Caravaca updates tourist signs with smart tech and multilingual audio guides
New signs and a mobile app offer personalised routes and accessible info to enhance visitor experience
Caravaca de la Cruz is rolling out a fresh wave of tourist signs across its historic centre and surrounding districts, designed to offer visitors a more unified and engaging way to explore the area. The town council has installed over 100 new signs featuring QR codes linked to audio guides in Spanish, English and French, all as part of a wider digital and sustainable tourism push.
These upgrades aren’t just about fresh paint and modern design. Thanks to European recovery funds, the project aims to combine heritage with technology, allowing tourists to create customised routes via a soon-to-be-launched mobile app. Visitors will be able to tailor their trips according to interests, access interactive maps, check out local events and even save and share their itineraries.
Mayor José Francisco García highlighted the importance of the initiative, saying, “This puts technology at the service of heritage, making it more understandable, accessible, and attractive to all audiences, while respecting the cultural identity that defines our municipality.”
He also highlighted how the project helps both promote the town’s historical treasures and strengthen Caravaca’s image as a modern destination with a unique personality.
Tourism councillor José Santiago Villa explained how the signage will guide visitors throughout their journey: “Using QR codes and the web app, visitors can design personalised itineraries, discover the municipality’s resources, and consult information in an accessible and personalised way.”
The project aligns with recommendations from Spain’s tourism innovation agency SEGITTUR to advance Caravaca as a Smart Tourist Destination.
The new signs fall into five categories, including plaques at key monuments such as the Basilica of the Vera Cruz and the Town Hall, which update original signage installed over 20 years ago. The town has also renewed information panels, set up tourist posts in busy areas, enhanced directional signs, and added durable QR markers at archaeological sites.
Alongside the signage, a free web app, soon to be integrated into the official tourism site, will provide a user-friendly platform for planning visits. This digital transformation builds on other local projects like immersive reality experiences at the Caballos del Vino festival, audio guides in museums and a Tourist Intelligence System.Caravaca’s tourism department believes these innovations reflect the town’s steady growth, with international visitors up 3% over the past two years and an increasing number of couples and families choosing the area. As the town continues to embrace modern technology, it aims to offer experiences that meet the expectations of today’s travellers while preserving its rich cultural past.
For more local news, information and events, go to the home page of Caravaca Today
Images: Ayuntamiento de Caravaca de la Cruz
Address
Calle De Las Monjas, 19, 30400 CARAVACA DE LA CRUZTel: 968 702424 / 968 701003
Oficina de Turismo de Caravaca de la Cruz
More information about the places of interest which can be visited in the municipality of Caravaca de la Cruz, along with what's on and local news can be found in the Caravaca Today.
Caravaca de la Cruz, in the north-west of the Region of Murcia, is one of only 5 Holy Cities in the Roman Catholic world, a centre of pilgrimage, along with Rome, Jerusalem, Santiago de Compostela and Santo Toribio de Liebana, and is home to the Cross of Caravaca, the Vera Cruz.
The status of Holy City was bestowed by Pope John Paul II in 1998, granting the City a Permanent Jubilee year every 7 years for perpetuity, the first one held in 2003 and the next in 2024.
The strategic and natural advantages of Caravaca de la Cruz have attracted the attention of settlers for more than 800,000 years, the Cueva Negra yielding remains of Homo Heidelbergensis, forbears of the Neanderthals and the municipality also houses important archaeological remains from the Argaric, Iberian and Roman cultures. many of these can be seen in the Municipal Archaeological Museum.
As a border town caught between the Catholic forces of Castille and the last remaining Moorish stronghold in Spain, Granada, Caravaca had a turbulent medieval history, but it was during this period that the legend of the Cross of Caravaca was born, bringing the religious orders which shaped the structure of Caravaca today, with its impressive hilltop castle and eclectic collection of churches and monasteries, religious tourism today being a backbone of the town´s economy.
Caravaca de la Cruz is a municipality with important natural resources, including extensive forests, part of which have protected status due to their wealth of flora and fauna, and due to the abundant water supplies is also a major area for canned fruit production, apricots in particular being an important crop.
Caravaca is renown for its important May Fiestas, held in honour of the Vera Cruz, which also incorporate the Moors and Christians celebrations and the Running of the Wine Horses.
Caravaca de la Cruz is also the home of Europe´s largest collection of ethnic instruments at Barranda, the Museo de Música Étnica Barranda and is the location of the Barranda festival de Cuadrillas, which celebrates the Region's ethnic music traditions.
The municipality is home to around 26,000 inhabitants and shares boundaries with Moratalla, Cehegín, Lorca, Puebla de Don Fadrique in the province of Granada and Vélez-Blanco in the province of Almería.
Opening times:
Weekdays: 10.00 to 14.00 and 16.30 to 19.30
Saturdays: 10.30 to 14.00 and 16.30 to 19.30
Sundays and public holidays: 10.30 to 14.00
Click for map, Caravaca de la Cruz Tourist Office
