Middle Ages

At this time, Malaga had two suburbs outside the walls and a discretetrade with Morocco.The city had a class devoted to crafts and trade. At this stage Malaga was home to the most illustrious son of the Jewishpoet and philosopher Ibn Gabirol, Vicente Aleixandre, who was the first to cointhe phrase ‘Town of Paradise and subsequentlyused to refer to Malagaas his hometown.

Malaga MiddleAgesAfter the Arab conquest, the city was part of the Muslim region of Al-Andalus,called by them, Malaqa (Arabic). It became a thriving city, surrounded bya walled enclosure, which settled amongst the neighborhoods of Genoesemerchants and the Jews.

After the split in Taifas, Malaga became the capitalof the Taifa hammudí. Remaining traces of this time are present in the historiccenter and in two of its major monuments, the Citadel and the Castle of Gibralfaro.

The conquest of thecity by the Catholic Monarchs in 1487 was a bloody episode in the final waragainst the Kingdom of Granada.

The siege ofthe city was one of the longest in the re-conquest and lasted six months untilthey cut off food supplies and surrendered on August 13 and the Kingstriumphantly entering on August 19. The towns people were punished withslavery or the death penalty.

Battle of Malaga(1704), Isaac Sailmaker The city began to change its urban design and started construction of the Cathedral of Malaga atop the foundations of the mosque which was designed bythe architect of Siloam Diego.

The churches and convents built outside thewalled area began to unite the population and led to the formation ofneighborhoods outside Malaga, like Trinidad or Perchel.

From the sixteenth century to the eighteenth century, the city entered a periodof decline, not only in consequence resulting from the lifting of the Moors andtheir subsequent removal, but also because of epidemics and floods caused bythe river Guadalmedina, which were accompanied by several successive poorharvests during the seventeenth century, and again by more epidemics,earthquakes, floods, explosions, gunpowder mills and soldiers.

In the seventeenth century, wine and raisins were the dominant exports of Malaga, highlighting thedecline in the silk textile industry, which was so closely linked to the removalof the Moors.

Socially aristocratic establishment dominated the senior classeswith the implementation of the nobility. The municipality, which was the basicfoundation of the government of the Hapsburgs, suffered the consequences of widespread corruption.

For this reason, the historical center of Malaga is closing totraffic in an attempt to alleviate such pollution that attacks people’s health.

With regard to noise pollution inMalaga,it has also been found that the city is higher than 65.7 decibels, exceedingthe levels set by the World Health Organization.