Malaga Self-Guided Walking Audio Tour

The walk stop by stop: Plaza de la Merced, the Roman Theatre, the cathedral, the port

10 stops · about 34 min walking · start: Plaza de la Merced · finish: Palmeral de las Sorpresas

Plaza de la Merced is the starting point, followed by the Roman Theatre at the foot of the Alcazaba and the Picasso Museum in the Palacio de Buenavista. After the cathedral, the route leaves the old town for the university rectorate and City Hall on the Paseo del Parque, follows the park's palm avenues and reaches La Malagueta beach. It comes back along the harbour to the glass cube of the Centre Pompidou and ends on the Palmeral de las Sorpresas. The app lets you start elsewhere or change the order, and no stop asks for a ticket.

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1. 

   1Plaza de la MercedStart

   Pablo Picasso was born in 1881 in a house on this large square, now a museum devoted to his birthplace, and a bronze Picasso sits on a bench nearby. In the centre an obelisk honours General José María Torrijos and his companions, executed in Málaga in 1831 for rising against the absolutist rule of Ferdinand VII.

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2. 

   2Roman Theatre

   Málaga's Roman Theatre was built in the 1st century BC under Emperor Augustus and lay buried and forgotten for centuries until it was rediscovered in 1951. Its tiers of seats sit at the foot of the Alcazaba, the Moorish fortress whose builders reused Roman stones and columns.

3. 

   3Picasso Museum Málaga

   The Museo Picasso Málaga opened in 2003 in the Palacio de Buenavista, a 16th-century palace that blends Renaissance and Mudéjar styles. Its collection, largely given by Picasso's daughter-in-law Christine and grandson Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, fulfilled the artist's own wish to see his work shown in his birthplace.

4. 

   4Málaga Cathedral

   The Cathedral of the Incarnation was built between 1528 and 1782 on the site of the city's former main mosque. Only its north tower was ever finished, which is why locals call the cathedral La Manquita, the one-armed lady, and a popular story says the money for the second tower went to support the American War of Independence.

5. 

   5University of Málaga

   The University of Málaga, founded in 1972, has its rectorate in the former main post office building beside the Paseo del Parque. Built in the 1920s in neo-Mudéjar style, it shows brickwork, ceramic decoration and horseshoe arches inspired by the city's Moorish past.

6. 

   6Málaga City Hall

   Málaga's City Hall, known locally as La Casona del Parque, opened in 1919 on the edge of the Paseo del Parque. Its neo-baroque façade is richly decorated with carved reliefs and allegorical figures, and gardens stretch out beside it towards the slope of the Alcazaba.

7. 

   7Paseo del Parque

   The Park of Málaga runs along the Paseo del Parque on land reclaimed from the sea in the late 19th century, between the old town and the port. Its avenues are shaded by palms and subtropical trees from around the world, with fountains and sculptures along the way.

8. 

   8La Malagueta Beach

   La Malagueta is the city beach closest to the centre, a long strip of dark sand east of the port in the neighbourhood of the same name. Along it beach restaurants keep up a local tradition, grilling espetos, sardines on skewers, over fires in old boats filled with sand.

9. 

   9Centre Pompidou Málaga

   The Centre Pompidou Málaga opened in 2015 on the Muelle Uno quay as the first branch of the Paris arts centre outside France. Above ground you mainly see El Cubo, a multicoloured glass cube that lets light into the galleries below the quay.

10. 

    10Palmeral de las SorpresasFinish

    The Palmeral de las Sorpresas is a waterfront promenade along the Muelle Dos quay, opened in 2011 when the port was redesigned and opened up to the city. A long, wavy white pergola runs beside rows of palm trees, giving shade and views across the harbour.

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