LORCA, a town of Spain, in the province of Murcia, on the right side of the Sangonera (here called the Guadalentin), by which it is separated from the suburb or quarter of San Cristobal. It is situated about 38 miles west from Cartagena, and 37 south-west from Murcia, at the foot of the Sierra del Cano. The principal buildings are the collegiate church of San Patricio, with a Corinthian façade, and the parish church of Santa Maria, in the Gothic style. The principal manufactures are soda, saltpetre, gunpowder, and cloth; the trade, apart from that which these articles involve, is insignificant. The population of the municipality was 52,934 in 1877.

Lorca (Arab. Burka) is the Eliocroca of the Ttin. Ant., and probably also the Ilorci of Pliny (iii. 3). It was the key of Murcia during the Moorish wars, and was frequently taken and retaken. On April 30, 1802, it suffered severely by the bursting of the reservoir known as the Pantano de Puentes, in which the waters of the Guadalentin were stored for purposes of irrigation; the Barrio de San Cristobal was completely ruined, and more than six hundred persons perished in the disaster. In 1810 it suffered greatly from the French.