Logbook · 9 places

What to see and do in Marbella

What to see and do in Marbella (Costa del Sol Occidental, Málaga): 9 places across monuments, nature, activities and curiosities, with a photo and a Google Maps location.

1 Villages · 4 Monuments · 1 Curiosities · 3 Historical milestones

How far each place is from the centre of Marbella

Towns near Marbella

What to see in Ojén 6.6 km · 8 places
What to see in Istán 9.8 km · 8 places
What to see in Monda 14 km · 7 places
What to see in Benahavís 14 km · 6 places
What to see in Guaro 17 km · 5 places
What to see in Tolox 20 km · 9 places
What to see in Coín 20 km · 11 places
What to see in Alhaurín el Grande 22 km · 11 places

Spain › Andalusia › Málaga › Costa del Sol Occidental › Marbella

What to see and do in Marbella

Marbella
Village
With a Phoenician, Roman, and Arab past (Marbal-la), it passed to the Crown of Castile on 11 June 1485 without bloodshed. Having become a benchmark for luxury tourism in Spain since the 1950s, it is today the second most populous municipality in the province, with close to 160,000 inhabitants.
Casco Antiguo de Marbella y Plaza de los Naranjos
Monument
The layout of the old town roughly preserves its 16th-century plan, with remains of the 10th-century Islamic wall. The Plaza de los Naranjos is an example of Castilian Renaissance town planning, and the Baroque-style church of the Encarnación was begun in 1618.
Puerto Banús
Curiosity
Marina developed in the 1960s within the Nueva Andalucía National Tourist Interest Centre, a symbol of luxury tourism on the Costa del Sol; it has been cited among the most expensive moorings in the world.
Murallas árabes de Marbella
Monument
The old town of Marbella preserves stretches of the defensive wall from the Andalusi period, with an urban layout very similar to the one it had in the 16th century.
Ermita de Santiago de Marbella
Monument
A 15th-century temple considered the oldest in Marbella, predating the construction of the present-day Church of the Encarnación.
Las Bóvedas y la basílica paleocristiana de Vega del Mar
Monument
Marbella preserves two of the most important Roman archaeological complexes on the Costa del Sol: the Las Bóvedas Roman baths (2nd century) and, next to the mouth of the Guadalmina river, the Vega del Mar paleochristian basilica, from the 4th century.
Tratado de Marbella de 1286
Historical milestone
In 1286 a treaty was signed in Marbella between the Marinid and Nasrid rulers. The city was conquered by the Catholic Monarchs in 1485 without armed resistance during the War of Granada.
Los altos hornos de Marbella
Historical milestone
At the beginning of the 19th century the industrialist Manuel Agustín Heredia set up Spain's first civilian blast furnaces beside the Verde river, fed with iron ore from the mines of Ojén and charcoal from the Sierra Blanca. They came to produce up to 75% of Spain's cast iron, until the rising cost of wood fuel and the end of the Carlist Wars led to their dismantling and the concentration of ironworking in the city of Málaga.
Fundación de la Colonia Agrícola de San Pedro Alcántara
Historical milestone
In 1857 Manuel Gutiérrez de la Concha, Marquis of Duero, founded the Agricultural Colony of San Pedro Alcántara, which came to cover some 5,000 hectares spread across the municipal terms of Marbella, Estepona and Benahavís, and was the largest private agricultural venture in Spain in the second half of the 19th century. In 1871 a modern sugar factory was opened in the colony.