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Marbella

January 14, 2023

For the automobile, see SEAT Marbella.

Marbella (UK: /mɑːrˈbeɪjə/ mar-BAY-yə,[2][3] US: /mɑːrˈbɛlə/ mar-BEL-ə,[4] Spanish: [maɾˈβeʎa]) is a city and municipality in southern Spain, belonging to the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is part of the Costa del Sol and is the headquarters of the Association of Municipalities of the region; it is also the head of the judicial district that bears its name.

Marbella
Municipality
Marbella in early-September 2009
Flag
Seal
Location of the municipality of Marbella in Province of Málaga
Marbella
Location in Andalusia
Marbella
Marbella (Spain)
Coordinates: 36°31′0″N 4°53′0″W / 36.51667°N 4.88333°W / 36.51667; -4.88333Coordinates: 36°31′0″N 4°53′0″W / 36.51667°N 4.88333°W / 36.51667; -4.88333
Country Spain
Autonomous community Andalusia
ProvinceMálaga
ComarcaCosta del Sol Occidental
Government
 • TypeMayor–council
 • BodyAyuntamiento de Marbella
 • MayorMaría Ángeles Muñoz (People's Party)
Area
 • Total114.3 km2 (44.1 sq mi)
 • Land114.3 km2 (44.1 sq mi)
 • Water0.00 km2 (0.00 sq mi)
Population
 (2018)[1]
 • Total141,463
 • Density1,200/km2 (3,200/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Websitewww.marbella.es
Click on the map for a fullscreen view

Marbella is situated on the Mediterranean Sea, between Málaga and the Strait of Gibraltar, in the foothills of the Sierra Blanca. The municipality covers an area of 117 square kilometres (45 sq mi) crossed by highways on the coast, which are its main entrances.

In 2018 the population of the city was 141,463 inhabitants,[5] making it the second most populous municipality in the province of Málaga and the eighth in Andalusia. It is one of the most important tourist cities of the Costa del Sol and throughout most of the year is an international tourist attraction, due mainly to its climate and tourist infrastructure.

The city also has a significant archaeological heritage,[6] several museums[7][8] and performance spaces,[9] and a cultural calendar[10] with events ranging from reggae concerts[11] to opera performances.[12]

Geography

The Marbella municipality occupies a strip of land that extends along forty-four kilometres (27 miles) of coastline of the Penibético region, sheltered by the slopes of the coastal mountain range, which includes the Bermeja, Palmitera, Royal, White and Alpujata sub-ranges. Due to the proximity of the mountains to the coast, the city has a large gap between its north and south sides, thus providing views of the sea and mountain vistas from almost every part of the city. The coastline is heavily urbanised; most of the land not built up with golf courses has been developed with small residential areas. Marbella is bordered on the north by the municipalities of Istán and Ojén, on the northwest by Benahavís, on the west by Estepona and on the northeast by Mijas. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south.

Topography

 
Dunes of Artola, the Sierra Blanca in the background

There are five geomorphological units: the Sierra Blanca, the Sierra Blanca piedmont (foothills), the lower hill country, the plains and the coastal dunes.[13] The Sierra Blanca is most centrally located in the province, looming over the old village. This mountain range has three peaks: La Concha, located further west at 1,215 m (3,986 feet) above sea level, Juanar Cross, located eastward (within the municipality of Ojen) at 1,178 m (3,865 feet) above sea level, and the highest, Mount Lastonar, located between the two at 1,270 m (4,170 feet). Marbella's topography is characterised by extensive coastal plains formed from eroded mountains.[14] North of the plain, is an area of elevations from 100 and 400 m (330 and 1,300 feet), occupied by low hills, with foothills and steeper slopes of the mountains behind. The coast is generally low and has sandy beaches that are more extensive further east, between the fishing port and Cabopino. Despite the intense urbanisation of the coast, it still retains a natural area of dunes, the Artola Dunes (Dunas de Artola), at the eastern end of town.

Hydrography

 
The La Concepción reservoir

The entire region lies within the Andalusian Mediterranean Basin. The rivers are short and have very steep banks, so that flash floods are common.[15] These include the Guadalmina, the Guadaiza, the Verde and the Rio Real, which provide most of the water supply. The irregularity of rainfall has resulted in intermittent rivers that often run dry in summer; most of the many streams that cross the city have been bridged. The La Concepción reservoir supplies the population with drinking water; apart from this there are other reservoirs like El Viejo and El Nuevo (the Old and the New) that irrigated the old agricultural colony of El Ángel, and Las Medranas and Llano de la Leche that watered the plantations of the colony of San Pedro de Alcántara.

Climate

Marbella has a subtropical Mediterranean climate[16] (Köppen: Csa) with humid, very mild winters (for European standards) and warm to hot, dry summers. Marbella is protected on its northern side by the coastal mountains of the Cordillera Penibética and so enjoys a climate with an average annual temperature between 18 to 19 °C (64 to 66 °F). During winters, the highest peaks of the nearby mountain range are occasionally covered with snow, which can be seen from the coastline of Marbella when it snows on the Sierra Blanca mountain peak at 1,275 m (4,183 ft).[17][18] Average rainfall is 645.8 mm (25.43 in), while hours of sunshine average above 2,900 annually.[19]

Climate data for Marbella, 1981–2010
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Average high °C (°F) 16.4
(61.5) 		16.9
(62.4) 		18.4
(65.1) 		19.8
(67.6) 		22.2
(72.0) 		24.8
(76.6) 		26.9
(80.4) 		27.3
(81.1) 		25.5
(77.9) 		22.6
(72.7) 		19.5
(67.1) 		17.3
(63.1) 		21.5
(70.6)
Daily mean °C (°F) 12.9
(55.2) 		13.5
(56.3) 		15.0
(59.0) 		16.4
(61.5) 		18.7
(65.7) 		21.5
(70.7) 		23.6
(74.5) 		24.0
(75.2) 		22.2
(72.0) 		19.4
(66.9) 		16.2
(61.2) 		14.0
(57.2) 		18.1
(64.6)
Average low °C (°F) 9.4
(48.9) 		10.0
(50.0) 		11.6
(52.9) 		12.9
(55.2) 		15.1
(59.2) 		18.2
(64.8) 		20.3
(68.5) 		20.6
(69.1) 		18.9
(66.0) 		16.2
(61.2) 		12.9
(55.2) 		10.7
(51.3) 		14.7
(58.5)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 88.8
(3.50) 		75.8
(2.98) 		57.3
(2.26) 		50.8
(2.00) 		25.2
(0.99) 		5.7
(0.22) 		1.1
(0.04) 		5.8
(0.23) 		29.9
(1.18) 		64.6
(2.54) 		108.8
(4.28) 		132.0
(5.20) 		645.8
(25.42)
Average precipitation days (≥ 1 mm) 7.3 6.7 5.7 6.2 4.4 0.9 0.4 0.4 2.7 5.7 7.0 8.8 56.2
Source: World Meteorological Organization (WMO)[20]

Flora and fauna

 
Playa de Cabopino (Cabopino beach) of the Dunas de Artola

Because most of the mountain areas around Marbella cannot be managed by the City Council and they are under the management of the central government, remnants of the land in its natural state are still preserved in the mountains, where there are chestnut and cherry trees; reforested firs; Aleppo, Monterrey and maritime pines, pinyons; and ferns. The fauna is represented by golden eagles, Bonelli's eagles, short-toed eagles, hawks, falcons, vultures, genets or musk cats, badgers, wild goats, deer, martens, foxes and rabbits.[21]

The coast has the Natural Monument site of the Dunas de Artola, one of the few protected natural beaches of the Costa del Sol, which contains marram grass, sea holly, sea daffodils and shrubs such as large-fruited juniper.[22] The Posidonia oceanica, endemic to the Mediterranean, is found in the Cabopino area; it is an important part of the ecosystem in the sea around Marbella.[23]

Demographics

 
Marbella urbanisation: much of the population is dispersed in low density developments. Example here: Elviria

According to the census of the INE for 2018, Marbella had a population of 141,463 inhabitants,[24] which ranked it as the second-most populous city in the province of Málaga and eighth in Andalusia after surpassing Cádiz in 2008.[25][26] Unlike other towns in the Costa del Sol, Marbella had a significant population before the population explosion caused by the tourist boom of the 1960s. The census counted about 10,000 people in 1950; population growth since has been as great as that of neighboring towns. Between 1950 and 2001 the population grew by 897%, with the decade of the 1960s having the highest relative increase, at 141%. In 2001, only 26.2% of Marbella's population had been born there, 15.9% were foreign-born, and those born in other towns in Spain made up the difference. During the summer months the population of Marbella increases by 30% with the arrival of tourists and foreigners who have their second homes in the area.[27]

The population is concentrated in two main centres: Marbella and San Pedro Alcántara; the rest is scattered in many developments in the districts of Nueva Andalucia and Las Chapas, located along the coast and on the mountain slopes. According to a study by the Association of Municipalities of the Costa del Sol, based on the production of solid waste in 2003, Marbella had a population of about 246,000 inhabitants, almost twice that of the population census of 2008. From the estimated volume of municipal waste in 2010, the City calculates the population during the summer months at around 400,000 people, while official police sources estimated it at about 500,000, with a peak of up to 700,000 people.[citation needed]

Demonyms

Traditionally the people of Marbella have been called "marbelleros" in the local vernacular and "marbellenses" in more formal registers; these names have appeared in dictionaries and encyclopedias.[28] Since the mid-1950s, however, Marbellan residents have been called "marbellís" or "marbellíes", the only gentilic, or demonym, that appears in the Diccionario de la Lengua Española (Dictionary of the Spanish Language) published by the Royal Spanish Academy.[29]

The use of "marbellí" as a gentilic was popularised by the writer and journalist Víctor de la Serna (1896–1958), who wrote a series of documentary articles on "The Navy of Andalucía"; in his research he had come upon the Historia de Málaga y Su Provincia (History of Málaga and the Province) by Francisco Guillén Robles, who used the plural word "marbellíes" to designate the Muslim inhabitants of Marbella.[30]

History

Prehistory and antiquity

 
Remains of the Roman bridge of Marbella

Archaeological excavations have been made in the mountains around Marbella which point to human habitation in Paleolithic and Neolithic times. Some historians believe that the first settlement on the present site of Marbella was founded by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BC, as they are known to have established several colonies on the coast of Málaga province. However, no remains have been found of any significant settlement, although some artefacts of Phoenician and later Carthaginian settlements have been unearthed in different parts of the municipality, as in the fields of Rio Real and Cerro Torrón.[31]

The existence of a Roman population centre in what is now the El Casco Antiguo (Old Town) is suggested by three Ionic capitals embedded in one section of the Murallas del Castillo (Moorish castle walls), the reused materials of a building from earlier times. Recent discoveries in La Calle Escuelas (School Street) and other remains scattered throughout the old town testify to a Roman occupation as well. West of the city, on the grounds of the Hotel Puente Romano, is a small 1st century Roman Bridge over a stream.[32] There are ruins of other Roman settlements along the Verde and Guadalmina rivers: Villa Romana on the Rio Verde (Green River), the Roman baths at Guadalmina, and the ruins of a Roman villa and an early Byzantine basilica at Vega del Mar, built in the 3rd century and surrounded by a paleo-Christian necropolis, later used as a burial ground by the Visigoths. All of these further demonstrate a continued human presence in the area. In Roman times, the city was called Salduba (Salt City).[33]

Middle Ages

 
Moorish defensive walls of Marbella

During the period of Islamic rule, after the Normans lay waste to the coast of Málaga in the 10th century, the Caliphate of Córdoba fortified the coastline and built a string of several lighthouse towers along it. In the Umayyad fashion[34] they constructed a citadel, the Alcazaba, and a wall to protect the town,[35] which was made up of narrow streets and small buildings with large patios, the most notable buildings being the citadel and the mosque. The village was surrounded by orchards; its most notable crops were figs and mulberry trees for silkworm cultivation. The current name most likely developed from the name the Arabs gave it: Marbal·la (مربلة),[36] which may in turn derive, according to some linguistic investigations, from a previous Iberian place name. The traveller Ibn Battuta characterised it as "a pretty little town in a fertile district."[37][38] During the time of the first kingdoms of Taifa, Marbil-la was disputed by the Taifas of Algeciras and of Málaga, eventually falling into the orbit of Málaga, which in turn later became part of the Nazarid Kingdom. In 1283 the Marinid sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd Al-Haqq launched a campaign against the Kingdom of Granada. Peace between the Marinid dynasty and the Nasrid dynasty was achieved with the signing of the Treaty of Marbella on 6 May 1286, by which all the Marinid possessions in Al-Andalus were restored to the Nazarid sultan.[39]

Early modern age

 
Partial view of the main façade of the Casa del Corregidor, built in the 16th century in the Plaza de los Naranjos

On 11 June 1485, the town passed into the hands of the Crown of Castile without bloodshed. The Catholic Monarchs gave Marbella the title of city and capital of the region and made it a realengo (royal protectorate). The Plaza de los Naranjos was built along the lines of Castilian urban design about this time, as well as some of the historical buildings that surround it. The Fuerte de San Luis de Marbella (Fort of San Luis) was built in 1554 by Charles V. The main door faced north and was protected by a moat with a drawbridge. Today, the ruins of the fort house a museum, and on the grounds are the Iglesia del Santo Cristo de la Vera Cruz (Church of the Holy Christ of the True Cross) and Ermita del Calvario (Calvary Chapel). Sugar cane was introduced to Marbella in 1644, the cultivation of which spread on the Málaga province coast,[40] resulting in the construction of numerous sugar mills, such as Trapiche del Prado de Marbella.

19th century

Main article: Marbella blast furnaces

In 1828 Málaga businessman Manuel Agustín Heredia founded a company called La Concepción[41] to mine the magnetite iron ores[42] of the Sierra Blanca at nearby Ojén, due to the availability of charcoal made from the trees of the mountain slopes and water from the Verde River, as a ready supply of both was needed for the manufacture of iron. In 1832 the company built the first charcoal-fired blast furnace for non-military use in Spain;[43] these iron-smelting operations ultimately produced up to 75% of the country's cast iron. By 1860 competition from the coke-fired blast furnaces in northern Spain had made the plant uneconomical. In 1860 the 1st Marquess of Duero founded an agricultural colony for the unemployed iron workers, now the heart of San Pedro de Alcántara.[44]

The simultaneous dismantling of the iron industry, based in the forges of El Angel and La Concepción, disrupted the local economy. Much of the population had to return to farming or fishing for a livelihood. The situation was compounded by the widespread crisis of traditional agriculture and by the epidemic of phylloxera blight in the vineyards,[45] causing Marbella to suffer high unemployment, an increase in poverty, and the starvation of many day labourers.

The associated infrastructure built for the installation of the foundry of El Angel in 1871 by the British-owned Marbella Iron Ore Company[46] temporarily relieved the situation, and even made the city a destination for immigrants, increasing its population. However, the company did not survive the worldwide economic crisis of 1893, and closed its doors in that year due to the difficulty of finding a market for the magnetite iron ore it mined.[47]

In the late 19th century, Marbella was a village composed of three parts: the main districts, the Barrio Alto or San Francisco, and the Barrio Nuevo. There were three smaller nuclei arranged around the old ironworks and the farm-model of the colony of San Pedro Alcántara, as well as isolated dwellings in orchards and farms. The general population was divided between a small group of oligarchs and the working people, the middle class being practically non-existent.

20th century

In the early decades of the century the first hotels were built: El Comercial, which opened in 1918, and the Miramar, in 1926.[48] During the Second Republic, Marbella experienced major social changes and contentious political parties mobilized.

As the Spanish Civil War began in the late 1930s, Marbella and Casare suffered more anticlerical violence than the rest of western Málaga province. The day after the failed uprising which led to the civil war, several religious buildings in Marbella were set on fire. Only the walls of the Church of St. Mary of the Incarnation and the Church of San Pedro Alcantara were left standing.[49] With the aid of Fascist Italian troops, Nationalist forces seized Marbella during the first months of the war. It became a haven for prominent Nazis, including Léon Degrelle and Wolfgang Jugler, and Falangist personalities like José Antonio Girón de Velasco[50] and José Banús.[51]

After the Second World War, Marbella was a small jasmine-lined village with only 900 inhabitants. Ricardo Soriano, Marquis of Ivanrey, moved to Marbella and popularised it among his rich and famous friends.[52] In 1943, he acquired a country estate located between Marbella and San Pedro called El Rodeo, and later built a resort there called Venta y Albergues El Rodeo, beginning the development of tourism in Marbella.[53]

Soriano's nephew, Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, descendant of a high-ranking aristocratic family (his mother, María de la Piedad de Yturbe y Scholtz-Hersmendorff, was the Marquesa de Belvís de las Navas) acquired another estate, Finca Santa Margarita. In 1954, he opened the Marbella Club, an international resort aimed at movie stars, business executives and the nobility.

Both resorts came to be frequented by members of European aristocratic families with famous names: Bismarck, Rothschild, Thurn und Taxis, Metternich, de Mora y Aragon, de Salamanca or Thyssen-Bornemisza. This transformed Marbella into a destination for the international jet set.[52] Trading on Prince Alfonso's kinship to the royal courts of Europe, his hotel quickly proved popular with vacationing members of Europe's social elites, for its casual but discreet luxury. Jaime de Mora y Aragón, a Spanish bon vivant and brother to Fabiola, Queen of the Belgians, as well as Adnan Khashoggi, were frequent visitors.[54][55] Prince Alfonso's first marriage was to Princess Ira von Fürstenberg, an Agnelli heiress. Princess Marie-Louise of Prussia (great-granddaughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II) and her husband Count Rudolf "Rudi" von Schönburg–Glauchau eventually worked closely with the new proprietors, the Shamoon family, who took over the Marbella Club Hotel from Prince Alfonso.[56]

 
Luxury car parked in Puerto Banús

In 1966, Prince Alfonso hired a Beverly Hills architect and, with the assistance of the Banus family, who were personal friends of dictator Francisco Franco and had already developed the later-controversial Valle de los Caídos, developed the high-end tourist resort Puerto Banus. The resort opened to much fanfare in 1970. Celebrities in attendance included Franco's designated successor, Juan Carlos (then Prince of Asturias), Prince Rainier of Monaco and his wife Grace Kelly, and Aga Khan IV; entertainers included Julio Iglesias. In 1973, exiled dictator Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar, who had left Cuba with a fortune estimated at between $100 and $300 million and lived extravagantly in various Iberian resorts, died of a heart attack there.[citation needed] Fugitive financier Marc Rich bought a house in Marbella, renounced his American citizenship and claimed Spanish citizenship during his decades of evading American income taxes,[57] although he spent more time in Switzerland, where he died.

In 1974, Prince Fahd arrived in Marbella from Monte Carlo.[58] Until his death in 2005, Prince Fahd was a frequent and profligate guest. Marbella welcomed his retinue of over a thousand people spending petro-dollars.[59] The then-anonymous Osama bin Laden visited on a number of occasions with his family between 1977 and 1988.[60]

 
King Fahd of Saudi Arabia. His entourage used to spend up to €5 million a day in Marbella.

In the 1980s, Marbella continued as a popular jet set destination. However, the 1987 kidnapping of Melodie Nakachian, the daughter of local billionaire philanthropist Raymond Nakachian and the Korean singer Kimera, focused less-favourable international media scrutiny on Marbella, even though a police raid ultimately freed her.[61]

From the first democratic elections after the adoption of the 1978 Spanish Constitution, until 1991, all the mayors of Marbella were members of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party ('El Partido Socialista Obrero Español' or PSOE in Spanish).[62]

In 1991, the builder and president of Atlético Madrid, Jesús Gil was elected mayor of Marbella by a wide majority. He and his party, the right-wing populist Independent Liberal Group ('Grupo Independiente Liberal' or GIL in Spanish), promised to fight petty crime as well as the region's declining prestige. Actor Sean Connery became Marbella's international spokesman, although Connery later ended this business relationship after Gil used his image in an election campaign. Gil's administration facilitated a building boom. However, critics complained about disregard for the existing urban plan, market speculation and environmental predation by developers; the regional Andalusian government suspended some development. Gil despised town-hall formalities, instead ruling from his office at the Club Financiero, and cultivated a maverick image. The PSOE and the People's Party criticized Gil even at the national level, but voters re-elected him and some Spanish celebrities continued to spend summers there. Gil's political party, GIL, also proved popular in other tourist-dependent Costa del Sol towns like Estepona, and even across the Strait of Gibraltar to the Spanish North African cities of Ceuta and Melilla.

In 1999, Gil was convicted of embezzling public funds and falsifying public documents.[63] Gil died in 2004, and his party remained in power until 2006, but related scandals continue to this day, as discussed below.

Landmarks and places of interest

 
Map of the old town with its main buildings

Old Town (Casco Antiguo)

The old town of Marbella includes the ancient city walls and the two historical suburbs of the city, the Barrio Alto, which extends north, and the Barrio Nuevo, located to the east. The ancient walled city retains nearly the same layout as in the 16th century. Here is the Plaza de los Naranjos, an example of Castilian Renaissance design, its plan laid out in the heart of Old Town after the Christian reconquest.[64] Around the square are arranged three remarkable buildings: the town hall, built in 1568 by the Catholic Monarchs in Renaissance style, the Mayor's house, which combines Gothic and Renaissance elements in its façade, with a roof of Mudejar style and fresco murals inside, and the Chapel of Santiago, the oldest religious building in the city, built earlier than the square and not aligned with it, believed to date from the 15th century. Other buildings of interest in the centre are the Church of Santa María de la Encarnación, built in the Baroque style starting in 1618, the Casa del Roque, and the remains of the Arabic castle and defensive walls; also in the Renaissance style are the Capilla de San Juan de Dios (Chapel of St. John of God), the Hospital Real de la Misericordia (Royal Hospital of Mercy) and the Hospital Bazán which now houses the Museum of Contemporary Spanish Engravings.

One of the highlights of the Barrio Alto is the Ermita del Santo Cristo de la Vera Cruz (Hermitage of the Holy Christ of the True Cross), built in the 15th century and enlarged in the 18th century, which consists of a square tower with a roof covered by glazed ceramic tiles. The Barrio Alto is also known as the San Francisco neighborhood, after a Franciscan convent formerly located there. The so-called Nuevo Barrio (New Town), separated from the walled city by the Arroyo de la Represa, has no monumental buildings but retains its original layout and much of its character in the simple whitewashed houses with their tiled roofs and exposed wooden beams, orchards and small corrals.[65]

Historic extension (Ensanche histórico)

 
Constitution Park

Between the old town and the sea in the area known as the "historic extension" (ensanche histórico), there is a small botanical garden on Paseo de la Alameda, and a garden with fountains and a collection of ten sculptures by Salvador Dalí on the Avenida del Mar, which connects the old town with the beach. To the west of this road, passing the Faro de Marbella, is Constitution Park (Parque de la Constitución), which houses the auditorium of the same name and the Skol Apartments, designed in the Modernist style by the Spanish architect Manuel Jaén Albaitero.

Marbella's Golden Mile

What is known as Marbella's Golden Mile is actually a stretch of four miles or 6.4 km which begins at the western edge of Marbella city and stretches to Puerto Banús. The area is home to some of Marbella's most luxurious villas and estates with views of mountain and sea, such as the Palace of King Fahd, as well as some landmark hotels,[66] among them the Melia Don Pepe, the Hotel Marbella Club and the Hotel Puente Romano. The area developed during the tourism boom of the 1960s, where may be found the ruins of the Roman villa by the Rio Verde,[67] and El Ángel, where the land of the old forge works was converted to an agricultural colony, and the Botanical Gardens of El Ángel with gardens of three different styles, dating from the 8th century.

The Golden Mile is divided into two parts by a motorway that runs through it. Along the motorway are strings of business centres, five-star hotels, golf course and other services. The beachside of the motorway is fully developed, while the mountain side is still undergoing development. Urbanisations in the area's sea side are Alhambra del Mar, La Alcazaba, Las Torres, Los Verdiales, Marbellamar, Marina Marbella, Oasis, Rio Verde and Santa Margarita. On the mountainside of the motorway, the following residential areas are currently being developed: Sierra Blanca, Nagüeles, Cascada de Camoján, Jardines Colgantes, Marbella Hill Club, El Venero, El Batatal, La Capellania, La Virginia, Carolina, El Vicario, Altos de Salamanca, Casas del Señorio de Marbella, Coto Real, and Ancon Sierra.[68]

The Golden Mile should not be confused with the New Golden Mile which is a marketing name given to the area between San Pedro de Alcantara and Estepona.[69]

Nueva Andalucía

Nueva Andalucía is an area just west of Marbella and inland from the marina of Puerto Banús. Home to many golf courses, it is also known as Golf Valley. The bullring by Centro Plaza marks the entrance to Nueva Andalucia where the villas and apartments are based on traditional Andalusian architecture and design. Nueva Andalucia is a very popular residential area both due to tis three golf courses, but also due to an increasing number of restaurants and entertainment venues. The three golf courses in Nueva Andalucia are Los Naranjos Golf Club, Las Brisas Golf Club and Aloha Golf.[70][71]

San Pedro Alcántara

At the heart of San Pedro Alcántara are two industrial buildings of the 19th century: the Trapiche de Guadaiza and the sugar mill, which now houses the Ingenio Cultural Centre. The 19th century heritage of San Pedro is also represented by two buildings of colonial style, the parish Church and the Villa of San Luis, residence of the Marqués del Duero. Next to San Pedro, near the mouth of the river Guadalmina, are some of the most important archaeological sites in Marbella: the early Christian Basílica de Vega del Mar, the vaulted Roman baths of Las Bóvedas (the Domes) and the eponymous watch tower of Torre de Las Bóvedas.[72] The important archaeological site of Cerro Colorado is located near Benahavis; it features a chronologically complex stratigraphy that begins in the 4th century BC within a Mastieno (ancient Iberian ethnicity of the Tartessian confederation) area, then a town identified as Punic, and finally a Roman settlement. A series of domestic structures built behind the city walls, and corresponding to these different stages of occupation recorded in the archaeological sequence of the site, characterise the settlement as being fortified. A hoard of three pots filled with silver coins of mostly Hispano-Carthaginian origin, and numerous pieces of precious metalwork, along with clippings and silver ingots, all dating from the 3rd century BC, were found here.[73]

District of Las Chapas

In the eastern part of the municipality in the district of Las Chapas is the site of Rio Real, situated on a promontory near the mouth of the river of the same name. Here traces of Phoenician habitation dating to the early 7th century BC were discovered in excavations made during an archaeological expedition led by Pedro Sánchez in 1998.[74][75] Bronze Age utensils including plates, carinated bowls, lamps and other ceramics of Phoenician and indigenous Iberian types have been found, as well as a few Greek examples. There are two ancient watchtowers, the Torre Río Real (Royal River Tower) and the Torre Ladrones (Tower of Thieves). Among the notable tourist attractions is the residential complex Ciudad Residencial Tiempo Libre (Residential Leisure City),[76] an architectural ensemble of the Modernist movement, which has been a registered property of Bien de Interés Cultural (Heritage of Cultural Interest) since 2006.

Beaches

 
The beach-front in Marbella

The 27 kilometres (17 miles) of coastline within the limits of Marbella is divided into twenty-four beaches with different features; however, due to expansion of the municipality, they are all now semi-urban. They generally have moderate surf, golden or dark sand ranging through fine, medium or coarse in texture, and some gravel. The occupancy rate is usually high to midrange, especially during the summer months, when tourist arrivals are highest. Amongst the various notable beaches are Artola beach, situated in the protected area of the Dunas de Artola, and Cabopino, one of the few nudist beaches in Marbella, near the port of Cabopino. The beaches of Venus and La Fontanilla are centrally located and very popular, and those of Puerto Banús and San Pedro Alcántara have been awarded the blue flag of the Foundation for Environmental Education[77] for compliance with its standards of water quality, safety, general services and environmental management.

Politics and administration

Political administration of the municipal government is run by the Ayuntamiento (City Hall), whose members are elected every four years. Maria Angeles Muñoz, leader of the People's Party (PP) in Marbella, became mayor in 2007, and her party has governed the town ever since. The electoral roll is composed of all residents registered in Marbella who are over age 18 and a citizen of Spain or one of the other member states of the European Union. The Spanish Law on the General Election sets the number of councilors elected according to the municipality's population;[78] the Municipal Corporation of Marbella consists of 27 councilors.

Gil Cases

Corruption accusations and mayor Gil's further conviction in 2002 for diverting public funds to Atlético led to reappraisal of the city's finances. When Jesús Gil y Gil finally resigned that year, he was succeeded by Julián Muñoz, his right-hand man, a former waiter famous for his romantic involvement with singer Isabel Pantoja, a matador's widow.[79] After a power struggle in which Muñoz fired Juan Antonio Roca Nicolas, a planning consultant, for involvement in the Gil-era scandal and in the later scandal discussed below, the city council censured the new mayor and expelled him from office. More than 79 companies and 85 individuals were implicated in the initial corruption scandal (for which Roca had been released from prison upon paying a 450,000 euro fine), and an additional fifty persons and more companies were convicted in June 2013. In a televised debate, Muñoz and Gil each accused the other of having robbed public funds.[80]

After his own party repudiated Muñoz, Marisol Yagüe, a former secretary, became Marbella's new mayor, but was herself arrested and jailed in March 2006. Deputy Mayor Isabel Garcia Marcos was arrested at Malaga's airport en route to a honeymoon in Russia at this time, and police found over €360,000 in cash in a safe in her home.[81] Garcia, a Socialist until her expulsion from that party in 2003, had been known for criticizing Marbella's endemic corruption. Gil died in 2004, a year after Spain's Supreme Court barred him from holding further public office for 28 years for breach of trust and influence-peddling in the earlier cases, as well as shortly after a lower court ordered him to surrender his Atlético shares and fined him $16 million in connection with the 2002 conviction (but allowed him to remain free on bail during his appeal).[79][82]

Operation Malaya

See also: Marbella City Council dissolution

In March 2006, Marbella seemed nearly bankrupt. City councilor Tomás Reñones, a former Atlético Madrid football player, ran Marbella after Mayor Yague and Deputy Mayor Garcia were jailed, but soon ended up in jail as well. On 8 April 2006, the Spanish Senate unanimously approved the report of the General Commission of Autonomous Communities and suspended the city council, the first time such a course of action had occurred in Spain since democracy's restoration.[83] Spain's Prime Minister, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, head of the national PSOE, appointed a committee of auditors to run Marbella temporarily, as well as unravel the financial machinations.

After a short period of interim government, municipal elections were held in May 2007. For the first time, the People's Party (PP) gained a majority, with 16 out of the 27 council seats. The PSOE won 10 council seats, United Left (IU) had 1.[84] In the municipal elections of May 2011, the PP won 15 seats, the PSOE 7, the IU 2, and independents 3.[85][86]

 
City Hall in Plaza de los Naranjos

The investigation, known as the Operation Malaya case, has resulted in numerous convictions and the seizure of goods worth €2.4 million.[87] Today "Marbellan urbanism" is synonymous in Spain with governmental corruption, with as many as 30,000 illegal homes built in the town, without significant educational and health infrastructure.[88]

During the complex, three-year trial (which included over 300 hours of hearings and 400 witnesses), evidence showed that under a scheme masterminded by Roca (a formerly unemployed builder who ran the city's planning department in the 1990s), building permits were issued in exchange for envelopes of cash, and the money then illegally laundered. Although prosecutors had sought even stiffer terms after convicting 50 municipal officials and business executives, in October 2013, Roca was sentenced to 11 years in jail and fined €240m, former mayor Muñoz sentenced to six years, and former mayor Yagüe sentenced to serve two years in prison. Forty of the 95 accused were found not guilty by the Malaga court.[89][90]

The corruption investigation that led to this round of convictions began in 2005, as an investigation into drug moneylaundering.[91] Roca reportedly claimed to control the town after Gil's death. At the height of his wealth he was one of the richest men in Andalucia, having accumulated several hotels, ranches with more than 103 thoroughbred horses and fighting bulls, a private jet, a helicopter, 14 vintage cars, 5 kilos of jewellery and a 275 piece art collection including Miro paintings.[92] However, although Marbella's population had boomed to approximately 160,000 residents during the previous fifteen years, neither additional schools nor health centres were built; the city's infrastructure remained virtually unchanged since 1991. Although the city expanded its workforce from 400 employees in 1991 to 3,200 in 2006, under the GIL administrations Marbella paid neither social security contributions nor taxes for its employees. The town's debt now exceeds over €200 million and precludes necessary infrastructure improvements. Hundreds of the poorly built apartments and homes, many sold to expatriate British and Irish retirees, face demolition as hazardous. Investigating magistrate Miguel Angel Torres Segura, who led the investigations through 2007, was promoted to the criminal court in Granada.[92]

Symbols

The design of the coat of arms and the flag used by Marbella City Hall has been the subject of controversy.[citation needed]

Economy

 
Hotel Don Pepe, designed by Eleuterio Población, opened in 1963

According to 2003 data, Marbella is amongst the municipalities ranking highest in household disposable income per capita in Andalusia, second to Mojácar and matched by four other municipalities, including its neighbour, Benahavís.

Its business sector consisted of 17,647 establishments in 2005, representing a total of 14.7% of the businesses in Malaga province, and showed greater dynamism than the provincial capital itself for growth over the period 1998–2004, when it grew 9% compared to the 2.4% growth rate of Málaga. Compared to the rest of Andalusia, the volume of production in Marbella is higher than that of most other municipalities with similar population, ranking even above the capitals of Almería, Huelva and Jaén.

As in most cities of the Andalusian coast, Marbella's economy revolves around tertiary activities. The service sector accounts for 60% of employment, while trade accounts for almost 20%. The main branches of the service sector are hospitality, real estate, and business services, which underscores the importance of tourism in Marbella's economy. Employment in construction, industry, and agriculture is 14.2%, 3.8%, and 2.4% respectively.

The number of business establishments in the service sector accounts for 87.5% of the total. Businesses in construction account for 9.6% and, in industry, 2.9%. Of these companies, 89.5% have fewer than 5 employees and only 2.3% have a staff of at least 20 employees.

In 2008, a study by the Institute of Statistics of Andalusia (IEA) based on 14 variables (income, equipment, training, etc.), found Marbella was the Andalusian city with the most developed general welfare and the highest quality of life. According to the study's results, Marbella ranks highest in the number of private clinics, sports facilities, and private schools.[93]

In December 2016, an investment fund based in Hong Kong announced that it had acquired 170,000 square metres (1,800,000 square feet) of land near Elviria and planned to invest €300 million to develop a five-star luxury hotel and 120 villas. According to its developer, the future resort "is to be the most luxurious in the country" and will be run by an international hotel chain.[94]

Transport

 
Port of Cabopino

Cities on the coast are accessible by bus from Marbella, including Málaga, Estepona, Torremolinos, Fuengirola and Gibraltar. The area is also served by the A7 motorway; the closest airport is Málaga-Costa Del Sol.

Marine shipping

The four ports of Marbella are primarily recreational; although both Puerto Banús and the Puerto de la Bajadilla are permitted to dock cruise ships, neither operates regular service to other ports. The port of Bajadilla is home to the Marbella fishermen's guild and is used to transport goods.

Rail

Marbella is the most populous municipality in the Iberian Peninsula without a railway station in its territory, and is the only Spanish city of over 100,000 inhabitants not served by rail.[95]

A project is underway to construct a railway (Costa del Sol railway) to connect Nerja, Málaga, and Algeciras. It may be a high speed railway with several stops in Marbella. Until then, the nearest station is near Fuengirola, 27 km (17 miles) distant. Further away is Málaga Maria Zambrano, in Málaga city, 57 km (35 miles) away, and Ronda railway station, also 57 km (35 miles).

Urban bus

Marbella offers residents of the municipality free mobility on its urban bus lines (Urbanos de Marbella) operated by Avanza, thanks to the Tarjeta Municipal de Movilidad.[96] There are currently 14 urban bus lines, spanning from San Pedro de Alcántara to Cabopino,[97] including the seasonal Starlite line available during summers[98] and the L11 available only on October 31st and November 1st. The lines are the following:

  • L1: C.C. La Cañada - Marbella Centro - Puerto Banús.
  • L2: C.C. La Cañada - Miraflores - El Mirador.
  • L3. C.C. La Cañada - Nagüeles - Puerto Banús - El Ángel.
  • L4: Puerto Banús - (El Ángel) - Nueva Andalucía - San Pedro.
  • L5: Puerto Banús - El Ángel - Nueva Andalucía - San Pedro - El Salto.
  • L6: Cabopino - Las Chapas - Marbella Centro - Estación de Autobuses - C.C. La Cañada.
  • L6B: Bello Horizonte - Miraflores - C.C. La Cañada.
  • L7 (circular): San Pedro - Centro de Salud.
  • L8 (night bus): C.C. La Cañada - Marbella Centro - Puerto Banús - San Pedro.
  • L9 (night bus): Cabopino - Las Chapas - Marbella Centro.
  • L10 (seasonal, only during summers): Marbella Centro - Starlite.
  • L11 (seasonal, only on October 31st and November 1st): Marbella Centro - Divina Pastora - Cementerio Nuevo.
  • L12: Hospital Costa del Sol - Marbella Centro - Nueva Andalucía.
  • L13: Hospital Costa del Sol - Marbella Centro - San Pedro.

Intercity bus

Most intercity bus services are operated by CTSA-Portillo. They connect Marbella to other urban centres, such as Málaga and its airport, nearby towns in the interior (Benahavis, Ojen, Ronda), the Campo, including Gibraltar (La Linea and Algeciras), some major cities in Andalusia (Almería, Cádiz, Córdoba, Jerez, Granada, Jaen, Seville, and Úbeda),[99] and Mérida in Extremadura. The central bus station has connections to other domestic destinations, such as Madrid and Barcelona.

Taxis

There are plenty of taxis to Marbella from the airports at Malaga and Gibraltar and from the taxi ranks along the Costa del Sol. Most are clean and non-smoking, as well as being the most comfortable way to travel to local vacation destinations.

Marbella is not formally integrated into the Metropolitan Transportation Consortium Málaga area.

Media

Due to the city's ethnic diversity, Marbella's newspapers and magazines are published in several European languages, among which are La Tribuna de Marbella (in Spanish) and Costa del Sol Nachrichten (in German). In addition, Diario Sur (Spanish) or Southern Journal (English) and La Opinión de Málaga (Spanish) have editorial offices in the city. Among the English language magazines with the largest circulation are those dedicated to fashion and lifestyle, such as Essential Magazine and Society Marbella Magazine.

Marbella has several local television stations, such as M95 Television, Summer TV, and South Coast Television. It also has several digital news dailies, including the Voice of Marbella and Journal of Marbella.

Culture

 
Bronze sculpture by Salvador Dalí on Avenida del Mar

Besides the typical Andalusian cultural events, a variety of annual festivals are held in Marbella, mainly between June and October; other events are held sporadically. Festivals dedicated to music include the Marbella International Opera Festival held in August since 2001,[100] the Marbella Reggae Festival[101] in July, and the Marbella International Film Festival[102] in June at different locations around the city—amongst them the beach, aboard a boat or in Old Town. It also hosts the Marbella International Film Festival,[103] the Spanish Film Festival and the Festival of Independent Theatre.

To provide venues for these and other events, the city has cultural facilities both publicly and privately managed, such as the Auditorium of Constitution Park, the Ingenio Cultural Centre, the Teatro Ciudad de Marbella or Black Box Theatre, among others. In addition, there is a music conservatory, a cinema club and several cinemas showing foreign films dubbed into Castilian.

The International Contemporary Art Fair I, also known as MARB ART, was held in Marbella in 2005, exhibiting works of photography, painting, sculpture and graphic design by over 500 artists; it has been held annually since at the Palace of Congresses. The following year the 2006 extension of the Ateneo de Málaga Marbella (Atheneum of Málaga Marbella) opened, dedicated to the development of artistic and cultural activities.

Amongst local cultural associations is the Cilniana Association, an organisation dedicated to protecting and promoting the heritage of Marbella and neighbouring towns, which publishes its own magazine. Since 2009 the city has been home to Marbella University,[104] the first private university in the province of Málaga. In 2013, the city welcomed the opening of Marbella International University Centre (MIUC),[105] an international higher-education institution focused on Business, Politics and Media, and the only university in Andalusia where courses are taught in both English and Spanish.

 
Hospital Bazán, the Museum of Engraving

Museums

  • Contemporary Spanish Engraving Museum:[106] created in 1992, contains a collection of prints by 20th century artists such as Picasso, Miró, Dalí, Tàpies, Chillida and the El Paso Group (Rafael Canogar, Manolo Millares, Antonio Saura, Pablo Serrano, et al.) amongst others, as well as an exhibition hall dedicated to teaching engraving techniques.
  • Museum Cortijo de Miraflores: in addition to the museum, the farm houses an exhibition hall and other cultural classrooms, amongst them the olive oil mill.[107]
  • Bonsai Museum: opened in 1992, it has a collection of specimens on permanent display and others for sale, with an emphasis on its extensive collection of olive trees[108] and examples of species such as Ginkgo, Oxicedro, Pentafila Pino, and zelcoba, also pines, oaks, and other species.
  • Ralli Museum, dedicated primarily to art in Latin America, it has sculptures by Dalí and Aristide Maillol and paintings by Dalí, Miró,[109] Chagall, Henry Moore, amongst others.
  • Municipal Archaeological Collection: its collection consists of archaeological artefacts found in the municipality.[110]
  • Mechanical Art Museum: a cultural centre located in the 19th-century Barriada del Ingenio,[111] it contains sculptures made from second-hand car parts by Antonio Alonso.

Cuisine

The traditional cuisine of Marbella is that of the Malagueño coast and is based on seafood. The most typical dish is fried fish, using anchovies, mackerel, mullet or squid, amongst others. Gazpacho and garlic soup are very typical. Bakeries sell oil cakes, wine donuts, borrachuelos (aniseed rolls fried with a little wine and dipped into syrup), torrijas (similar to French toast) and churros (fritters). In addition to the traditional native cuisine, there are many restaurants in Marbella that serve food of the international, nouvelle, or fusion cuisines.[112]

Festivals

In June, the Fair and Fiesta of San Bernabe honour the patron saint of Marbella. They last a week, with activities and performances divided in two parts: Fair Day, which began in Old Town and is now held in the Avenida del Doctor Maíz Viñals, and Fair Night, in Arroyo Primero.[113]

October sees the fair and festivals honouring the patron saint of San Pedro Alcantara. These too last a week. The smaller Fair and Festivals of Nueva Andalucía, celebrated in early October in Las Chapas and El Ángel, are also popular.[113]

Throughout the summer season (July to October) most barrios of Marbella have events organised by neighbourhood associations to encourage cultural activities including: bullfights, musical performances, photo competitions, and sporting events. Among the best known associations are those of Santa Marta, Salto del Agua, Leganitos, Divina Pastora, Trapiche, Plaza de Toros and Miraflores.[114]

Other festivals and local celebrations include the Pilgrimages of Cruz de Juanar (May), La Virgen del Carmen (July) and La Virgen Madre (August), as well as the Día del Tostón (November), a traditional celebration which consists of going to the fields to roast chestnuts.[114]

Education

Tourism

The city is especially popular with tourists from Northern Europe[115] (including the United Kingdom, Ireland, Sweden and Germany) and also Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates.[116] Marbella is particularly noted for the presence of aristocrats, celebrities and wealthy people;[117] it is a popular destination for luxury yachts,[118] and increasingly so for cruise ships, which dock in its harbour.[119][120]

The area is popular with golfers and boaters, and there are many private estates and luxury hotels in the vicinity, including the Marbella Club Hotel. Marbella hosts a WTA tennis tournament on red clay, the Andalucia Tennis Experience.

Sights in or near Marbella include:

  • Arabian wall
  • Bonsai museum
  • Museo del Grabado Español Contemporáneo
  • Old city centre
  • Playa de la Bajadilla (beach)
  • Playa de Fontanilla (beach)
  • Puerto Banús, a marina built by José Banús
  • The Golden Mile featuring the Marbella Club Hotel and its beach club, as well as the late King Fahd's palace.
  • Encarnation's Church (Iglesia de la Encarnación). Oldest church in the city situated in the old-town.
  • Basilica Vega del Mar
  • Las Bóvedas

Notable residents

  • Arthur Rubinstein, concert pianist, purchased a house in Marbella in the 1950's. In the 1957 academy award winning documentary film, "Arthur Rubinstein, The Love of Life," the footage of Rubinstein at home was filmed at his Marbella, Spain house,
  • Sean Connery had a residence in Marbella from 1970 to 1998, where he was regularly seen playing golf when not filming.[121]
  • Jean Negulesco, Romanian-American film director and screenwriter, lived in Marbella from the late 1960s until his death on 18 July 1993 at age 93.
  • George Clooney, actor
  • Novak Djokovic
  • Jon Olsson
  • Rick Parfitt OBE, British rock musician from Status Quo, lived in the mountains just outside Marbella.[122]
  • Antonio Banderas, born in the nearby city of Málaga, has been a regular visitor to Marbella where he has a house in Los Monteros. Stella, his daughter with wife actress Melanie Griffith, was born in Marbella in 1999.
  • Arms dealer Monzer al-Kassar was a longtime resident until his imprisonment, and has been nicknamed "The Prince of Marbella".
  • Mike Reid, English actor and comedian, was living in Marbella at the time of his death on 29 July 2007. He was born in Hackney, London, and retired to Marbella a few years before he died.
  • Millie Bobby Brown, English actress and Eleven in Stranger Things was born in Marbella on 19 February 2004.[123]
  • Ráhel Orbán, eldest daughter of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán, moved with her family to Marbella in September 2021.[124]

Twin towns – sister cities

See also: List of twin towns and sister cities in Spain

Marbella is twinned with:[125][126][127]

See also

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This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the Spanish Wikipedia

External links

 
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marbella.
 
Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Marbella.
  • Ayuntamiento de Marbella—official Marbella city hall site, partly in English, mostly in Spanish
  • Marbella Luxury Rehab Center

January 14, 2023
marbella, automobile, seat, ɑːr, ɑːr, spanish, maɾˈβeʎa, city, municipality, southern, spain, belonging, province, málaga, autonomous, community, andalusia, part, costa, headquarters, association, municipalities, region, also, head, judicial, district, that, b. For the automobile see SEAT Marbella Marbella UK m ɑːr ˈ b eɪ j e mar BAY ye 2 3 US m ɑːr ˈ b ɛ l e mar BEL e 4 Spanish maɾˈbeʎa is a city and municipality in southern Spain belonging to the province of Malaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia It is part of the Costa del Sol and is the headquarters of the Association of Municipalities of the region it is also the head of the judicial district that bears its name MarbellaMunicipalityMarbella in early September 2009FlagSealLocation of the municipality of Marbella in Province of MalagaMarbellaLocation in AndalusiaShow map of AndalusiaMarbellaMarbella Spain Show map of SpainCoordinates 36 31 0 N 4 53 0 W 36 51667 N 4 88333 W 36 51667 4 88333 Coordinates 36 31 0 N 4 53 0 W 36 51667 N 4 88333 W 36 51667 4 88333Country SpainAutonomous community AndalusiaProvinceMalagaComarcaCosta del Sol OccidentalGovernment TypeMayor council BodyAyuntamiento de Marbella MayorMaria Angeles Munoz People s Party Area Total114 3 km2 44 1 sq mi Land114 3 km2 44 1 sq mi Water0 00 km2 0 00 sq mi Population 2018 1 Total141 463 Density1 200 km2 3 200 sq mi Time zoneUTC 1 CET Summer DST UTC 2 CEST Websitewww marbella esClick on the map for a fullscreen viewMarbella is situated on the Mediterranean Sea between Malaga and the Strait of Gibraltar in the foothills of the Sierra Blanca The municipality covers an area of 117 square kilometres 45 sq mi crossed by highways on the coast which are its main entrances In 2018 the population of the city was 141 463 inhabitants 5 making it the second most populous municipality in the province of Malaga and the eighth in Andalusia It is one of the most important tourist cities of the Costa del Sol and throughout most of the year is an international tourist attraction due mainly to its climate and tourist infrastructure The city also has a significant archaeological heritage 6 several museums 7 8 and performance spaces 9 and a cultural calendar 10 with events ranging from reggae concerts 11 to opera performances 12 Contents 1 Geography 1 1 Topography 1 2 Hydrography 1 3 Climate 1 4 Flora and fauna 2 Demographics 2 1 Demonyms 3 History 3 1 Prehistory and antiquity 3 2 Middle Ages 3 3 Early modern age 3 4 19th century 3 5 20th century 4 Landmarks and places of interest 4 1 Old Town Casco Antiguo 4 2 Historic extension Ensanche historico 4 3 Marbella s Golden Mile 4 4 Nueva Andalucia 4 5 San Pedro Alcantara 4 6 District of Las Chapas 4 7 Beaches 5 Politics and administration 5 1 Gil Cases 5 2 Operation Malaya 5 3 Symbols 6 Economy 7 Transport 7 1 Marine shipping 7 2 Rail 7 3 Urban bus 7 4 Intercity bus 7 5 Taxis 8 Media 9 Culture 9 1 Museums 9 2 Cuisine 9 3 Festivals 10 Education 11 Tourism 12 Notable residents 13 Twin towns sister cities 14 See also 15 References 16 External linksGeography EditThe Marbella municipality occupies a strip of land that extends along forty four kilometres 27 miles of coastline of the Penibetico region sheltered by the slopes of the coastal mountain range which includes the Bermeja Palmitera Royal White and Alpujata sub ranges Due to the proximity of the mountains to the coast the city has a large gap between its north and south sides thus providing views of the sea and mountain vistas from almost every part of the city The coastline is heavily urbanised most of the land not built up with golf courses has been developed with small residential areas Marbella is bordered on the north by the municipalities of Istan and Ojen on the northwest by Benahavis on the west by Estepona and on the northeast by Mijas The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south Topography Edit Dunes of Artola the Sierra Blanca in the background There are five geomorphological units the Sierra Blanca the Sierra Blanca piedmont foothills the lower hill country the plains and the coastal dunes 13 The Sierra Blanca is most centrally located in the province looming over the old village This mountain range has three peaks La Concha located further west at 1 215 m 3 986 feet above sea level Juanar Cross located eastward within the municipality of Ojen at 1 178 m 3 865 feet above sea level and the highest Mount Lastonar located between the two at 1 270 m 4 170 feet Marbella s topography is characterised by extensive coastal plains formed from eroded mountains 14 North of the plain is an area of elevations from 100 and 400 m 330 and 1 300 feet occupied by low hills with foothills and steeper slopes of the mountains behind The coast is generally low and has sandy beaches that are more extensive further east between the fishing port and Cabopino Despite the intense urbanisation of the coast it still retains a natural area of dunes the Artola Dunes Dunas de Artola at the eastern end of town Hydrography Edit The La Concepcion reservoir The entire region lies within the Andalusian Mediterranean Basin The rivers are short and have very steep banks so that flash floods are common 15 These include the Guadalmina the Guadaiza the Verde and the Rio Real which provide most of the water supply The irregularity of rainfall has resulted in intermittent rivers that often run dry in summer most of the many streams that cross the city have been bridged The La Concepcion reservoir supplies the population with drinking water apart from this there are other reservoirs like El Viejo and El Nuevo the Old and the New that irrigated the old agricultural colony of El Angel and Las Medranas and Llano de la Leche that watered the plantations of the colony of San Pedro de Alcantara Climate Edit Marbella has a subtropical Mediterranean climate 16 Koppen Csa with humid very mild winters for European standards and warm to hot dry summers Marbella is protected on its northern side by the coastal mountains of the Cordillera Penibetica and so enjoys a climate with an average annual temperature between 18 to 19 C 64 to 66 F During winters the highest peaks of the nearby mountain range are occasionally covered with snow which can be seen from the coastline of Marbella when it snows on the Sierra Blanca mountain peak at 1 275 m 4 183 ft 17 18 Average rainfall is 645 8 mm 25 43 in while hours of sunshine average above 2 900 annually 19 Climate data for Marbella 1981 2010Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec YearAverage high C F 16 4 61 5 16 9 62 4 18 4 65 1 19 8 67 6 22 2 72 0 24 8 76 6 26 9 80 4 27 3 81 1 25 5 77 9 22 6 72 7 19 5 67 1 17 3 63 1 21 5 70 6 Daily mean C F 12 9 55 2 13 5 56 3 15 0 59 0 16 4 61 5 18 7 65 7 21 5 70 7 23 6 74 5 24 0 75 2 22 2 72 0 19 4 66 9 16 2 61 2 14 0 57 2 18 1 64 6 Average low C F 9 4 48 9 10 0 50 0 11 6 52 9 12 9 55 2 15 1 59 2 18 2 64 8 20 3 68 5 20 6 69 1 18 9 66 0 16 2 61 2 12 9 55 2 10 7 51 3 14 7 58 5 Average precipitation mm inches 88 8 3 50 75 8 2 98 57 3 2 26 50 8 2 00 25 2 0 99 5 7 0 22 1 1 0 04 5 8 0 23 29 9 1 18 64 6 2 54 108 8 4 28 132 0 5 20 645 8 25 42 Average precipitation days 1 mm 7 3 6 7 5 7 6 2 4 4 0 9 0 4 0 4 2 7 5 7 7 0 8 8 56 2Source World Meteorological Organization WMO 20 Flora and fauna Edit Playa de Cabopino Cabopino beach of the Dunas de Artola Because most of the mountain areas around Marbella cannot be managed by the City Council and they are under the management of the central government remnants of the land in its natural state are still preserved in the mountains where there are chestnut and cherry trees reforested firs Aleppo Monterrey and maritime pines pinyons and ferns The fauna is represented by golden eagles Bonelli s eagles short toed eagles hawks falcons vultures genets or musk cats badgers wild goats deer martens foxes and rabbits 21 The coast has the Natural Monument site of the Dunas de Artola one of the few protected natural beaches of the Costa del Sol which contains marram grass sea holly sea daffodils and shrubs such as large fruited juniper 22 The Posidonia oceanica endemic to the Mediterranean is found in the Cabopino area it is an important part of the ecosystem in the sea around Marbella 23 Demographics Edit Marbella urbanisation much of the population is dispersed in low density developments Example here Elviria According to the census of the INE for 2018 Marbella had a population of 141 463 inhabitants 24 which ranked it as the second most populous city in the province of Malaga and eighth in Andalusia after surpassing Cadiz in 2008 25 26 Unlike other towns in the Costa del Sol Marbella had a significant population before the population explosion caused by the tourist boom of the 1960s The census counted about 10 000 people in 1950 population growth since has been as great as that of neighboring towns Between 1950 and 2001 the population grew by 897 with the decade of the 1960s having the highest relative increase at 141 In 2001 only 26 2 of Marbella s population had been born there 15 9 were foreign born and those born in other towns in Spain made up the difference During the summer months the population of Marbella increases by 30 with the arrival of tourists and foreigners who have their second homes in the area 27 The population is concentrated in two main centres Marbella and San Pedro Alcantara the rest is scattered in many developments in the districts of Nueva Andalucia and Las Chapas located along the coast and on the mountain slopes According to a study by the Association of Municipalities of the Costa del Sol based on the production of solid waste in 2003 Marbella had a population of about 246 000 inhabitants almost twice that of the population census of 2008 From the estimated volume of municipal waste in 2010 the City calculates the population during the summer months at around 400 000 people while official police sources estimated it at about 500 000 with a peak of up to 700 000 people citation needed Demonyms Edit Traditionally the people of Marbella have been called marbelleros in the local vernacular and marbellenses in more formal registers these names have appeared in dictionaries and encyclopedias 28 Since the mid 1950s however Marbellan residents have been called marbellis or marbellies the only gentilic or demonym that appears in the Diccionario de la Lengua Espanola Dictionary of the Spanish Language published by the Royal Spanish Academy 29 The use of marbelli as a gentilic was popularised by the writer and journalist Victor de la Serna 1896 1958 who wrote a series of documentary articles on The Navy of Andalucia in his research he had come upon the Historia de Malaga y Su Provincia History of Malaga and the Province by Francisco Guillen Robles who used the plural word marbellies to designate the Muslim inhabitants of Marbella 30 History EditPrehistory and antiquity Edit Remains of the Roman bridge of Marbella Archaeological excavations have been made in the mountains around Marbella which point to human habitation in Paleolithic and Neolithic times Some historians believe that the first settlement on the present site of Marbella was founded by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BC as they are known to have established several colonies on the coast of Malaga province However no remains have been found of any significant settlement although some artefacts of Phoenician and later Carthaginian settlements have been unearthed in different parts of the municipality as in the fields of Rio Real and Cerro Torron 31 The existence of a Roman population centre in what is now the El Casco Antiguo Old Town is suggested by three Ionic capitals embedded in one section of the Murallas del Castillo Moorish castle walls the reused materials of a building from earlier times Recent discoveries in La Calle Escuelas School Street and other remains scattered throughout the old town testify to a Roman occupation as well West of the city on the grounds of the Hotel Puente Romano is a small 1st century Roman Bridge over a stream 32 There are ruins of other Roman settlements along the Verde and Guadalmina rivers Villa Romana on the Rio Verde Green River the Roman baths at Guadalmina and the ruins of a Roman villa and an early Byzantine basilica at Vega del Mar built in the 3rd century and surrounded by a paleo Christian necropolis later used as a burial ground by the Visigoths All of these further demonstrate a continued human presence in the area In Roman times the city was called Salduba Salt City 33 Middle Ages Edit Moorish defensive walls of Marbella During the period of Islamic rule after the Normans lay waste to the coast of Malaga in the 10th century the Caliphate of Cordoba fortified the coastline and built a string of several lighthouse towers along it In the Umayyad fashion 34 they constructed a citadel the Alcazaba and a wall to protect the town 35 which was made up of narrow streets and small buildings with large patios the most notable buildings being the citadel and the mosque The village was surrounded by orchards its most notable crops were figs and mulberry trees for silkworm cultivation The current name most likely developed from the name the Arabs gave it Marbal la مربلة 36 which may in turn derive according to some linguistic investigations from a previous Iberian place name The traveller Ibn Battuta characterised it as a pretty little town in a fertile district 37 38 During the time of the first kingdoms of Taifa Marbil la was disputed by the Taifas of Algeciras and of Malaga eventually falling into the orbit of Malaga which in turn later became part of the Nazarid Kingdom In 1283 the Marinid sultan Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd Al Haqq launched a campaign against the Kingdom of Granada Peace between the Marinid dynasty and the Nasrid dynasty was achieved with the signing of the Treaty of Marbella on 6 May 1286 by which all the Marinid possessions in Al Andalus were restored to the Nazarid sultan 39 Early modern age Edit Partial view of the main facade of the Casa del Corregidor built in the 16th century in the Plaza de los Naranjos On 11 June 1485 the town passed into the hands of the Crown of Castile without bloodshed The Catholic Monarchs gave Marbella the title of city and capital of the region and made it a realengo royal protectorate The Plaza de los Naranjos was built along the lines of Castilian urban design about this time as well as some of the historical buildings that surround it The Fuerte de San Luis de Marbella Fort of San Luis was built in 1554 by Charles V The main door faced north and was protected by a moat with a drawbridge Today the ruins of the fort house a museum and on the grounds are the Iglesia del Santo Cristo de la Vera Cruz Church of the Holy Christ of the True Cross and Ermita del Calvario Calvary Chapel Sugar cane was introduced to Marbella in 1644 the cultivation of which spread on the Malaga province coast 40 resulting in the construction of numerous sugar mills such as Trapiche del Prado de Marbella 19th century Edit Main article Marbella blast furnaces In 1828 Malaga businessman Manuel Agustin Heredia founded a company called La Concepcion 41 to mine the magnetite iron ores 42 of the Sierra Blanca at nearby Ojen due to the availability of charcoal made from the trees of the mountain slopes and water from the Verde River as a ready supply of both was needed for the manufacture of iron In 1832 the company built the first charcoal fired blast furnace for non military use in Spain 43 these iron smelting operations ultimately produced up to 75 of the country s cast iron By 1860 competition from the coke fired blast furnaces in northern Spain had made the plant uneconomical In 1860 the 1st Marquess of Duero founded an agricultural colony for the unemployed iron workers now the heart of San Pedro de Alcantara 44 The simultaneous dismantling of the iron industry based in the forges of El Angel and La Concepcion disrupted the local economy Much of the population had to return to farming or fishing for a livelihood The situation was compounded by the widespread crisis of traditional agriculture and by the epidemic of phylloxera blight in the vineyards 45 causing Marbella to suffer high unemployment an increase in poverty and the starvation of many day labourers The Marquess of Duero The associated infrastructure built for the installation of the foundry of El Angel in 1871 by the British owned Marbella Iron Ore Company 46 temporarily relieved the situation and even made the city a destination for immigrants increasing its population However the company did not survive the worldwide economic crisis of 1893 and closed its doors in that year due to the difficulty of finding a market for the magnetite iron ore it mined 47 In the late 19th century Marbella was a village composed of three parts the main districts the Barrio Alto or San Francisco and the Barrio Nuevo There were three smaller nuclei arranged around the old ironworks and the farm model of the colony of San Pedro Alcantara as well as isolated dwellings in orchards and farms The general population was divided between a small group of oligarchs and the working people the middle class being practically non existent 20th century Edit In the early decades of the century the first hotels were built El Comercial which opened in 1918 and the Miramar in 1926 48 During the Second Republic Marbella experienced major social changes and contentious political parties mobilized As the Spanish Civil War began in the late 1930s Marbella and Casare suffered more anticlerical violence than the rest of western Malaga province The day after the failed uprising which led to the civil war several religious buildings in Marbella were set on fire Only the walls of the Church of St Mary of the Incarnation and the Church of San Pedro Alcantara were left standing 49 With the aid of Fascist Italian troops Nationalist forces seized Marbella during the first months of the war It became a haven for prominent Nazis including Leon Degrelle and Wolfgang Jugler and Falangist personalities like Jose Antonio Giron de Velasco 50 and Jose Banus 51 After the Second World War Marbella was a small jasmine lined village with only 900 inhabitants Ricardo Soriano Marquis of Ivanrey moved to Marbella and popularised it among his rich and famous friends 52 In 1943 he acquired a country estate located between Marbella and San Pedro called El Rodeo and later built a resort there called Venta y Albergues El Rodeo beginning the development of tourism in Marbella 53 Soriano s nephew Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe Langenburg descendant of a high ranking aristocratic family his mother Maria de la Piedad de Yturbe y Scholtz Hersmendorff was the Marquesa de Belvis de las Navas acquired another estate Finca Santa Margarita In 1954 he opened the Marbella Club an international resort aimed at movie stars business executives and the nobility Both resorts came to be frequented by members of European aristocratic families with famous names Bismarck Rothschild Thurn und Taxis Metternich de Mora y Aragon de Salamanca or Thyssen Bornemisza This transformed Marbella into a destination for the international jet set 52 Trading on Prince Alfonso s kinship to the royal courts of Europe his hotel quickly proved popular with vacationing members of Europe s social elites for its casual but discreet luxury Jaime de Mora y Aragon a Spanish bon vivant and brother to Fabiola Queen of the Belgians as well as Adnan Khashoggi were frequent visitors 54 55 Prince Alfonso s first marriage was to Princess Ira von Furstenberg an Agnelli heiress Princess Marie Louise of Prussia great granddaughter of Kaiser Wilhelm II and her husband Count Rudolf Rudi von Schonburg Glauchau eventually worked closely with the new proprietors the Shamoon family who took over the Marbella Club Hotel from Prince Alfonso 56 Luxury car parked in Puerto Banus In 1966 Prince Alfonso hired a Beverly Hills architect and with the assistance of the Banus family who were personal friends of dictator Francisco Franco and had already developed the later controversial Valle de los Caidos developed the high end tourist resort Puerto Banus The resort opened to much fanfare in 1970 Celebrities in attendance included Franco s designated successor Juan Carlos then Prince of Asturias Prince Rainier of Monaco and his wife Grace Kelly and Aga Khan IV entertainers included Julio Iglesias In 1973 exiled dictator Fulgencio Batista y Zaldivar who had left Cuba with a fortune estimated at between 100 and 300 million and lived extravagantly in various Iberian resorts died of a heart attack there citation needed Fugitive financier Marc Rich bought a house in Marbella renounced his American citizenship and claimed Spanish citizenship during his decades of evading American income taxes 57 although he spent more time in Switzerland where he died In 1974 Prince Fahd arrived in Marbella from Monte Carlo 58 Until his death in 2005 Prince Fahd was a frequent and profligate guest Marbella welcomed his retinue of over a thousand people spending petro dollars 59 The then anonymous Osama bin Laden visited on a number of occasions with his family between 1977 and 1988 60 King Fahd of Saudi Arabia His entourage used to spend up to 5 million a day in Marbella In the 1980s Marbella continued as a popular jet set destination However the 1987 kidnapping of Melodie Nakachian the daughter of local billionaire philanthropist Raymond Nakachian and the Korean singer Kimera focused less favourable international media scrutiny on Marbella even though a police raid ultimately freed her 61 From the first democratic elections after the adoption of the 1978 Spanish Constitution until 1991 all the mayors of Marbella were members of the Spanish Socialist Workers Party El Partido Socialista Obrero Espanol or PSOE in Spanish 62 In 1991 the builder and president of Atletico Madrid Jesus Gil was elected mayor of Marbella by a wide majority He and his party the right wing populist Independent Liberal Group Grupo Independiente Liberal or GIL in Spanish promised to fight petty crime as well as the region s declining prestige Actor Sean Connery became Marbella s international spokesman although Connery later ended this business relationship after Gil used his image in an election campaign Gil s administration facilitated a building boom However critics complained about disregard for the existing urban plan market speculation and environmental predation by developers the regional Andalusian government suspended some development Gil despised town hall formalities instead ruling from his office at the Club Financiero and cultivated a maverick image The PSOE and the People s Party criticized Gil even at the national level but voters re elected him and some Spanish celebrities continued to spend summers there Gil s political party GIL also proved popular in other tourist dependent Costa del Sol towns like Estepona and even across the Strait of Gibraltar to the Spanish North African cities of Ceuta and Melilla In 1999 Gil was convicted of embezzling public funds and falsifying public documents 63 Gil died in 2004 and his party remained in power until 2006 but related scandals continue to this day as discussed below Landmarks and places of interest Edit Map of the old town with its main buildings Old Town Casco Antiguo Edit The old town of Marbella includes the ancient city walls and the two historical suburbs of the city the Barrio Alto which extends north and the Barrio Nuevo located to the east The ancient walled city retains nearly the same layout as in the 16th century Here is the Plaza de los Naranjos an example of Castilian Renaissance design its plan laid out in the heart of Old Town after the Christian reconquest 64 Around the square are arranged three remarkable buildings the town hall built in 1568 by the Catholic Monarchs in Renaissance style the Mayor s house which combines Gothic and Renaissance elements in its facade with a roof of Mudejar style and fresco murals inside and the Chapel of Santiago the oldest religious building in the city built earlier than the square and not aligned with it believed to date from the 15th century Other buildings of interest in the centre are the Church of Santa Maria de la Encarnacion built in the Baroque style starting in 1618 the Casa del Roque and the remains of the Arabic castle and defensive walls also in the Renaissance style are the Capilla de San Juan de Dios Chapel of St John of God the Hospital Real de la Misericordia Royal Hospital of Mercy and the Hospital Bazan which now houses the Museum of Contemporary Spanish Engravings Ermita del Santo Cristo One of the highlights of the Barrio Alto is the Ermita del Santo Cristo de la Vera Cruz Hermitage of the Holy Christ of the True Cross built in the 15th century and enlarged in the 18th century which consists of a square tower with a roof covered by glazed ceramic tiles The Barrio Alto is also known as the San Francisco neighborhood after a Franciscan convent formerly located there The so called Nuevo Barrio New Town separated from the walled city by the Arroyo de la Represa has no monumental buildings but retains its original layout and much of its character in the simple whitewashed houses with their tiled roofs and exposed wooden beams orchards and small corrals 65 Historic extension Ensanche historico Edit Constitution Park Between the old town and the sea in the area known as the historic extension ensanche historico there is a small botanical garden on Paseo de la Alameda and a garden with fountains and a collection of ten sculptures by Salvador Dali on the Avenida del Mar which connects the old town with the beach To the west of this road passing the Faro de Marbella is Constitution Park Parque de la Constitucion which houses the auditorium of the same name and the Skol Apartments designed in the Modernist style by the Spanish architect Manuel Jaen Albaitero Marbella s Golden Mile Edit What is known as Marbella s Golden Mile is actually a stretch of four miles or 6 4 km which begins at the western edge of Marbella city and stretches to Puerto Banus The area is home to some of Marbella s most luxurious villas and estates with views of mountain and sea such as the Palace of King Fahd as well as some landmark hotels 66 among them the Melia Don Pepe the Hotel Marbella Club and the Hotel Puente Romano The area developed during the tourism boom of the 1960s where may be found the ruins of the Roman villa by the Rio Verde 67 and El Angel where the land of the old forge works was converted to an agricultural colony and the Botanical Gardens of El Angel with gardens of three different styles dating from the 8th century The Golden Mile is divided into two parts by a motorway that runs through it Along the motorway are strings of business centres five star hotels golf course and other services The beachside of the motorway is fully developed while the mountain side is still undergoing development Urbanisations in the area s sea side are Alhambra del Mar La Alcazaba Las Torres Los Verdiales Marbellamar Marina Marbella Oasis Rio Verde and Santa Margarita On the mountainside of the motorway the following residential areas are currently being developed Sierra Blanca Nagueles Cascada de Camojan Jardines Colgantes Marbella Hill Club El Venero El Batatal La Capellania La Virginia Carolina El Vicario Altos de Salamanca Casas del Senorio de Marbella Coto Real and Ancon Sierra 68 The Golden Mile should not be confused with the New Golden Mile which is a marketing name given to the area between San Pedro de Alcantara and Estepona 69 Nueva Andalucia Edit Nueva Andalucia is an area just west of Marbella and inland from the marina of Puerto Banus Home to many golf courses it is also known as Golf Valley The bullring by Centro Plaza marks the entrance to Nueva Andalucia where the villas and apartments are based on traditional Andalusian architecture and design Nueva Andalucia is a very popular residential area both due to tis three golf courses but also due to an increasing number of restaurants and entertainment venues The three golf courses in Nueva Andalucia are Los Naranjos Golf Club Las Brisas Golf Club and Aloha Golf 70 71 San Pedro Alcantara Edit At the heart of San Pedro Alcantara are two industrial buildings of the 19th century the Trapiche de Guadaiza and the sugar mill which now houses the Ingenio Cultural Centre The 19th century heritage of San Pedro is also represented by two buildings of colonial style the parish Church and the Villa of San Luis residence of the Marques del Duero Next to San Pedro near the mouth of the river Guadalmina are some of the most important archaeological sites in Marbella the early Christian Basilica de Vega del Mar the vaulted Roman baths of Las Bovedas the Domes and the eponymous watch tower of Torre de Las Bovedas 72 The important archaeological site of Cerro Colorado is located near Benahavis it features a chronologically complex stratigraphy that begins in the 4th century BC within a Mastieno ancient Iberian ethnicity of the Tartessian confederation area then a town identified as Punic and finally a Roman settlement A series of domestic structures built behind the city walls and corresponding to these different stages of occupation recorded in the archaeological sequence of the site characterise the settlement as being fortified A hoard of three pots filled with silver coins of mostly Hispano Carthaginian origin and numerous pieces of precious metalwork along with clippings and silver ingots all dating from the 3rd century BC were found here 73 District of Las Chapas Edit In the eastern part of the municipality in the district of Las Chapas is the site of Rio Real situated on a promontory near the mouth of the river of the same name Here traces of Phoenician habitation dating to the early 7th century BC were discovered in excavations made during an archaeological expedition led by Pedro Sanchez in 1998 74 75 Bronze Age utensils including plates carinated bowls lamps and other ceramics of Phoenician and indigenous Iberian types have been found as well as a few Greek examples There are two ancient watchtowers the Torre Rio Real Royal River Tower and the Torre Ladrones Tower of Thieves Among the notable tourist attractions is the residential complex Ciudad Residencial Tiempo Libre Residential Leisure City 76 an architectural ensemble of the Modernist movement which has been a registered property of Bien de Interes Cultural Heritage of Cultural Interest since 2006 Beaches Edit The beach front in Marbella The 27 kilometres 17 miles of coastline within the limits of Marbella is divided into twenty four beaches with different features however due to expansion of the municipality they are all now semi urban They generally have moderate surf golden or dark sand ranging through fine medium or coarse in texture and some gravel The occupancy rate is usually high to midrange especially during the summer months when tourist arrivals are highest Amongst the various notable beaches are Artola beach situated in the protected area of the Dunas de Artola and Cabopino one of the few nudist beaches in Marbella near the port of Cabopino The beaches of Venus and La Fontanilla are centrally located and very popular and those of Puerto Banus and San Pedro Alcantara have been awarded the blue flag of the Foundation for Environmental Education 77 for compliance with its standards of water quality safety general services and environmental management Politics and administration EditPolitical administration of the municipal government is run by the Ayuntamiento City Hall whose members are elected every four years Maria Angeles Munoz leader of the People s Party PP in Marbella became mayor in 2007 and her party has governed the town ever since The electoral roll is composed of all residents registered in Marbella who are over age 18 and a citizen of Spain or one of the other member states of the European Union The Spanish Law on the General Election sets the number of councilors elected according to the municipality s population 78 the Municipal Corporation of Marbella consists of 27 councilors Gil Cases Edit Corruption accusations and mayor Gil s further conviction in 2002 for diverting public funds to Atletico led to reappraisal of the city s finances When Jesus Gil y Gil finally resigned that year he was succeeded by Julian Munoz his right hand man a former waiter famous for his romantic involvement with singer Isabel Pantoja a matador s widow 79 After a power struggle in which Munoz fired Juan Antonio Roca Nicolas a planning consultant for involvement in the Gil era scandal and in the later scandal discussed below the city council censured the new mayor and expelled him from office More than 79 companies and 85 individuals were implicated in the initial corruption scandal for which Roca had been released from prison upon paying a 450 000 euro fine and an additional fifty persons and more companies were convicted in June 2013 In a televised debate Munoz and Gil each accused the other of having robbed public funds 80 After his own party repudiated Munoz Marisol Yague a former secretary became Marbella s new mayor but was herself arrested and jailed in March 2006 Deputy Mayor Isabel Garcia Marcos was arrested at Malaga s airport en route to a honeymoon in Russia at this time and police found over 360 000 in cash in a safe in her home 81 Garcia a Socialist until her expulsion from that party in 2003 had been known for criticizing Marbella s endemic corruption Gil died in 2004 a year after Spain s Supreme Court barred him from holding further public office for 28 years for breach of trust and influence peddling in the earlier cases as well as shortly after a lower court ordered him to surrender his Atletico shares and fined him 16 million in connection with the 2002 conviction but allowed him to remain free on bail during his appeal 79 82 Operation Malaya Edit See also Marbella City Council dissolution In March 2006 Marbella seemed nearly bankrupt City councilor Tomas Renones a former Atletico Madrid football player ran Marbella after Mayor Yague and Deputy Mayor Garcia were jailed but soon ended up in jail as well On 8 April 2006 the Spanish Senate unanimously approved the report of the General Commission of Autonomous Communities and suspended the city council the first time such a course of action had occurred in Spain since democracy s restoration 83 Spain s Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero head of the national PSOE appointed a committee of auditors to run Marbella temporarily as well as unravel the financial machinations After a short period of interim government municipal elections were held in May 2007 For the first time the People s Party PP gained a majority with 16 out of the 27 council seats The PSOE won 10 council seats United Left IU had 1 84 In the municipal elections of May 2011 the PP won 15 seats the PSOE 7 the IU 2 and independents 3 85 86 City Hall in Plaza de los Naranjos The investigation known as the Operation Malaya case has resulted in numerous convictions and the seizure of goods worth 2 4 million 87 Today Marbellan urbanism is synonymous in Spain with governmental corruption with as many as 30 000 illegal homes built in the town without significant educational and health infrastructure 88 During the complex three year trial which included over 300 hours of hearings and 400 witnesses evidence showed that under a scheme masterminded by Roca a formerly unemployed builder who ran the city s planning department in the 1990s building permits were issued in exchange for envelopes of cash and the money then illegally laundered Although prosecutors had sought even stiffer terms after convicting 50 municipal officials and business executives in October 2013 Roca was sentenced to 11 years in jail and fined 240m former mayor Munoz sentenced to six years and former mayor Yague sentenced to serve two years in prison Forty of the 95 accused were found not guilty by the Malaga court 89 90 The corruption investigation that led to this round of convictions began in 2005 as an investigation into drug moneylaundering 91 Roca reportedly claimed to control the town after Gil s death At the height of his wealth he was one of the richest men in Andalucia having accumulated several hotels ranches with more than 103 thoroughbred horses and fighting bulls a private jet a helicopter 14 vintage cars 5 kilos of jewellery and a 275 piece art collection including Miro paintings 92 However although Marbella s population had boomed to approximately 160 000 residents during the previous fifteen years neither additional schools nor health centres were built the city s infrastructure remained virtually unchanged since 1991 Although the city expanded its workforce from 400 employees in 1991 to 3 200 in 2006 under the GIL administrations Marbella paid neither social security contributions nor taxes for its employees The town s debt now exceeds over 200 million and precludes necessary infrastructure improvements Hundreds of the poorly built apartments and homes many sold to expatriate British and Irish retirees face demolition as hazardous Investigating magistrate Miguel Angel Torres Segura who led the investigations through 2007 was promoted to the criminal court in Granada 92 Symbols Edit The design of the coat of arms and the flag used by Marbella City Hall has been the subject of controversy citation needed Economy EditThis section does not cite any sources Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources Unsourced material may be challenged and removed April 2013 Learn how and when to remove this template message Hotel Don Pepe designed by Eleuterio Poblacion opened in 1963 According to 2003 data Marbella is amongst the municipalities ranking highest in household disposable income per capita in Andalusia second to Mojacar and matched by four other municipalities including its neighbour Benahavis Its business sector consisted of 17 647 establishments in 2005 representing a total of 14 7 of the businesses in Malaga province and showed greater dynamism than the provincial capital itself for growth over the period 1998 2004 when it grew 9 compared to the 2 4 growth rate of Malaga Compared to the rest of Andalusia the volume of production in Marbella is higher than that of most other municipalities with similar population ranking even above the capitals of Almeria Huelva and Jaen Puerto Banus As in most cities of the Andalusian coast Marbella s economy revolves around tertiary activities The service sector accounts for 60 of employment while trade accounts for almost 20 The main branches of the service sector are hospitality real estate and business services which underscores the importance of tourism in Marbella s economy Employment in construction industry and agriculture is 14 2 3 8 and 2 4 respectively The number of business establishments in the service sector accounts for 87 5 of the total Businesses in construction account for 9 6 and in industry 2 9 Of these companies 89 5 have fewer than 5 employees and only 2 3 have a staff of at least 20 employees In 2008 a study by the Institute of Statistics of Andalusia IEA based on 14 variables income equipment training etc found Marbella was the Andalusian city with the most developed general welfare and the highest quality of life According to the study s results Marbella ranks highest in the number of private clinics sports facilities and private schools 93 In December 2016 an investment fund based in Hong Kong announced that it had acquired 170 000 square metres 1 800 000 square feet of land near Elviria and planned to invest 300 million to develop a five star luxury hotel and 120 villas According to its developer the future resort is to be the most luxurious in the country and will be run by an international hotel chain 94 Transport Edit Port of Cabopino Cities on the coast are accessible by bus from Marbella including Malaga Estepona Torremolinos Fuengirola and Gibraltar The area is also served by the A7 motorway the closest airport is Malaga Costa Del Sol Marine shipping Edit The four ports of Marbella are primarily recreational although both Puerto Banus and the Puerto de la Bajadilla are permitted to dock cruise ships neither operates regular service to other ports The port of Bajadilla is home to the Marbella fishermen s guild and is used to transport goods Rail Edit Marbella is the most populous municipality in the Iberian Peninsula without a railway station in its territory and is the only Spanish city of over 100 000 inhabitants not served by rail 95 A project is underway to construct a railway Costa del Sol railway to connect Nerja Malaga and Algeciras It may be a high speed railway with several stops in Marbella Until then the nearest station is near Fuengirola 27 km 17 miles distant Further away is Malaga Maria Zambrano in Malaga city 57 km 35 miles away and Ronda railway station also 57 km 35 miles Urban bus Edit Marbella offers residents of the municipality free mobility on its urban bus lines Urbanos de Marbella operated by Avanza thanks to the Tarjeta Municipal de Movilidad 96 There are currently 14 urban bus lines spanning from San Pedro de Alcantara to Cabopino 97 including the seasonal Starlite line available during summers 98 and the L11 available only on October 31st and November 1st The lines are the following L1 C C La Canada Marbella Centro Puerto Banus L2 C C La Canada Miraflores El Mirador L3 C C La Canada Nagueles Puerto Banus El Angel L4 Puerto Banus El Angel Nueva Andalucia San Pedro L5 Puerto Banus El Angel Nueva Andalucia San Pedro El Salto L6 Cabopino Las Chapas Marbella Centro Estacion de Autobuses C C La Canada L6B Bello Horizonte Miraflores C C La Canada L7 circular San Pedro Centro de Salud L8 night bus C C La Canada Marbella Centro Puerto Banus San Pedro L9 night bus Cabopino Las Chapas Marbella Centro L10 seasonal only during summers Marbella Centro Starlite L11 seasonal only on October 31st and November 1st Marbella Centro Divina Pastora Cementerio Nuevo L12 Hospital Costa del Sol Marbella Centro Nueva Andalucia L13 Hospital Costa del Sol Marbella Centro San Pedro Intercity bus Edit Most intercity bus services are operated by CTSA Portillo They connect Marbella to other urban centres such as Malaga and its airport nearby towns in the interior Benahavis Ojen Ronda the Campo including Gibraltar La Linea and Algeciras some major cities in Andalusia Almeria Cadiz Cordoba Jerez Granada Jaen Seville and Ubeda 99 and Merida in Extremadura The central bus station has connections to other domestic destinations such as Madrid and Barcelona Taxis Edit There are plenty of taxis to Marbella from the airports at Malaga and Gibraltar and from the taxi ranks along the Costa del Sol Most are clean and non smoking as well as being the most comfortable way to travel to local vacation destinations Marbella is not formally integrated into the Metropolitan Transportation Consortium Malaga area Media EditDue to the city s ethnic diversity Marbella s newspapers and magazines are published in several European languages among which are La Tribuna de Marbella in Spanish and Costa del Sol Nachrichten in German In addition Diario Sur Spanish or Southern Journal English and La Opinion de Malaga Spanish have editorial offices in the city Among the English language magazines with the largest circulation are those dedicated to fashion and lifestyle such as Essential Magazine and Society Marbella Magazine Marbella has several local television stations such as M95 Television Summer TV and South Coast Television It also has several digital news dailies including the Voice of Marbella and Journal of Marbella Culture Edit Bronze sculpture by Salvador Dali on Avenida del Mar Besides the typical Andalusian cultural events a variety of annual festivals are held in Marbella mainly between June and October other events are held sporadically Festivals dedicated to music include the Marbella International Opera Festival held in August since 2001 100 the Marbella Reggae Festival 101 in July and the Marbella International Film Festival 102 in June at different locations around the city amongst them the beach aboard a boat or in Old Town It also hosts the Marbella International Film Festival 103 the Spanish Film Festival and the Festival of Independent Theatre To provide venues for these and other events the city has cultural facilities both publicly and privately managed such as the Auditorium of Constitution Park the Ingenio Cultural Centre the Teatro Ciudad de Marbella or Black Box Theatre among others In addition there is a music conservatory a cinema club and several cinemas showing foreign films dubbed into Castilian The International Contemporary Art Fair I also known as MARB ART was held in Marbella in 2005 exhibiting works of photography painting sculpture and graphic design by over 500 artists it has been held annually since at the Palace of Congresses The following year the 2006 extension of the Ateneo de Malaga Marbella Atheneum of Malaga Marbella opened dedicated to the development of artistic and cultural activities Amongst local cultural associations is the Cilniana Association an organisation dedicated to protecting and promoting the heritage of Marbella and neighbouring towns which publishes its own magazine Since 2009 the city has been home to Marbella University 104 the first private university in the province of Malaga In 2013 the city welcomed the opening of Marbella International University Centre MIUC 105 an international higher education institution focused on Business Politics and Media and the only university in Andalusia where courses are taught in both English and Spanish Hospital Bazan the Museum of Engraving Museums Edit Contemporary Spanish Engraving Museum 106 created in 1992 contains a collection of prints by 20th century artists such as Picasso Miro Dali Tapies Chillida and the El Paso Group Rafael Canogar Manolo Millares Antonio Saura Pablo Serrano et al amongst others as well as an exhibition hall dedicated to teaching engraving techniques Museum Cortijo de Miraflores in addition to the museum the farm houses an exhibition hall and other cultural classrooms amongst them the olive oil mill 107 Bonsai Museum opened in 1992 it has a collection of specimens on permanent display and others for sale with an emphasis on its extensive collection of olive trees 108 and examples of species such as Ginkgo Oxicedro Pentafila Pino and zelcoba also pines oaks and other species Ralli Museum dedicated primarily to art in Latin America it has sculptures by Dali and Aristide Maillol and paintings by Dali Miro 109 Chagall Henry Moore amongst others Municipal Archaeological Collection its collection consists of archaeological artefacts found in the municipality 110 Mechanical Art Museum a cultural centre located in the 19th century Barriada del Ingenio 111 it contains sculptures made from second hand car parts by Antonio Alonso Cuisine Edit The traditional cuisine of Marbella is that of the Malagueno coast and is based on seafood The most typical dish is fried fish using anchovies mackerel mullet or squid amongst others Gazpacho and garlic soup are very typical Bakeries sell oil cakes wine donuts borrachuelos aniseed rolls fried with a little wine and dipped into syrup torrijas similar to French toast and churros fritters In addition to the traditional native cuisine there are many restaurants in Marbella that serve food of the international nouvelle or fusion cuisines 112 Festivals Edit In June the Fair and Fiesta of San Bernabe honour the patron saint of Marbella They last a week with activities and performances divided in two parts Fair Day which began in Old Town and is now held in the Avenida del Doctor Maiz Vinals and Fair Night in Arroyo Primero 113 October sees the fair and festivals honouring the patron saint of San Pedro Alcantara These too last a week The smaller Fair and Festivals of Nueva Andalucia celebrated in early October in Las Chapas and El Angel are also popular 113 Throughout the summer season July to October most barrios of Marbella have events organised by neighbourhood associations to encourage cultural activities including bullfights musical performances photo competitions and sporting events Among the best known associations are those of Santa Marta Salto del Agua Leganitos Divina Pastora Trapiche Plaza de Toros and Miraflores 114 Other festivals and local celebrations include the Pilgrimages of Cruz de Juanar May La Virgen del Carmen July and La Virgen Madre August as well as the Dia del Toston November a traditional celebration which consists of going to the fields to roast chestnuts 114 Education EditThe British School of Marbella British school Deutsche Schule Malaga German school Marbella International University Center MIUC Svenska skolan Marbella Swedish school Aloha College International school Tourism EditThe city is especially popular with tourists from Northern Europe 115 including the United Kingdom Ireland Sweden and Germany and also Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates 116 Marbella is particularly noted for the presence of aristocrats celebrities and wealthy people 117 it is a popular destination for luxury yachts 118 and increasingly so for cruise ships which dock in its harbour 119 120 The area is popular with golfers and boaters and there are many private estates and luxury hotels in the vicinity including the Marbella Club Hotel Marbella hosts a WTA tennis tournament on red clay the Andalucia Tennis Experience Sights in or near Marbella include Arabian wall Bonsai museum Museo del Grabado Espanol Contemporaneo Old city centre Playa de la Bajadilla beach Playa de Fontanilla beach Puerto Banus a marina built by Jose Banus The Golden Mile featuring the Marbella Club Hotel and its beach club as well as the late King Fahd s palace Encarnation s Church Iglesia de la Encarnacion Oldest church in the city situated in the old town Basilica Vega del Mar Las BovedasNotable residents EditArthur Rubinstein concert pianist purchased a house in Marbella in the 1950 s In the 1957 academy award winning documentary film Arthur Rubinstein The Love of Life the footage of Rubinstein at home was filmed at his Marbella Spain house Sean Connery had a residence in Marbella from 1970 to 1998 where he was regularly seen playing golf when not filming 121 Jean Negulesco Romanian American film director and screenwriter lived in Marbella from the late 1960s until his death on 18 July 1993 at age 93 George Clooney actor Novak Djokovic Jon Olsson Rick Parfitt OBE British rock musician from Status Quo lived in the mountains just outside Marbella 122 Antonio Banderas born in the nearby city of Malaga has been a regular visitor to Marbella where he has a house in Los Monteros Stella his daughter with wife actress Melanie Griffith was born in Marbella in 1999 Arms dealer Monzer al Kassar was a longtime resident until his imprisonment and has been nicknamed The Prince of Marbella Mike Reid English actor and comedian was living in Marbella at the time of his death on 29 July 2007 He was born in Hackney London and retired to Marbella a few years before he died Millie Bobby Brown English actress and Eleven in Stranger Things was born in Marbella on 19 February 2004 123 Rahel Orban eldest daughter of Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban moved with her family to Marbella in September 2021 124 Twin towns sister cities EditSee also List of twin towns and sister cities in Spain Marbella is twinned with 125 126 127 Baler Aurora Philippines Batumi Autonomous Republic of Adjara Georgia Doha Qatar Itanhaem Sao Paulo Brazil Jeddah Hejaz Saudi Arabia Kure Hiroshima Japan Miami Beach Florida United States Nabeul Cape Bon Tunisia Punta del Este Maldonado Department Uruguay Solidaridad Quintana Roo MexicoSee also EditPuerto Banus Marbella blast furnaces Marbella International Film Festival Marbella SunsReferences Edit Municipal Register of Spain 2018 National Statistics 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las vetas Vid LoPEZ SERRANO F A 2000 Miseria guerra y corrupcion Una aproximacion a la Marbella de 1898 Cilniana 13 pp 4 17 a href Template Cite web html title Template Cite web cite web a CS1 maint unfit URL link Enrique Navarro Jurado 2003 Puede seguir creciendo la Costa del Sol indicadores de saturacion de un destino turistico Servicio de Publicaciones Diputacion Provincial de Malaga p 29 ISBN 978 84 7785 585 9 Retrieved 13 April 2013 Lucia Prieto Borrego 2007 Mujer y Anticlericalismo La Justicia Militar en Marbella 1937 1939 HAOL in Spanish Asociacion de Historia Actual 12 Winter 102 ISSN 1696 2060 Retrieved 14 April 2013 Redaccion 27 November 2008 Retiran el titulo de Hijo Predilecto al creador de la Seguridad Social y el derecho al cobro de desempleo Minuto Digital Archived from the original on 25 April 2011 Retrieved 19 April 2013 Puerto Banus and Nueva Andalucia Essential Marbella Magazine 29 March 2012 Archived from the original on 19 March 2013 Retrieved 19 April 2013 a b Localizacion de Marbella Informacion sobre Marbella que pertenece a la provincia de Malaga in Spanish La web del ayuntamiento Retrieved 14 April 2013 Angel A Jordan 1 April 1989 Marbella Story GeoPlaneta Editorial S A p 73 ISBN 978 84 320 4707 7 Retrieved 14 April 2013 Count Rudi von Schonburg 6 October 2009 The Beginnings of Marbella Club Panorama Archived from the original on 9 November 2012 Retrieved 14 April 2013 Ronald Kessler 1987 Khashoggi the rise and fall of the world s richest man Corgi p 14 ISBN 978 0 552 13060 8 Retrieved 14 April 2013 Mary Costelow 2 July 2012 Count Rudi keeps the luxury Marbella Club hotel eternally young Girlahead Retrieved 14 April 2013 Kelly Phillips Erb June 27 2013 Marc Rich Famous Fugitive amp Alleged Tax Evader Pardoned By President Clinton Dies Forbes Archived from the original on November 5 2013 Retrieved 13 March 2014 Antonio Montilla 8 August 2005 La vida de Fahd en la Milla de Oro in Spanish ABC Gente Estilo Archived from the original on 17 June 2011 Retrieved 14 April 2013 Ghosts of Spain Travels Through Spain and Its Silent Past Walker 4 March 2008 p 108 ISBN 978 0 8027 1674 3 Retrieved 22 April 2013 Graceless ending for Marbella spa The Olive Press 4 April 2012 Archived from the original on 14 November 2012 Paul Delaney 21 November 1987 Raid by Police Frees Kidnapped Girl 5 in Spain New York Times Retrieved 14 April 2013 Ayuntamientos Ayuntamiento de Marbella Archived from the original on 24 July 2009 Retrieved 15 April 2013 Causas contra Gil y sus encarcelamientos El Mundo 14 May 2004 Archived from the original on 20 November 2012 Retrieved 15 April 2013 George Hazel Roger Parry 2004 Making cities work Wiley Academy pp 75 77 ISBN 9780470846810 Retrieved 14 April 2013 Trazado cartesiano de sus antiguas calles in Spanish 14 June 2011 Archived from the original on 1 September 2011 Mona King 2000 Essential Costa del Sol AA Publishing p 68 ISBN 978 0 7495 2371 8 Retrieved 16 April 2013 Christopher Wawn David Wood 2000 In search of Andalucia a historical geographical observation of the Malaga sea board Pentland p 228 ISBN 978 1 85821 690 4 Retrieved 16 April 2013 Marbella s Golden Mile andalucia com http blog casauna com 7 the new golden mile on costa del sol New Golden Mile Nueva andalucia guide Avante Real Estate amp Investment Archived from the original on 2019 04 15 Retrieved 2019 04 15 Nueva Andalucia andalucia com United States Hydrographic Office 1916 Mediterranean Pilot Strait of Gibraltar south and southeast coast of Spain African coast from Cape Spartel to Gulf of Gabes including the Balearic Islands Hydrographic Office under the authority of the secretary of the navy p 140 Retrieved 29 January 2013 Salvador Bravo Jimenez Miguel Vila Oblitas Rafael Dorado Cantero Antonio Soto Iborra 2009 El tesoro de Cerro Colorado La Segunda Guerra Punica en la costa occidental malaguena Benahavis Malaga In Alicia Arevalo Gonzalez ed Actas XIII congreso nacional de numismatica Moneda y arqueologia Cadiz 22 24 de octubre de 2007 in Spanish Vol 1 Madrid Universidad de Cadiz pp 105 118 ISBN 978 84 89157 42 2 Retrieved 30 January 2013 a href Template Cite book html title Template Cite book cite book a CS1 maint uses authors parameter link Christopher Wawn David Wood 2000 In search of Andalucia a historical geographical observation of the Malaga sea board Pentland p 221 ISBN 978 1 85821 690 4 Retrieved 14 April 2013 Peter Alexander Rene van Dommelen Carlos Gomez Bellard Roald F Docter 2008 Rural Landscapes of the Punic World Isd p 85 ISBN 978 1 84553 270 3 Retrieved 14 April 2013 Javier Navarro Luna 1999 Territorio y administraciones publicas en Andalucia Universidad de Sevilla p 180 ISBN 978 84 472 0501 1 Retrieved 29 January 2013 Playas de Marbella Webmalaga com Archived from the original on 8 May 2003 Retrieved 23 April 2013 Ley Organica 5 1985 de 19 de junio del Regimen Electoral General PDF Boletin Oficial del Estado Gobierno de Espana Ministero de la Presidencia Archived from the original 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de la Junta situa a Marbella como el municipio andaluz con mayor calidad de vida SUR diario de Malaga 19 April 2008 Archived from the original on 28 October 2008 Retrieved 20 April 2013 S A Sarenet Foreign investors buy coastal stretch in Marbella for luxury resort Surinenglish com Retrieved 15 October 2018 Marbella unica urbe espanola de mas de cien mil habitantes sin servicio de tren Malaga Hoy 17 November 2008 Archived from the original on 18 June 2010 Retrieved 20 April 2013 Los ciudadanos empadronados en Marbella podran solicitar desde el proximo jueves la Tarjeta Municipal de Movilidad para el uso gratuito del autobus urbano a partir del 1 de abril Portal Oficial del Ayuntamiento de Marbella in European Spanish Retrieved 2020 05 11 Todas las lineas Urbanos de Marbella in European Spanish Retrieved 2023 01 05 Press Europa 2019 06 10 El transporte urbano del festival Starlite de Marbella sera gratuito para los beneficiarios de la Tarjeta de Movilidad www europapress es Retrieved 2020 05 11 Horario de Autobuses Marbella PDF Corporacion Espanola de Transporte CTSA Portrillo Archived from the original PDF on 23 July 2008 Retrieved 21 April 2013 El Teatro Ciudad de Marbella acogera del 8 al 11 el XI Festival Internacional de opera de Marbella Ayuntamiento de Marbella 30 July 2012 Archived from the original on 3 August 2012 Retrieved 16 April 2013 Presentacion del Marbella Reggae Festival 16 April 2013 Archived from the original on 16 April 2013 Retrieved 16 April 2013 Jazz Journal International Billboard Limited 2004 p 18 Retrieved 15 April 2013 Curtain set to rise on Marbella International Film Festival Euro Weekly News 27 September 2012 Archived from the original on 10 November 2012 Retrieved 16 April 2013 Marbella University English Speaking for Pioneering Business and Psychology Marbella University Archived from the original on 23 January 2013 Retrieved 16 April 2013 Study in Spain Marbella International University Centre Archived from the original on 2014 07 17 Retrieved 2014 03 03 Spanish Contemporary Engraving Museum What to do in Marbella Retrieved 16 April 2013 Museo Cortijo Miraflores in Spanish Ayuntamiento de Marbella Archived from the original on 17 April 2013 Retrieved 17 April 2013 Museo del Bonsai Costa del Sol Archived from the original on 10 September 2012 Retrieved 17 April 2013 Ralli Museum in Marbella Ralli Museums Retrieved 17 April 2013 Sede de la Delegacion de Cultura Coleccion arqueologica in Spanish Ayuntamiento de Marbella Archived from the original on 17 April 2013 Retrieved 17 April 2013 The Sugar Refinery PGB Archived from the original on 29 June 2012 Retrieved 17 April 2013 Food in Marbella Marbella Guide 26 November 2009 Archived from the original on 7 January 2011 Retrieved 16 April 2013 a b Fiestas de Marbella webmalaga com Sociedad de Planificacion y Desarrollo SOPDE Archived from the original on 30 June 2013 Retrieved 30 June 2013 a b Festivals in Marbella Marbella Guide Archived from the original on 2 October 2012 Retrieved 16 April 2013 Myra Shackley 23 May 2012 Atlas of Travel and Tourism Development Routledge p 104 ISBN 978 1 136 42782 4 Retrieved 22 April 2013 Conal Urquhart 9 March 2013 How the influx of new global elites is changing the face of Europe The Guardian Archived from the original on 15 March 2013 Retrieved 23 April 2013 Ken Bernstein 1990 Spain Berlitz p 182 ISBN 978 2 8315 0494 0 Retrieved 17 April 2013 Berlitz Guides 1 January 1993 Berlitz Travellers Guide Spain 1993 Berlitz International Incorporated p 775 ISBN 978 2 8315 1783 4 Retrieved 17 April 2013 Marbella renueva su apuesta por los cruceros pese a la incertidumbre sobre La Bajadilla Diario Sur in Spanish 5 February 2013 Responsables turisticos de la ciudad cierran en Fitur dos acuerdos para colocar al municipio en el mapa de las companias de lujo que trabajan en el sector Fairplay Fairplay Publications Limited July 1997 p 169 Retrieved 17 April 2013 Michael Feeney Callan 31 October 2012 Sean Connery Ebury Publishing ISBN 978 0 7535 4706 9 Retrieved 23 April 2013 By John Dingwall Status Quo rocker Rick Parfitt swaps his wild days for family life Daily Record 26 December 2009 Retrieved 13 April 2013 Jon Sedano Angel de los Rios 15 November 2017 Los origenes marbellies de Millie Bobby Brown la joven estrella de Stranger Things Diario Sur Archived from the original on 1 April 2019 hvg hu 24 September 2021 Orban Rahel Spanyolorszagba koltozott Marbella hermana de destinos turisticos premium marbelladirecto com in Spanish Marbella Directo 2015 06 17 Retrieved 2020 11 02 Queridas hermanas diariosur es in Spanish Diario Sur 2015 10 17 Retrieved 2020 11 02 Las ciudades de Marbella y Batumi estrechan lazos con proyectos artisticos marbella es in Spanish Marbella 2012 06 25 Retrieved 2020 11 02 This article incorporates information from the equivalent article on the Spanish WikipediaExternal links Edit Wikimedia Commons has media related to Marbella Wikivoyage has a travel guide for Marbella Ayuntamiento de Marbella official Marbella city hall site partly in English mostly in Spanish Marbella Luxury Rehab Center Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Marbella amp oldid 1132538107, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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