Tourist information - Marbella
Various thousands of years before Christ, there were already human settlements within the Sierra Blanca Mountain in Marbella, something proven by the objects as well as human remains found from the Paleolithic and Neolithic ages on the mountainsides.
Recent discoveries point to the fact that within the 7th Century BC there were Phoenician and also Punic settlements around the Rio Real area.
Rome also passed by our municipality as can be seen in the Rio Verde Roman Villa, the Guadalmina Thermal Baths as well as different discoveries around the Old Town of the City.
From Visigoth times, we have the Vega del Mar Paleo-Christian Basilica; a singular construction with double apse, with only one similar at the whole of Spain.
The first references to Marbella can be found at the geographic texts used by Muslim travelers in the middle Ages.
During the Islam period Marbella became a walled in city. The Muslims constructed a castle as well as surrounded the city with a moat with just three entrances: "From the Sea" (Del Mar), "From Ronda" and also "From Malaga". The Castle remains today but the moat and also the doors have disappeared.
The King Fernando the Catholic overcome Marbella on the 11th of June in 1485 along with this is represented in engravings within the Choir area of the Cathedral of Toledo.
After the Conquer and through the 16th Century, the urban structure of the town of Marbella suffered significant changes. The center of the Muslim "Medina" (today the Old Town), was demolished to open the square (Main Square, Royal Square or Today "The Orange Square") and a new street (called Nueva) in order to communicate the square with the Puerta del Mar. (sea entrance).
In those times the economic activities inside your municipality was based on agriculture and livestock, though it remained famous from the Arab period for the sweet wines of which the British Traveler Francis Carter spoke in the 18th Century: "The Marbella wine is very good, drier and also tastier that the Malaga wine and also having a certain Madeira taste to it. I am sure that if it were ready it would be adequately appreciated in England, bringing the price up and stimulating the inhabitants to take more care of their vineyards".
During the 19th Century and also with the installation of the first Industrial Estates in Spain, in El Angel and also in La Concepcion, to be able to take advantage of all the possibilities at the Sierra Blanca Mines, Marbella began to form part of the industrialization of Malaga, becoming the second most significant Industrial Province on the Peninsula.
45 years ago Marbella was an agricultural town having a mining industry along with some 10.000 inhabitants. Today there are more than 100.000 inhabitants enrolled around the municipal census aside from the visitors.
It was as of the 90's when Marbella began to be recognized being a "Universal City". The directives as well as political action carried out by the Mayor Jesus Gil within the last decade of the 20th Century have set essential sights for the development of the city. Infrastructures, Cultural Centers, sporting installations, Municipal Offices, Golf Courses, New Avenues, Parks, etc and also the encouraging of investors to the city have made Marbella a city desired by all and also has brought us to be awarded with national and international prizes for the security, cleanliness along with cordiality of the people
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