The Alcazaba

In front of you begins the climb to the Alcazaba, the Islamic citadel that dominated Málaga for four and a half centuries. From up here you could control the port, the walled city and – thanks to a fortified corridor called the Coracha – the castle of Gibralfaro on the hilltop.

1An 11th-century fortified palace

Most of the Alcazaba you see today went up in the 11th century, the age of the taifa kingdoms. Arab chroniclers credit the work to the Zirid king Badis ibn Habus, although some scholars think he restored an earlier enclosure. Before him, the Hammudids, the last caliphs of their dynasty, already lived here. Then came the Almoravids in 1092 and the Almohads in 1146, and in 1279 the city passed to the Nasrid kingdom of Granada.

2The siege of 1487

Málaga was one of the great strongholds of the Granada War. Ferdinand the Catholic laid siege to it from early May 1487. The defenders, led by Hamet el Zegrí, endured more than three months of hunger and bombardment. On 18 August the surrender of the Alcazaba was negotiated; Gibralfaro held out a little longer. On 19 August the Catholic Monarchs entered the city, which then suffered harsh punishment: much of its population was enslaved.

Restored since the 1930s, the Alcazaba is today one of the best-preserved Andalusi complexes in the Iberian Peninsula.

3What to look for

• The Roman column at the entrance, a reminder of the recycled building materials.
• The brick stairway and the pointed arches leading to the Puerta de la Bóveda.
• The double ring of walls peeking out between the cypresses.