Torremolinos

Torremolinos
	Torremolinos from above
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Andalusia
Province :	Málaga
Comarca :	Costa del Sol Occidental
Coordinates	36 ° 37 ′ N , 4 ° 30 ′ W Coordinates: 36 ° 37 ′ N , 4 ° 30 ′ W
Height :	49 msnm
Area :	20.17 km²
Residents :	68,661 (Jan 1, 2019)
Population density :	3,404.12 inhabitants / km²
Founding:	1748
Postal code :	29620
Municipality number ( INE ):	29901
Nearest airport :	Málaga ( Aeropuerto de Málaga , 6 km)
administration
Official language :	Castilian
Mayor :	D. José Ortiz García ( PSOE )
Website :	www.torremolinos.es
Location of the city
Málaga Province;

Torremolinos is a municipality in the Spanish region of Andalusia . It is one of the 100 independent municipalities in the province of Málaga .

The city of Torremolinos has 68,661 inhabitants (as of January 1, 2019) on an area of 20.17 km². This corresponds to 3404 inhabitants per km². The municipality, which is divided into three districts, has a very high population density. The only official language is Spanish (Castilian).

geography

Geographical location

Torremolinos is about 563 kilometers from the Spanish capital Madrid on the south coast of the Iberian Peninsula . Twelve kilometers southwest of Málaga on the Costa del Sol , the city extends between the foothills of the Sierra de Mijas ( Sierra Llana ) and the southeastern coast, the western part of the Bay of Málaga . Málaga Airport is located six kilometers between Málaga and Torremolinos . Neighboring municipalities are Benalmádena in the southwest , Alhaurín de la Torre in the northwest and the provincial capital Málaga in the north. The mean height is 49 meters above sea level.

City structure

The city of Torremolinos is divided into the following districts:

climate

The climate in Torremolinos corresponds to that of the entire Costa del Sol , i.e. the Mediterranean Mediterranean climate. The average temperature is 17.8 degrees Celsius with 2800 hours of sunshine a year. The mean amount of precipitation is 610 l / m².

history

Due to its location by the sea, the mild climate and abundant fresh water sources , people settled on the west side of the Bay of Málaga since prehistoric times . The oldest evidence of the consumption of mussels and snails by Neanderthals comes from the Bajondillo Cave - around 150,000 years old . At the Punta de Torremolinos , today's Castillo de Santa Clara , nine Neanderthal skulls were found in caves that no longer exist, and their age has been dated 150,000 years. Clay vessels, ax tips, chains, bracelets and rings from the Neolithic around 5000 BC were discovered in the same place . BC, which the historian Juan Temboury assigns to a Mesopotamian people who are said to have settled on the coast of Torremolinos.

There are also indications of Phoenician , Greek and Roman settlements, such as a small Roman necropolis that was discovered during construction work on Plaza Cantabria , and the remains of one of the three former Roman curing factories on the road from Málaga to Cádiz that already existed at the time. But it was only under the Arabs that the place achieved a certain importance. During the Nasrid rule , up to 19 flour mills were built on the river, which rises in the area of Los Manantiales and flows into the beach of Torremolinos, and at the beginning of the 14th century a square defense tower was built to defend the sea, which is still today at the end of Calle San Miguel you can see.

Torremolinos and Benalmádena

After the conquest of Malaga by the Christians in the course of the Reconquista in 1487, the Arab defense tower and most of the surrounding area were given to the fourth Count of Benavente-Zamora, Rodrigo de Pimentel , by the Catholic Kings , in thanks for his support Horses and food during the siege of the city. Since then, the defense tower has been named Torre de Pimentel . A second observation tower built by the new masters to ward off North African corsairs , called La Colina , no longer stands today. The Torre de Pimentel ("Tower of Pimentel") together with the many mills ("los molinos") gave its name to the town of Torremolinos. Immediately after the Christian conquest, the area, belonging to the place Alhaurín de la Torre , was called Los Molinos de la Torre ("Tower Mills"). From 1502 the area came under the administration of Malaga as Torres de Pimentel ("Towers of Pimentel"). Later, the name Torre de los Molinos ("Tower of the Mills") was used , among other things on maps .

The place was first mentioned under its current name as "T.Molinos" on a map of the Marqués de la Ensenada in 1748, which was created by the engineer Francisco Llobet. The city of Málaga received water rights from the possession of the springs of Torremolinos from one year after it was taken over by the Catholic Monarchs in the “Carta Puebla” (1488) and the “Real Cédula” document (1489), which in 1511 was granted by Joan of Castile was confirmed again. This meant the gradual decline of the mills due to a lack of water due to withdrawal from the river. Today there is only one mill that is used as a restaurant.

Due to the constant threat to the coast from Moorish and Arab pirates , the corsairs, who have been constantly raiding the Costa del Sol since the first documented attack on May 5, 1503 , the engineer of the Royal Armed Forces, Antonio Jiménez Mesa , made the in 1763 Proposal to build a fortress to defend the Torremolinos coastline. From 1770 the construction of the fortress began on the site of today's Hotel Santa Clara . The fortress was equipped with six 24-pound cannons, with a range of about six kilometers. There were also barracks for cavalry and infantry, apartments, storage rooms and a chapel within the fortress walls. From the building, which was used as a military base until 1830 and which then served as accommodation for border guards for some time before it passed into private ownership, only a few remains in the area known as “La Bateria” remain.

Las Tres Torres (1971) by Luis Alfonso Pagán.

A small fishing village developed around the Torre de Pimentel and the fortress, which at the beginning of the 20th century ran into economic difficulties. Since at the same time the increase in population of Málaga led the city to pursue two projects in 1923 to divert water from Torremolinos in order to replenish the limited water reserves of the provincial capital, Torremolinos was annexed as the Málaga district at that time. From 1930 onwards, Torremolinos began to develop into an excursion and tourist destination. The Briton Sir George Langworthy, who has lived in Torremolinos since the end of the 19th century, bought the castle of Santa Clara and converted it into the first hotel in town. The local Carlota Alessandri followed this example shortly afterwards with the conversion of her estate Cortijo de la Cucazorra into the Parador of Montemar. Other hotels and restaurants opened in the 1940s, such as the Hotel La Roca and the El Remo restaurant with a ballroom in La Carihuela .

As part of Málaga, a tourism- based boom began in the 1950s, making Torremolinos the first major mass tourism destination on the Costa del Sol . Since then, the cityscape has been dominated by many concrete buildings, which continues in the south-west bordering Benalmádena and Fuengirola. The three cities are among the most densely populated regions in Spain. Since September 27th, 1988 Torremolinos is again an independent municipality.

In the 1960s, international tourism and the associated foreign exchange resulted in a comparatively liberal nightlife and a cosmopolitan atmosphere for the conditions in Spain at the time. Actors, musicians and artists came to Torremolinos as well as hippies and dropouts, gays, lesbians and transsexuals. The first gay bar in Spain opened in Torremolinos in 1962.

On July 29, 2008, shortly after midnight, a bomb detonated under a pedestrian bridge on the beach promenade of Torremolinos near the hotel "Aloha Puerto". About one kilogram of explosives was used to build it. There was only slight damage to property. There were still numerous passers-by on the promenade at the time of the explosion, but none of them were injured. Only one young tourist was treated by paramedics for drowsiness. The Spanish Interior Minister Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba , after analyzing the explosive device, blamed the Basque underground organization ETA for the attack. There was no advance warning.

Number of inhabitants
(source: INE )
year	1842	1877	1887	1900	1910	1920	1991	2001	2007
Residents	785	2.131	2,390	2,991	2,925	3,028	27,543	44,772	60.010

Culture and sights

The main attractions are:

The botanical garden Jardín Botánico Molino de Inca between Torremolinos and Málaga
Crocodile Park
Pimentel Tower

architecture

The very well equipped shopping street is San Miguel street in the old town. At the end of the street is the Torre Molinos tower and not far from it is the Castle of Santa Clara. Among the noble houses, the Hotel Pez Espada and the Centro Cultural Pablo Ruiz Picasso should be highlighted. Both are in the process of being designated as common cultural property. Other important buildings include the Moorish-style Casa de los Navajas and the Church of San Miguel, such as the Palacio de Congresos y Exposiciones de la Costa del Sol and the Auditorium Municipal Príncipe de Asturias, where the city's main events are celebrated.

Although the urban development of Torremolino was clearly marked by the unplanned urban growth on the Spanish coast in the second half of the 20th century, some of its buildings are clear examples of modern or Art Deco architecture - for example the Bazar Aladino, a building to simulate a ship.

Churches

Torremolinos has seven Catholic Churches, of which the San Miguel Church, dating from 1718, is the oldest. It is located in Santos Arcángeles Square. The Church of the Blessed Virgin Mary houses the graphic of the Patron of Torremolinos and was built in 1979 over the old chapel by Carmen de La Carihuela. More recent are the churches of Madre del Buen Consejo from 1974, Cristo Resucitado (1981) in El Calvario and Madre de la Iglesia (1992).

beaches

Torremolinos beach

The main attraction of Torremolinos is its beaches. The municipality has almost 7 km of coastline. The biggest beaches are:

El Bajondillo
El Lido
El Saltillo
La Carihuela
Los Alamos / El Cañuelo
Playamar / El Retiro

These are beaches that can be reached from the city via the Paseo Marítimo. In general, they are characterized by dark sand and moderate waves. They are very busy during the summer. The most popular beaches are El Bajondillo and La Carihule in the middle of the urban center.

Green areas

The main green areas are the Complejo Los Manantiales de Torremolinos Park, the Botanical Garden (Jardín Botánico Molino de Inca) and the Parque de La Batería. The former contains more than 150 palm trees of 50 different species, 300 trees of 30 different species, and 400 different shrubs. The Parque de La Batería contains a large lake that can be sailed on and an observation tower with a view of the coast.

Economy and Infrastructure

traffic

Cercanías RENFE

Torremolinos has a connection to the LÍNEA C-1, a local train, Cercanías Málaga , the transport company RENFE Operadora , which runs every 20 minutes via the Aeropuerto station ("Airport") to Málaga and to the southwest to Fuengirola . There is no continuous 24-hour operation of the railway line, the first trains run from Málaga in the direction of Fuengirola from 5:45 am and from Fuengirola at 6:30 am (Fuengirola-Málaga). The travel time in one direction is 45 minutes.

The stations La Colina , Los Álamos , Plaza Mayor , Aeropuerto , Guadalhorce , Victoria Kent , Málaga-Renfe ( Estación de María Zambrano ) and Centro-Alameda (Málaga center) can be reached in the direction of Málaga . To the southwest follow the stations Montemar Alto , El Pinillo , Benalmádena-Arroyo de la Miel , Torremuelle , Carvajal , Torreblanca , Los Boliches and Fuengirola .

Worth mentioning

The place also became known through the book "The Children of Torremolinos" by James A. Michener , which appeared in 1971 and describes the life of young dropouts and captures the atmosphere of the youthful hedonistic milieu at the time .

In the course of the Spiegel affair , "Spiegel" editor Conrad Ahlers was arrested by the Spanish police on the evening of October 26, 1962, together with his wife on vacation in Torremolinos. The arrest of Ahlers in Spain, ruled by dictator Franco , aroused particular indignation among the opposition.

In 1973 pop singer Iljan Darc ( Gerd Leienbach ) published his title Torremolinos at EMI Odeon . The German pop singer Tanja Jonak sang the title Die Nacht von Torremolinos (B-side of the single "Immer und ewig du") in the early 1990s . The composition is by Jean Frankfurter, the text by Irma Holder.

The German-speaking rapper Farid Bang lived after his birth, which took place in Melilla , in Torremolinos until he was 8 years old, before he moved to Düsseldorf with his family .

Doris Dörries film comedy All inclusive from 2014 is set in Torremolinos. The film is about the meanwhile aged "Ingrid" ( Hannelore Elsner ), who over 30 years earlier led a chaotic hip game life on the beach in today's tourist town and returns to the place of her memories.

Individual evidence

↑ Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e From place to place - Tourist board of the Costa del Sol / Torremolinos ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.

↑ Luis Ojeda: Málaga - Costa del Sol , page 11, Editorial arguval, ISBN 84-89672-55-5

↑ Costa del Sol , page 9, Editorial Fisa Escudo de Oro, SA, ISBN 84-378-1937-7

↑ ^a ^b Torremolinos: Historia ( Memento of the original from April 8, 2005 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ The Current - Torremolinos ( Memento of the original from July 24, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2
↑ Patroc Torremolinos Gay Guide. Retrieved April 15, 2019 .
↑ AFP : Bomb attack near tourist hotel in southern Spain . www.mittelbayerische.de. July 29, 2008. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
↑ ^a ^b Torremolinos - Pueblo . Costa del sol tourist website.Retrieved September 18, 2014.
^ DIE ZEIT (archive): Spain: The children of Torremolinos . In: The time . February 1, 1985, ISSN 0044-2070 ( zeit.de [accessed April 14, 2019]).

Web links

Commons : Torremolinos - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Wiktionary: Torremolinos - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

[1] Cifras oficiales de población resultantes de la revisión del Padrón municipal a 1 de enero . Population statistics from the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (population update).