A few years ago, at a reception at the Polish embassy in Bern, Switzerland, an elderly Jewish man pulled the ambassador aside and relayed an unbelievable story. They were standing on holy ground, the man said, a place where near-secret acts of heroism played out during World War II. Intrigued, the ambassador, Jakob Kumoch, tasked his staff with looking into the man’s claims. Soon, an incredible history emerged.
In Málaga, the Past—and Picasso—Shape Its Culturally-Rich Present
20.11.2023 - 20:25 / cntraveler.com
A version of this article first appeared online on Condé Nast Traveller UK, and originally appeared in the July/August 2023 issue of Condé Nast Traveller UK.
The gilded young are pouring into Málaga. Since the pandemic, they have been flocking to the city in droves, for the year-round sunshine, the affordable rents, and the abundant food. They are onto the skewers of sardines grilled over glowing olive wood in the former fishing village of Pedregalejo; the dark Pajarete wine at the Antigua Casa de Guardia, where old-school barmen jubilantly ring a bell when they’re tipped; and the 30-plus museums, from the Museo de Málaga to the pop-up Pompidou.
For this incoming group, life is sweet: a daily sun-filled round of e-biking through graffitied Lagunillas to the Gibralfaro, jasmine-scented massages at the Hammam al Andalus, sunset G&Ts at the Baños del Carmen, and enough exhibitions to fill a hundred weekends. Fifty years after Picasso’s death, the cultural scene in his native city is as splendid as the sun that bathes the mountains in gold at dawn and dusk—and the imagination with them.
It wasn’t ever thus. Málaga has a long history that dates back to the eighth century BC—the Phoenicians were followed by the Romans, the Moors, and the Catholics—and its fortunes have ebbed and flowed with the tides. The result is a city of, at times, dramatic contrasts, which can all be seen from the glorious Castillo de Gibralfaro. The medieval ramparts ripple over the hill like the tail of a mighty dragon, and the panorama swings around from the sparkling sea and port to the sunbaked city and mountains. A walled walkway zigzags down through fragrant pines to the Alcazaba—the Gibralfaro’s sister fortress—and the Roman amphitheatre. The gargantuan cathedral, home to Enrique Simonet’s hauntingly luminous The Beheading of Saint Paul, towers up against a backdrop of high-rises. It’s all there: more than 1,000 years in a glance.
Early tourists were keenly aware of these contrasts. In the mid-19th century, as British travel writer Louisa Tenison sailed into Málaga and the sun rose out of the waters, she found herself imagining the four-month siege of 1487, when the Catholic monarchs expelled the Nasrids. In her book Castile and Andalucía, she conjured a vivid picture of the momentous clash of civilizations: the “ensign of the cross floating over the tent of Ferdinand and Isabella,” and the “sacred banner” of the Arabs “waving from the heights of the Gibralfaro.” But her romantic reverie was soon interrupted by a more prosaic sight, “more befitting the neighborhood of Liverpool or Glasgow”—the chimneys of the city’s iron works.
The two decisive chapters in the port city’s history—its Reconquista from the Emirate of Granada and
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