Málaga

Phoenicians from Tyre founded Malaka about 770 BC at the mouth of the Guadalmedina, a waypoint on the trade routes to the Strait of Gibraltar, and the town later fell under Carthage and, from 218 BC, Rome, which built the theatre below the hill. In the 10th century Málaga became the capital of the Islamic province of Rayya, and after the caliphate broke up the Hammudids ruled a taifa kingdom from the city. Ibn Battuta, passing about 1325, called it one of the largest and most beautiful towns of al-Andalus and praised its figs, almonds and gilded pottery; its harbour exported silk, dried fruit, wine and lustreware.

In the 15th century Málaga was the main port of Nasrid Granada, with a notable community of Genoese merchants. Christian forces took it on 18 August 1487 after a siege of more than three months, the most violent episode of the Granada War: hunger forced the surrender, and almost the entire remaining population, around 11,000 people, was sold into slavery. The city was repopulated by settlers from across the peninsula and remained a trading port linked with Antequera and Córdoba.

The economy profited from early industrialisation in the first third of the 19th century and the population grew steadily, until an economic crisis brought on by the phylloxera vine pest made it fall between 1887 and 1897. Tourism later became a growing source of income. A technology park opened in 1992, high-speed trains arrived in 2007, and new museums and a remodelled port have reshaped the city since.

Pablo Picasso was born on Plaza de la Merced, and the city has built much of its modern image around museums: the Museo Picasso Málaga, opened in 2003; the Carmen Thyssen Museum of Andalusian painting, opened in 2011; and a branch of the Centre Pompidou, opened in 2015 on the port. Tourists come for Picasso, the museums, the old town and the beaches, and the city calls itself the capital of the Costa del Sol.

Holy Week has been observed for five centuries and is the city's great religious event, a Fiesta of International Tourist Interest since 1965: 42 brotherhoods carry their images through the streets on huge tronos, some too tall to fit through church doors, and a museum of brotherhood art displays Baroque church treasures. The August fair fills the centre by day with sweet wine, flamenco and verdiales, Málaga's own traditional music, and moves at night to the fairground. The Málaga Festival of Spanish-language cinema, held each March, is among the most important in Spain.

Málaga CF play football in the Segunda División, and the Martín Carpena arena holds up to 14,000 spectators. The climate and the sea shape leisure, from swimming, surfing and windsurfing to running, cycling and golf.

About 592,000 people lived in the city in 2024, making it the second largest in Andalusia and the sixth in Spain; nearly 16 per cent were born abroad. About 1.3 million people live in the metropolitan area, and its population grows every year.

Tourism, construction and technology services are the main sectors. The Andalusia Technology Park, opened in 1992, ended 2025 with about 29,000 employees, and the city is the headquarters of Unicaja, the largest bank in Andalusia. The airport handled a record 26.8 million passengers in 2025, the fourth busiest in Spain, and the port is the second busiest for cruises in the Iberian Peninsula.

Daily movement depends on buses, a two-line metro that carried more than 19 million passengers in 2025 and commuter trains along the coast. Most residents are Catholic, though few practise, and life is lived outdoors for much of the year thanks to about 300 days of sunshine. Francisco de la Torre has been mayor since 2000.

Málaga's signature is the espeto: fish, traditionally sardines, threaded on long thin rods and roasted over firewood on the beach sand, served in the chiringuitos along the shore. The dish has been proposed for UNESCO recognition as intangible heritage. Pescaíto frito, fish coated in flour and deep-fried in olive oil, seasoned only with salt and served hot with lemon, is the other coastal staple.

Ajoblanco, a cold soup typical of Málaga and Granada, is made from bread, crushed almonds, garlic, water, olive oil and salt, and is usually served with grapes or slices of melon; it is sometimes called white gazpacho. Churros dipped in thick hot chocolate are a favourite stop in the cafés of the old town.

The province makes sweet and fortified Málaga wines, chiefly from Pedro Ximénez and Moscatel grapes, and dry wines under the newer Sierras de Málaga label. In medieval times the harbour shipped wine, raisins, almonds and figs across the Mediterranean, and the city still drinks its own sweet Moscatel in the old taverns. The Atarazanas central market lies just north of the Alameda Principal.