For decades, millions of travellers landed in Málaga and drove straight on to the beach. Yet this is where Picasso was born, where the Phoenicians founded Malaka some 2,800 years ago, and where Romans, Muslims and Christians left their marks one on top of the other. Twelve stops between the house where the painter was born, the church of his baptism, the palace that holds his work, the Roman theatre found under a garden, the Moorish fortress, the cathedral missing a tower, the palace of Andalusian painting, the gate of the Nasrid shipyard, the district of murals, the port that opened up to the city again, the coloured cube of the Pompidou and the old tobacco factory full of cars and gowns. Approximate audio duration: 22 minutes.
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Málaga: Picasso, los fenicios y la ciudad que nadie se quedaba a ver
Durante décadas, millones de viajeros aterrizaron en Málaga y siguieron de largo hacia la playa. Sin embargo, acá nació Picasso, acá los fenicios fundaron Malaka hace unos 2.800 años y acá romanos, musulmanes y cristianos dejaron sus huellas una encima de la otra. Doce paradas entre la casa donde nació el pintor, la iglesia de su bautismo, el palacio que guarda sus obras, el teatro romano que apareció bajo un jardín, la fortaleza musulmana, la catedral a la que le falta una torre, el palacio de la pintura andaluza, la puerta del astillero nazarí, el barrio de los murales, el puerto que volvió a abrirse a la ciudad, el cubo de colores del Pompidou y la vieja fábrica de tabaco llena de autos y vestidos. Duración aproximada de audio: 22 minutos.
Tour stops
12 stops · ~22 min of audio · 7 km on foot (~1 h 45 min walking) · about 2 h 15 min in total
You are in Plaza de la Merced. Look for the long, pale building on the north side, with iron balconies. On the first floor of that house Pablo Ruiz Picasso was born, on 25 October 1881.
His father, José Ruiz Blasco, was a painter and drawing teacher at the San Telmo School of Fine Arts. He painted mostly pigeons. And this square, with its trees, was full of them. Many years later, the dove became one of the son's signature images.
Pablo was precocious. By about eight he was already painting in oils, and from that time a small picture of a picador on horseback survives. His father, the story …
2
A Baptism with Fifteen Names
You have walked down Calle Granada. In front of you is the Church of Santiago, with its brick tower decorated with diamond patterns. It is one of Málaga's oldest churches, founded soon after the Christian conquest of 1487.
Look at the tower. That brick decoration is Mudéjar: built with techniques inherited from the Muslim builders who kept working in the conquered city. Many believe it reused the minaret of an earlier mosque.
Picasso was baptised here on 10 November 1881, at sixteen days old. He was given a very long string of names, as Andalusian families liked to do: Pablo, Diego, José, Fr…
3
The Museum Picasso Never Saw
You are on Calle San Agustín, in front of the Palacio de Buenavista. It is a sixteenth-century mansion with a columned courtyard and a lookout tower. Since 2003 it has been the Museo Picasso Málaga.
The idea goes back a long way. In the 1950s Picasso wrote to a friend from Málaga, the historian Juan Temboury, that he was willing to send works for a museum in his home town. But in Franco's Spain the plan went nowhere.
It took half a century. Christine Ruiz-Picasso, widow of his son Paulo, and his grandson Bernard donated and lent hundreds of works. King Juan Carlos opened the museum on 27 Oct…
4
The Theatre Asleep Under a Garden
You have walked to Calle Alcazabilla. At your feet opens a semicircle of stone seats, and above it, climbing the hill, the walls of the Alcazaba. You are standing at Málaga's Roman Theatre.
It was built in the time of Emperor Augustus, in the first century BC. By then the old Phoenician colony had become a Roman town, Malaca. Later it was given the rank of municipium, and in 1851 bronze tablets bearing part of its municipal law, the Lex Flavia Malacitana, were found in the city.
The theatre was used until the third century and then abandoned. Centuries later, the Muslim builders of the Alcaz…
5
The Fortress Built from Roman Stones
You are at the entrance to the Alcazaba, at the foot of the hill. See how the path zigzags upward between walls and bent gateways. That layout is no accident: it forced any attacker to turn and expose himself again and again.
The fortress you see was raised in the eleventh century, when al-Andalus had splintered into small taifa kingdoms. Málaga changed hands several times, and it was in those years that this fortified palace was built on the hill.
Climb and look at the arches of the first gates. You will find Roman columns and capitals set into the Islamic masonry. Many of them come from th…
6
La Manquita, the One-Armed Cathedral
You are in front of Málaga Cathedral. Look at the façade and compare one side with the other. The left-hand tower, the north one, is finished. The right-hand one stops abruptly, like a stump.
That is why the people of Málaga call it La Manquita, the one-armed lady. The name is affectionate, but it tells a story of money and patience.
After the conquest of 1487, the great mosque was used as a church. The new cathedral was begun in 1528, and work went on, with interruptions, for more than two and a half centuries. In 1782 it stopped, and the south tower was left as it is.
Where did the money …
7
The Palace of Andalusian Painting
You have crossed the centre to Calle Compañía. In front of you is the Palacio de Villalón, a sixteenth-century noble house with a Renaissance courtyard. Since 2011 it has been the Carmen Thyssen Museum.
The collection belongs to Carmen Cervera, widow of Baron Hans Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza. What is shown here is mostly nineteenth-century Spanish painting, with a lot of Andalusia: bandits, bullfighters, fairs, patios and beaches.
It is the romantic image of the South that foreign travellers came looking for in that century. And the one Andalusian painters themselves were selling. Notice how…
8
The Shipyard Gate That Lost the Sea
You are in front of the Atarazanas Market. Before going in, look at the great white marble gate with its horseshoe arch. It does not belong to the market: it is much older.
It is what survives of the Nasrid atarazanas, the fourteenth-century Muslim shipyard. Atarazana comes from the Arabic dar al-sina'a, the house of industry. Ships were built and repaired here.
Look at the shields on either side of the arch. They bear the motto of the Nasrid dynasty, the same as at the Alhambra: there is no victor but God. You will find it repeated across the whole kingdom of Granada.
Now think about where…
9
Soho, the District That Painted Itself
You have crossed the Alameda into the straight streets between the centre and the port. Look up at the side walls: whole walls, several storeys high, covered in murals. You are in the Soho district.
This grid was laid out in the nineteenth century, when Málaga was an industrial and trading city of factories, iron and sugar. But by the start of this century it was run down, with empty shopfronts and little life.
Around 2010 the residents and shopkeepers themselves pushed for change, and named it Soho, after the districts in London and New York. The tool they chose was street art.
The project…
10
The Port That Came Back to the City
You are in the Palmeral de las Sorpresas, the promenade of palms and white pergolas beside the docks. On one side, the ships. On the other, the cathedral and the Alcazaba, which you already know from below.
This port is Málaga's reason for being. The Phoenicians chose the spot for its sheltered bay and the mouth of the river. From here, metals, oil, wine and salted fish went out across the Mediterranean.
In the centuries that followed, the port shipped raisins, sweet Málaga wine and olive oil. In the nineteenth century came factories and steamships. But for a long time, between the city and …
11
The Pompidou's Coloured Cube
You have reached the end of Muelle Uno. In front of you, on a plaza, stands a glass cube with coloured panels. Beneath it, underground, is the Centre Pompidou Málaga.
It opened in March 2015, the first outpost of the Centre Pompidou in Paris outside France. Málaga secured it through an agreement with the French museum, which lends its collection in exchange for an annual fee.
The cube you see is an intervention by the French artist Daniel Buren, famous for his stripes and colours. By day, light pours through the panels and tints the interior. At night, the cube glows like a lantern by the se…
12
Cars and Haute Couture in the Tobacco Factory
You are in front of La Tabacalera, a large brick-and-tile building in the Huelin district, near the sea. Look at the corner towers and the glazed tiles. It is a factory, but it looks like a palace.
It was built in the 1920s for the Compañía Arrendataria de Tabacos, which held the tobacco monopoly in Spain. For decades, hundreds of workers, many of them women, rolled cigars and cigarettes inside.
In time the factory stopped production. Like so many of Málaga's industrial buildings, it could have fallen into ruin. Instead, the city bought it and turned it into a cultural complex.
Since 2010 i…
How long does the "Málaga: Picasso, the Phoenicians and the City Nobody Stayed to See" audio tour take?
It has about 22 minutes of audio across 12 stops and a 7 km walking route (~1 h 45 min on foot). Plan roughly 2 h 15 min in total, or split it up: you can pause and resume anytime.
Where does the tour start?
At stop 1, "The Square Where Picasso Was Born" (coordinates 36.72335, -4.4174). The app guides you from stop to stop with a map.
Is it free?
Trevurs is a free app for iOS and Android. There is also an optional Premium version, from USD 1.99, with unlimited offline downloads, access to every tour and no ads. It also helps keep an independent app alive.
Why use an audio tour instead of a guided group tour?
No group to keep up with and no guide to wait for. Start at any time of day, on your own schedule. Go at your own pace: pause, rewind or skip any stop. No need to commit 2 or 3 hours to a single tour: do one stop or the whole route. Works offline once downloaded.
What languages is this audio guide available in?
This tour is available in Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian. Switch languages anytime from inside the app.
Do I need wifi to listen to this tour?
No. Download the tour over wifi before you go, then listen without any data connection.
How do I access this tour?
Download Trevurs on iPhone (App Store) or Android (Google Play), then open Málaga and pick "Málaga: Picasso, the Phoenicians and the City Nobody Stayed to See". No account required to start.
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No wifi needed · Spanish, English, Portuguese, French, Italian
