[Bristol Mike]

MARBELLA, España

Country: Spain
Region: Andalusia (Municipality of Málaga)
Mayor: María Ángeles Muñoz Uriol
Elevation: 0m (0 ft)
Population
- City: 124,332

I have just returned from a holiday in Spain where I visited four places in the Costa del Sol region and Marbella was the first place I came across. It is a place of contrasts. As well as being a very glitzy centre of shopping and business, it has its areas of ugliness filled with tenements and blocks of flats and the lovely Conjunto Antiguo or Old Town which is what I concentrated on. These pictures were taken on Thursday 09th July.

Marbella and the nearby Puerto Banús are important beach resorts of the Costa del Sol. The town is famous for being a playground for the rich and famous. Marbella is famed as an exclusive destination for wealthy tourists from Northern Europe, as well as the well-heeled from the UK, Ireland and Germany. The city is also home to Antonio Banderas, was home to Sean Connery before he moved and was home to Mark Langford before he died in a car crash in April 2007.

The city has been through periods of both Islamic Rule and more recently Spanish rule after the Spaniards re-conquered the city in 1485. It is said that Marbella was established from a small village of about 1000 people in the 1940s which soon changed when Prince Max Egon zu Hohenlohe-Langenburg and his heir Alfonso de Hohenlohe experienced a problem with their Rolls-Royce in the vicinity. Alfonso decided to buy masses of land to grow the city outwards and this was when he started up the Marbella Club Hotel and the tourist business got going.

I hope you enjoy this two-part thread as much as I enjoyed wandering around the old town.

 

[Bristol Mike]

PART I
El Conjunto Antiguo

The Old City 'Conjunto Antiguo' is a delightful walking retreat from the main Avenida de Ricardo Soriano pictured above. There are plenty of narrow streets to wander in with views down to churches, towers, the mountains behind and the higher rise of the modern city around the outside. The Old City has a nucleus known as the 'Plaza Mayor' which actually holds the name 'Plaza de Naranjos'. Here one can sit out on a terrace with views of the City Theatre and the City Hall.

The City Hall was built after the city Reconquest by the King Ferdinand III in 1485, from the Moorish occupation. It's placed in a "new" square at the former Arab district and where were located the City Council, the Prison, the St. James Chapel, Chief Magistrate House, the Public Granary and the Corn Excange. It was called Orange Trees Square. The current City Hall was built in the place were the Prison was. Some indoor parts of this building come from the original Prison.

Calle Huerta Chica

Calle Huerta Chica

Calle Huerta Chica

Calle Estación, Sidestreet

Calle Estación

Calle Estación, Sidestreet

Calle Estación

Calle Estación, Sidestreet

Plaza de Naranjos, El Teatro

Plaza de Naranjos

Plaza de Naranjos

Plaza de Naranjos, The City Hall

Plaza de Naranjos, El Teatro

Plaza de Naranjos, Calle Nueva

Plaza de Naranjos

Calle Nueva

Calle Nueva

Calle Nueva, El Teatro

Calle Carmen, Iglesia del Templo de los Dios

Calle Carmen, Rooftops

Calle Carmen

Calle Carmen

Plaza de San Bernabe

Plaza de San Bernabe

Plaza de San Bernabe, Iglesia del Templo de los Dios

Plaza de la Iglesia

Plaza de la Iglesia

Plaza de la Iglesia, Sidestreet

Plaza de la Iglesia

Plaza de la Iglesia, Sidestreet

Plaza de la Iglesia, Sidestreet

Plaza de la Iglesia, Sidestreet

Plaza de la Iglesia, Sidestreet

Plaza de la Iglesia, Iglesia del Templo de los Dios

Plaza de la Iglesia​

 

[Ribarca]

Nice compilation.

It's also the home town of the Spanish maffia (former major Gil y Gil), the Russian maffia, some arab sjeiks and is most famous for its urban corruption.

 

[wapo5050]

I have always thought that Marbella was an ugly city!! I think that spaniards have a bad image of the city... like i had

 

[philadweller]

The first photo shows some hideous apartment buildings. That lacy ironwork looks depressing on a modern slab. It does not blend in. Spain has much more attractive cities.
Marbella looks more like a Mexican resort town than a Spanish city surprisingly.

 

[Bristol Mike]

Nice compilation.

It's also the home town of the Spanish maffia (former major Gil y Gil), the Russian maffia, some arab sjeiks and is most famous for its urban corruption.

Thank you. Thanks for the extra info.

I have always thought that Marbella was an ugly city!! I think that spaniards have a bad image of the city... like i had

Well I didn't know what to expect lol but I can see why you thought that because aside from the nice Old City is it mainly ugly apartment blocks and A LOT of them - hence me not photographing most of the rest of the city. It is important though to pick out the nicer parts of these not so nice places though and I was pleasantly surprised with the Old City.

The first photo shows some hideous apartment buildings. That lacy ironwork looks depressing on a modern slab. It does not blend in. Spain has much more attractive cities.
Marbella looks more like a Mexican resort town than a Spanish city surprisingly.

Indeed it does! :lol: I couldn't agree more about the lacework and in fact there are many more apartment blocks like that around the city and in other cities I visited while I was in southern Spain.

 

[Guest]

The first photo shows some hideous apartment buildings. That lacy ironwork looks depressing on a modern slab. It does not blend in. Spain has much more attractive cities.
Marbella looks more like a Mexican resort town than a Spanish city surprisingly.

Maybe because Mexico was an old spanish colony?

 

[zazo]

what do you expect of a village that in the beginnings of XX century was 5.000 inhabitants and today almost 130.000, what is really beautiful is the endless luxury quartiers of palaces and awsome cars on the mountains, not the city center made in the 60'

 

[christos-greece]

Very nice photos from Marbella town @Mike i expecting more kay:

 

[LS Kim]

What a pleasant place!! Nice pics! :cheers:

 

[tonyssa]

Amazing place!

 

[Bristol Mike]

Maybe because Mexico was an old spanish colony?

Mmmm Hmmm. The place certainly could have been in Latin America depending on how you look at it.

what do you expect of a village that in the beginnings of XX century was 5.000 inhabitants and today almost 130.000, what is really beautiful is the endless luxury quartiers of palaces and awsome cars on the mountains, not the city center made in the 60'

I couldn't agree more - some of those properties along the road to Ronda are superb with excellent views of both the mountains and the sea. One just has to expect that sort of architecture though if the city has only been growing since the 1900s.

Very nice photos from Marbella town @Mike i expecting more kay:

What a pleasant place!! Nice pics! :cheers:

Amazing place!

Thanks very much guys! :cheers:

 

[Bristol Mike]

PART II
El Conjunto Antiguo

Plaza de la Iglesia, Sidestreet

Plaza de la Iglesia, Sidestreet

Plaza de la Iglesia, Sidestreet

Plaza de la Iglesia, Sidestreet

Plaza de la Iglesia, Sidestreet

Plaza Altamilano

Plaza Altamilano, Calle Alamo

Plaza Altamilano

Plaza Altamilano, View of Modern Tenements

Plaza Altamilano

Plaza Altamilano, La Iglesia del Templo de Los Dios

Plaza de la Iglesia

Calle Chinchilla, Flamenco Dress

Calle Caballeros

Calle Ortiz de Mocinillos

Calle Ortiz de Mocinillos

Calle Caballeros

Calle Peral

Calle Panadería

Calle Caballeros

Calle Panadería

Calle Ancha

Calle Ancha, Sidestreet

Calle Ancha

Calle Ancha

Calle Ancha, Calle Chorron

Calle Ancha, Sidestreet

Calle Ancha

Calle Ancha, Plaza Ronda

Calle Ancha

Calle Ancha

Calle Ancha, Plaza Ronda

Calle Ancha

Calle Peral, Sidestreet

Calle Peral

Calle San Lazaro

Avenida Ricardo Soriano

Avenida Ricardo Soriano​

Thanks for watching!

 

[CasaMor]

I'm going there tomorrow! :banana: :banana2:

 

[stefanguti]

Awesome pictures and describing Mike!

Thanks for sharing!

 

[pokistic]

Now that is charming. I want to go there.

 

[Bristol Mike]

I'm going there tomorrow! :banana: :banana2:

Have fun there, away from the noisy main avenue it's a lovely atmosphere in the Old Town. The beach also looks half decent but I did not have time to explore there.

Awesome pictures and describing Mike!

Thanks for sharing!

Now that is charming. I want to go there.

Thanks guys! :cheers:

 

[Victhor]

I'm glad to see you liked it, lately the people here in the international forums use to say only bad things about the costa del sol. And very nice pics, thanks for focussing on the good side of this place

 

[claroscuro]

The old quarter is awesome! Does it have a waterfront? Is it right next to the beach, like say Peñìscola, Cadaquès, etc.?

 

[Bristol Mike]

I'm glad to see you liked it, lately the people here in the international forums use to say only bad things about the costa del sol. And very nice pics, thanks for focussing on the good side of this place

Indeed yes. It's unfortunate they say that actually. I will say now that a lot of the coast has become a bit over-urbanised. Places like Fuengirola and Benalmadena and Torremolinos have all merged into one long settlement along the coast. On the other side of Marbella, the same is true with San Pedro and Estepona. Estepona used to a characterful town-sized place of just the right size but is so oversized now. However, one has to look at the good points too. The older places on the Costa del Sol are beautiful, so many hotels have been built in the Andalusian character and thus keeping the historic feeling as much as possible and the weather is just fantastic in summer - 32C and 20% humidity is perfect! Glad you like the pics.

The old quarter is awesome! Does it have a waterfront? Is it right next to the beach, like say Peñìscola, Cadaquès, etc.?

Hi. Marbella as a city does have a waterfront and apparently the beach is nice too however it doesn't have the attractive marina that Puerto Banús has. The Old City itself though is set back slightly on slightly higher ground above the modern area along the immediate coast so no it is not on the coast.