Mercado Salamanca

The Mercado Salamanca is the municipal market of Málaga, standing in the El Molinillo neighbourhood. It went up between 1922 and 1925, to plans by the architect Daniel Rubio Sánchez. A century on, it still works as a hub of local commerce, the same trade it began with.

The building is neomudéjar in style, and almost all its exotic-inspired decoration gathers on the two facades. They mirror each other exactly, because the structure is a single nave covered by a metal framework. Their horseshoe arches come from brick bands arranged in varying patterns, next to modernist grilles. Inside, the market is lined with tiles, and the whole hall is wheelchair accessible.

What the stalls sell is the reason to come. Fresh fish, meats, seasonal fruit and vegetables, cheeses, and traditional bread fill them. Many vendors inherited their stalls from earlier generations, and that inheritance keeps tradition and community strong. Locals and tourists shop side by side, in an atmosphere that stays everyday rather than staged. In 1966 the market even made a cameo in Lost Command, the film with Anthony Quinn and Alain Delon.