Alcazaba de Málaga

The Alcazaba de Málaga crowns a hill in the Spanish city of Málaga, a palatial fortification from the Muslim period of Al-Andalus. Phoenicians occupied the high ground around 600 BC, and Romans later built a villa and industrial facilities there. Remnants of a first-century Roman theatre lie close to the entrance. A walled corridor ties the fortress to the higher Castillo de Gibralfaro, and few alcazabas in Spain are better preserved.

The present stronghold began under the Hammudid dynasty in the eleventh century. The Zirids of Granada and later the Nasrid emirate reshaped it until the fourteenth century. Ferdinand and Isabella captured Málaga in 1487, and the fortress played its decisive part in that Reconquista campaign. The military function ended in the eighteenth century, and the site then housed a civilian neighbourhood until restoration began in 1933.

Military design governs the whole plan: two walled enclosures, each fortified with towers. The outer citadel forces attackers through a climbing passage with multiple gates. You reach the palatial residences in the inner citadel through the Puerta de los Cuartos de Granada. A Taifa-period palace there keeps elements from the eleventh century, while the Nasrid one shows courtyards with original pools and tile decoration.