-yumm (prosperity), which is part of the one usually found in the Wolf King’s palaces: Al-yumm wa al-iqbal (Happiness, prosperity).
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