Costa del Sol Towns
At this time, Malaga had two suburbs outside the walls and a discrete
trade 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 Jewish
poet and philosopher Ibn Gabirol, Vicente Aleixandre, who was the first to coin
the phrase ‘Town of Paradise’ and subsequently
used to refer to Malaga
as his hometown.
Malaga Middle
Ages
After the Arab conquest, the city was part of the Muslim region of Al-Andalus,
called by them, Malaqa (Arabic مالقة). It became a thriving city, surrounded by
a walled enclosure, which settled amongst the neighborhoods of Genoese
merchants and the Jews.
After the split in Taifas, Malaga became the capital
of the Taifa hammudí. Remaining traces of this time are present in the historic
center and in two of its major monuments, the Citadel and the Castle of Gibralfaro.
The conquest of the
city by the Catholic Monarchs in 1487 was a bloody episode in the final war
against the Kingdom
of Granada. The siege of
the city was one of the longest in the re-conquest and lasted six months until
they cut off food supplies and surrendered on August 13 and the Kings
triumphantly entering on August 19. The town’s people were punished with
slavery 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 by
the architect of Siloam Diego. The churches and convents built outside the
walled area began to unite the population and led to the formation of
neighborhoods outside Malaga, like Trinidad or Perchel.
From the sixteenth century to the eighteenth century, the city entered a period
of decline, not only in consequence resulting from the lifting of the Moors and
their subsequent removal, but also because of epidemics and floods caused by
the river Guadalmedina, which were accompanied by several successive poor
harvests 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 the
decline in the silk textile industry, which was so closely linked to the removal
of the Moors. Socially aristocratic establishment dominated the senior classes
with the implementation of the nobility. The municipality, which was the basic
foundation of the government of the Hapsburgs, suffered the consequences of
widespread corruption.
For this reason, the historical center ofMalaga is closing to
traffic 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, exceeding
the levels set by the World Health Organization.
