The Costa del Sol's most cultured city — where Pablo Picasso was born, a Phoenician port became a Moorish alcazaba and then a tapas capital, and 320 days of sunshine a year back one of Spain's fastest-growing creative and food scenes
Málaga is a city of 580,000 on Spain's Mediterranean coast in Andalusia, the capital of the Costa del Sol and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world (Phoenician trading post Malaka, c. 770 BCE). Pablo Picasso was born here in 1881 — the Museo Picasso Málaga (2003, Palacio de Buenavista) holds 233 of his works and the Birthplace Museum is on Plaza de la Merced. The Alcazaba (11th-century Moorish palace-fortress) and the Castillo de Gibralfaro (14th century, above it on the hill) command the harbour and historic centre. The Centro de Arte Contemporáneo and the Soho distric…
Malaka (Phoenician: 'queen city') was established around 770 BCE by Phoenicians from Tyre, making it one of the oldest cities in Western Europe. Under Roman rule from 218 BCE, it became a significant port exporting garum (fermented fish sauce) and esparto grass. The Moors captured Málaga in 711 CE and held it for nearly 800 years — longer than most Andalusian cities. The Alcazaba was built by the Hammudid Caliphate (1026–1057 CE) and expanded by the Nasrid dynasty of Granada. Ferdinand and Isabella captured Málaga in 1487 during the Reconquista; the siege lasted four months and the Muslim pop…