Urban art that fills the streets of Malaga province with colour

A little over a decade ago it was unthinkable that the white houses of many inland villages and small towns in Malaga province would be occupied by murals, but today you can take a tour of a number of villages and towns such as Estepona where this urban art fills the streets with colour.

The first town to do so was Estepona and especially around its historic quarter, where the typical Andalusian style of the 'Garden of the Costa del Sol' has been filled in the last decade with the colour of dozens of murals that make up the tourist trail. Many of the paintings are surprisingly large and some of them really do look like buildings. There are over 60 paintings that make the ideal tourist attraction at any time of year.

But, where the existence of these murals is most striking is in the small villages of the Alto Genal. There, almost five years ago, a group of young local women got to work with their brushes and managed to fill part of the village with their drawings. The murals allude to gastronomic customs or landscapes of the municipality. The latest to join this trend is Igualeja, which is the most populous village in this part of the Serranía de Ronda, best known for the idyllic autumn postcard of its 'Bosque de Cobre' (copper forest). The village, which boasts the natural monument of the 'nacimiento' (source) of the Genal river, unveiled four large murals this summer, in which the link with agriculture, children and women are the protagonists.

The paintings, which range between 12 to 17 metres in height, were painted by José Enrique Ragel, known artistically as Bestror. This same artist has also left his mark on other villages in the Serranía, such as Montecorto and Jubrique.

Cortes de la Frontera also offers an artistic trail. There, in the midst of the pandemic, people in the town started writing verses by different authors in many of its streets, squares and corners. But as well as poetry, there is also a good dose of art on its façades which began in those years and which received an important boost in spring. On 1 May, the number of murals increased as part of an initiative known as 'Colouring the future', in which many young people from the village, but also from other parts of Malaga province, have become involved.

The mural in the Serranía de Ronda was surely first captured in the village that has become for more than two decades an authentic open-air museum, Genalguacil. There, among other artistic creations including sculptures, there are several murals that form part of the urban landscape of this village in the Genal valley.

There are other spectacular examples such as those painted in Álora by the Malaga artist known as Lolane, where he painted tourist icons of this village in the Guadalhorce Valley, such as El Caminito del Rey, the Desfiladero de los Gaitanes or the castle of Cerro de las Dos Torres, on the same mural.

Other murals not to be missed in the province are those in Moclinejo, Gibralgalia, Estación de Cártama, Tolox, Coín, Alhaurín El Grande, Monda or Villanueva del Trabuco, among many others.

It should also be remembered that, in addition to Estepona, there are other towns on the coast with a large collection of murals to see, such as Sabinillas in Manilva, and the districts of Soho, El Palo and Pedregalejo, in Malaga city; El Calvario in Torremolinos and El Boquetillo, in Fuengirola.