A walk in the wilderness

 To get a clue as to how unconnected these resorts and urbanizacions are is the fact we are plunging north to find a way the footbound pilgrim can find to head along the coast.  We have really nothing to review en route and we’ve done rabbit holes - so let us talk about Marbella.


We are heading towards Marbella. Marbella is one of those names which sits in the pantheon of places which is the home of sunburnt Brits and Irish pubs. It did, however, have an existence before the 1970s.


The usual amount of Phoenicians and Romans lived here.  The Normans ravished the coast and the Umayyads built light houses and a citadel to defend the town. This was a place which cultivated figs and mulberry trees. 14th century traveller Ibn Battuta described it as "a pretty little town in a fertile district.”  


On 11th June 1485 the Crown of Castile took the place. The town was declared a city and the capital if the region. The Plaza de los Naranjos was built along Castilian lines and a fort was built in 1554.  

New things came. In 1644 it was sugar cane. Briefly, in the middle Nineteenth century, iron furnaces. Phylloxera did for the local vineyards.  After the Second World War the town had 900 inhabitants. Various attempts, in the 50s, were made to make this a resort for the stars and we will talk about them another day. The population today numbers about 160,000 - 88,000 of which live in Marbella centro. 

Tomorrow we continue to wander in the wilderness.









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