Marbella
Marbella is a city and municipality in southern Spain, belonging to the province of Málaga in the autonomous community of Andalusia. It is part of the Costa del Sol and is the headquarters of the Association of Municipalities of the region; it is also the head of the judicial district that bears its name.
Marbella is situated on the Mediterranean Sea, between Málaga and the Strait of Gibraltar, in the foothills of the Sierra Blanca. The municipality covers an area of crossed by highways on the coast, which are its main entrances.
In 2023, the population of the city was 156,295 inhabitants, making it the second most populous municipality in the province of Málaga and the seventh in Andalusia. It is one of the most important tourist cities of the Costa del Sol and throughout most of the year is an international tourist attraction, due mainly to its climate and tourist infrastructure. It is also one of the fastest-growing cities in both Andalusia and Spain.
The city also has a significant archaeological heritage, several museums and performance spaces, and a cultural calendar.
Geography
The Marbella municipality occupies a strip of land that extends along of coastline of the Penibético region, sheltered by the slopes of the coastal mountain range, which includes the Bermeja, Palmitera, Royal, White and Alpujata sub-ranges. Due to the proximity of the mountains to the coast, the city has a large gap between its north and south sides, thus providing views of the sea and mountain vistas from almost every part of the city. The coastline is heavily urbanised; most of the land not built up with golf courses has been developed with small residential areas. Marbella is bordered on the north by the municipalities of Istán and Ojén, on the northwest by Benahavís, on the west by Estepona and on the northeast by Mijas. The Mediterranean Sea lies to the south.Topography
There are five geomorphological areas in Marbella—the Sierra Blanca, the Sierra Blanca piedmont, the lower hill country, the plains and the coastal dunes. The Sierra Blanca is the most centrally located in the province, peaking behind the old village. The mountain range has three notable peaks—La Concha, located further west at above sea level, Juanar Cross, located eastward at above sea level, and the highest, Mount Lastonar, located between the two at. Marbella's topography is characterised by extensive coastal plains formed from eroded mountains. North of the plain is an area of around above sea level, encompassing low, rolling hills, with higher foothills and steeper slopes approaching the mountains behind. The coast is generally low-lying, with sandy beaches that are more extensive further east, between the fishing port and. Despite the intense urbanisation of the coast, it still retains a natural area of dunes, the Artola Dunes, at the eastern end of town.Hydrography
The entire region lies within the Andalusian Mediterranean Basin. The rivers are short and have very steep banks, so that flash floods are common. These include the Guadalmina, the Guadaiza, the Verde and the Rio Real, which provide most of the water supply. The irregularity of rainfall has resulted in intermittent rivers that often run dry in summer; most of the many streams that cross the city have been bridged. The supplies the population with drinking water—apart from this water feature, there are other reservoirs, like El Viejo and El Nuevo, that irrigated the old agricultural colony of El Ángel. Additionally, and Llano de la Leche irrigated the plantations of the colony of San Pedro de Alcántara.Climate
Marbella has a subtropical Mediterranean climate with humid, very mild winters and warm to hot, dry summers. Marbella is protected on its northern side by the coastal mountains of the Cordillera Penibética and so enjoys a climate with an average annual temperature between. During winters, the highest peaks of the nearby mountain range are occasionally covered with snow, which can be seen from the coastline of Marbella when it snows on the Sierra Blanca mountain peak at. Average rainfall is, while hours of sunshine average above 2,900 annually.Flora and fauna
As most of the montane and wilderness areas around Marbella are under the management and protection of the central government, a great biodiversity is still thriving, with numerous endemic trees and plants, including chestnut and cherry trees, fir trees, Aleppo, Monterrey and maritime pines, pinyons, and ferns. The fauna is rich, with nearly 300 observed species of birds, including large raptors such as the lammergeier, cinereous, Egyptian, and Eurasian and Rüppell's griffon vultures, osprey, booted, Bonelli's and golden eagles, as well as buzzards, goshawks, harriers, kites, sparrowhawks and snake-eagles; owls include the Eurasian eagle-owl, little owl, long-eared owl and the tawny owl. Over 50 species of sea and shorebirds can be seen, in addition to some 20-30 species of ducks, swans, geese and other waterfowl. Greater and lesser flamingoes may be observed. Around 40 different mammals, including Iberian ibex, the rare Iberian lynx, badger, red deer, fallow deer, roe deer, genets, hedgehogs, marbled polecat, red fox, river otter, stone marten and wild boar, in addition to free-ranging groups of goats, horses, donkeys, cattle, and sheep, as well as potentially destructive feral dogs and cats. Around 50 reptiles and amphibians, and nearly 100 fish species, both marine and freshwater, can be found.The coast has the Natural Monument site of the Dunas de Artola, one of the few protected natural beaches of the Costa del Sol, which contains marram grass, sea holly, sea daffodils and shrubs, such as large-fruited juniper. The Posidonia oceanica, endemic to the Mediterranean, is found in the Cabopino area, and is an important part of the marine ecosystem around Marbella.
Demographics
According to the census of the INE for 2023, Marbella had a population of 156,295 inhabitants, which ranked it as the second-most populous city in the province of Málaga and eighth in Andalusia after surpassing Cádiz in 2008. Unlike other towns in the Costa del Sol, Marbella had a significant population before the population explosion caused by the tourist boom of the 1960s. The census counted about 10,000 people in 1950; population growth since has been as great as that of neighboring towns. Between 1950 and 2001 the population grew by 897%, with the decade of the 1960s having the highest relative increase, at 141%. In 2001, only 26.2% of Marbella's population had been born there, 15.9% were foreign-born, and those born in other towns in Spain made up the difference. During the summer months the population of Marbella increases by 30% with the arrival of tourists and foreigners who have their second homes in the area.The population is concentrated in two main centres: Marbella and San Pedro Alcántara; the rest is scattered in many developments in the districts of Nueva Andalucia and Las Chapas, located along the coast and on the mountain slopes. According to a study by the Association of Municipalities of the Costa del Sol, based on the production of solid waste in 2003, Marbella had a population of about 246,000 inhabitants, almost twice that of the population census of 2008. From the estimated volume of municipal waste in 2010, the City calculates the population during the summer months at around 400,000 people, while official police sources estimated it at about 500,000, with a peak of up to 700,000 people.
Demonyms
Traditionally the people of Marbella have been called "marbelleros" in the local vernacular and "marbellenses" in more formal registers; these names have appeared in dictionaries and encyclopedias. Since the mid-1950s, however, Marbellan residents have been called "marbellís" or "marbellíes", the only gentilic, or demonym, that appears in the Diccionario de la Lengua Española published by the Royal Spanish Academy.The use of "marbellí" as a gentilic was popularised by the writer and journalist Víctor de la Serna, who wrote a series of documentary articles on "The Navy of Andalucía"; in his research he had come upon the Historia de Málaga y Su Provincia by Francisco Guillén Robles, who used the plural word "marbellíes" to designate the Muslim inhabitants of Marbella.
History
Prehistory and antiquity
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 is suggested by three Ionic capitals embedded in one section of the Murallas del Castillo, that reused materials of a building from earlier times. Recent discoveries in La Calle Escuelas 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, 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.