Prehistory and antiquity of Marbella Archaeological excavations have been made in the mountains around Marbella which point to human habitation in Paleolithic and Neolithic times. Some historians believe that the first settlement on the present site of Marbella was founded by the Phoenicians in the 7th century BC, as they are known to have established several colonies on the coast of Málaga province. However, no remains have been found of any significant settlement, although some artefacts of
Phoenician and later
Carthaginian settlements have been unearthed in different parts of the municipality, as in the fields of Rio Real and Cerro Torrón. The existence of a
Roman population centre in what is now the
El Casco Antiguo (Old Town) is suggested by three
Ionic capitals embedded in one section of the
Murallas del Castillo (Moorish castle walls), that reused materials of a building from earlier times. Recent discoveries in
La Calle Escuelas (School Street) and other remains scattered throughout the old town testify to a Roman occupation as well. West of the city, on the grounds of the
Hotel Puente Romano, is a small 1st century Roman Bridge over a stream. There are ruins of other Roman settlements along the rivers Verde and Guadalmina: Villa Romana on the
Rio Verde (Green River), the Roman baths at Guadalmina, and the ruins of a Roman villa and an early Byzantine basilica at Vega del Mar, built in the 3rd century and surrounded by a paleo-Christian necropolis, later used as a burial ground by the Visigoths. All of these further demonstrate a continued human presence in the area. In Roman times, the city was called
Salduba (Salt City).
Middle Ages During the period of
Islamic rule, after the Normans lay waste to the coast of Málaga in the 10th century, the
Caliphate of Córdoba fortified the coastline and built a string of several lighthouse towers along it. In the
Umayyad fashion they constructed a citadel, the Alcazaba, and a wall to protect the town, which was made up of narrow streets and small buildings with large patios, the most notable buildings being the citadel and the mosque. The village was surrounded by orchards; its most notable crops were figs and
mulberry trees for silkworm cultivation. The current name most likely developed from the name the Arabs gave it:
Marbal·la (مربلة), which may in turn derive, according to some linguistic investigations, from a previous Iberian place name. The traveller
Ibn Battuta characterised it as "a pretty little town in a fertile district." During the time of the first kingdoms of Taifa,
Marbil-la was disputed by the
Taifas of Algeciras and of
Málaga, eventually falling into the orbit of Málaga, which in turn later became part of the Nasrid Kingdom. In 1283 the Marinid sultan
Abu Yusuf Yaqub ibn Abd Al-Haqq launched a campaign against the
Kingdom of Granada. Peace between the
Marinid dynasty and the
Nasrid dynasty was achieved with the signing of the Treaty of Marbella on 6 May 1286, by which all the Marinid possessions in Al-Andalus were restored to the Nasrid sultan.
Early modern age , built in the 16th century in the
Plaza de los Naranjos On 11 June 1485, the town passed into the hands of the
Crown of Castile without bloodshed. The
Catholic Monarchs gave Marbella the title of city and capital of the region and made it a
realengo (royal protectorate). The
Plaza de los Naranjos was built along the lines of Castilian urban design about this time, as well as some of the historical buildings that surround it. The
Fuerte de San Luis de Marbella (Fort of San Luis) was built in 1554 by Charles V. The main door faced north and was protected by a moat with a drawbridge. Today, the ruins of the fort house a museum, and on the grounds are the
Iglesia del Santo Cristo de la Vera Cruz (Church of the Holy Christ of the True Cross) and
Ermita del Calvario (Calvary Chapel). Sugar cane was introduced to Marbella in 1644, the cultivation of which spread on the Málaga province coast, resulting in the construction of numerous sugar mills, such as
Trapiche del Prado de Marbella.
19th century In 1828 Málaga businessman Manuel Agustín Heredia founded a company called
La Concepción to mine the
magnetite iron ores of the Sierra Blanca at nearby Ojén, due to the availability of charcoal made from the trees of the mountain slopes and water from the river Verde, as a ready supply of both was needed for the manufacture of iron. In 1832 the company built the first charcoal-fired blast furnace for non-military use in Spain; these iron-smelting operations ultimately produced up to 75% of the country's cast iron. By 1860 competition from the coke-fired blast furnaces in northern Spain had made the plant uneconomical. In 1860 the
1st Marquess of Duero founded an agricultural colony for the unemployed iron workers, now the heart of
San Pedro de Alcántara. The simultaneous dismantling of the iron industry, based in the forges of
El Angel and
La Concepción, disrupted the local economy. Much of the population had to return to farming or fishing for a livelihood. The situation was compounded by the widespread crisis of traditional agriculture and by the epidemic of
phylloxera blight in the vineyards, causing Marbella to suffer high unemployment, an increase in poverty, and the starvation of many day labourers. The associated infrastructure built for the installation of the foundry of El Angel in 1871 by the British-owned Marbella Iron Ore Company temporarily relieved the situation, and even made the city a destination for immigrants, increasing its population. However, the company did not survive the worldwide
economic crisis of 1893, and closed its doors in that year due to the difficulty of finding a market for the magnetite iron ore it mined. In the late 19th century, Marbella was a village composed of three parts: the main districts, the Barrio Alto or San Francisco, and the Barrio Nuevo. There were three smaller nuclei arranged around the old ironworks and the farm-model of the colony of San Pedro Alcántara, as well as isolated dwellings in orchards and farms. The general population was divided between a small group of oligarchs and the working people, the middle class being practically non-existent.
20th century In the early decades of the century the first hotels were built: El Comercial, which opened in 1918, and the Miramar, in 1926. During the Second Republic, Marbella experienced major social changes and contentious political parties mobilized. As the
Spanish Civil War began in the late 1930s, Marbella and
Casare suffered more anticlerical violence than the rest of western Málaga province. The day after the failed uprising which led to the civil war, several religious buildings in Marbella were set on fire. Only the walls of the Church of St. Mary of the Incarnation and the Church of San Pedro Alcantara were left standing. With the aid of Fascist Italian troops, Nationalist forces seized Marbella during the first months of the war. It became a haven for prominent Nazis, including
Léon Degrelle and Wolfgang Jugler, and
Falangist personalities like
José Antonio Girón de Velasco and
José Banús. After the
Second World War, Marbella was a small jasmine-lined village with only 900 inhabitants. , Marquis of Ivanrey, moved to Marbella and popularised it among his rich and famous friends. In 1943, he acquired a country estate located between Marbella and San Pedro called
El Rodeo, and later built a resort there called
Venta y Albergues El Rodeo, beginning the development of tourism in Marbella. Soriano's nephew,
Prince Alfonso of Hohenlohe-Langenburg, descendant of a high-ranking aristocratic family (his mother, María de la Piedad de Yturbe y Scholtz-Hersmendorff, was the Marquesa de Belvís de las Navas) acquired another estate,
Finca Santa Margarita. In 1954, he opened the
Marbella Club, an international resort aimed at movie stars, business executives and the nobility. Both resorts came to be frequented by members of European aristocratic families with famous names: Bismarck, Rothschild, Thurn und Taxis, Metternich, de Mora y Aragon, de Salamanca or Thyssen-Bornemisza. This transformed Marbella into a destination for the international
jet set. Prince Alfonso's first marriage was to
Princess Ira von Fürstenberg, an
Agnelli heiress.
Princess Marie-Louise of Prussia (great-granddaughter of
Kaiser Wilhelm II) and her husband Count Rudolf "Rudi" von
Schönburg–
Glauchau eventually worked closely with the new proprietors, the Shamoon family, who took over the Marbella Club Hotel from Prince Alfonso. In 1966, Prince Alfonso hired a Beverly Hills architect and, with the assistance of the Banus family, who were personal friends of dictator
Francisco Franco and had already developed the later-controversial
Valle de los Caídos, developed the high-end tourist resort
Puerto Banus. The resort opened to much fanfare in 1970. Celebrities in attendance included Franco's designated successor,
Juan Carlos (then Prince of Asturias),
Prince Rainier of Monaco and his wife
Grace Kelly, and
Aga Khan IV; entertainers included
Julio Iglesias. In 1973, exiled dictator
Fulgencio Batista y Zaldívar, who had left Cuba with a fortune estimated at between $100 and $300 million and lived extravagantly in various Iberian resorts, died of a heart attack there. Fugitive financier
Marc Rich bought a house in Marbella, renounced his American citizenship and claimed Spanish citizenship during his decades of evading American income taxes, although he spent more time in Switzerland, where he died. In 1974,
Prince Fahd arrived in Marbella from
Monte Carlo. Until his death in 2005, Prince Fahd was a frequent and profligate guest. Marbella welcomed his retinue of over a thousand people spending
petro-dollars. The then-anonymous
Osama bin Laden visited on a number of occasions with his family between 1977 and 1988. of
Saudi Arabia. His entourage used to spend up to €5 million a day in Marbella. In the 1980s, Marbella continued as a popular jet set destination. However, the 1987 kidnapping of Melodie Nakachian, the daughter of local billionaire philanthropist Raymond Nakachian and the Korean singer
Kimera, focused less-favourable international media scrutiny on Marbella, even though a police raid ultimately freed her. From the first democratic elections after the adoption of the 1978 Spanish Constitution, until 1991, all the mayors of Marbella were members of the
Spanish Socialist Workers Party ('El Partido Socialista Obrero Español' or PSOE in Spanish). In 1991, the builder and president of
Atlético Madrid,
Jesús Gil was elected mayor of Marbella by a wide majority. He and his party, the right-wing populist
Independent Liberal Group ('Grupo Independiente Liberal' or GIL in Spanish), promised to fight petty crime as well as the region's declining prestige. Actor
Sean Connery became Marbella's international spokesman, although Connery later ended this business relationship after Gil used his image in an election campaign. Gil's administration facilitated a building boom. However, critics complained about disregard for the existing urban plan, market speculation and environmental predation by developers; the regional Andalusian government suspended some development. Gil despised town-hall formalities, instead ruling from his office at the Club Financiero, and cultivated a maverick image. The PSOE and the
People's Party criticized Gil even at the national level, but voters re-elected him and some Spanish celebrities continued to spend summers there. Gil's political party, GIL, also proved popular in other tourist-dependent
Costa del Sol towns like
Estepona, and even across the Strait of Gibraltar to the Spanish North African cities of
Ceuta and
Melilla. In 1999, Gil was convicted of embezzling public funds and falsifying public documents. Gil died in 2004, and his party remained in power until 2006, but related scandals continue to this day, as discussed below. ==Landmarks and places of interest==