Today marks our last day in this beautiful city. A morning spent at the La Manquita and then a trip to the Museo Picasso Malaga before we catch a train to Granada.

The Malaga Cathedral was constructed between 1528 and 1782 after Malaga was conquered by the Spanish Catholic Monarchs who (of course) ordered that an enormous Christian temple be built. It was originally designed to be in the Gothic style (and there certainly are Gothic elements including the beautiful floor) but during the project the architects made a decision to transform it into a Renaissance project. Like many of the beautiful monuments we have seen this Cathedral also has some beautiful Baroque features.

The Cathedral has one tower that is 84 metres high and has a second tower that remains unfinished as the funds simply ran out. To complete the project a decision was made to collect excise duty or taxes from ships coming into the port. It does appear that there was success in securing additional funding, but they were diverted to other projects including sending money to the Governor of Louisiana (who just so happened to be the brother of one of the guys in charge of the budget) to aid the Americans who had risen against the English to achieve their independence.

The Cathedral is fondly called La Manquita which translates to the One Armed Lady 😀. Only 200 steps to climb up the tower to see the impressive view😅.

To round off our trip to Malaga we can’t leave the city without a visit to the Museo Picasso Malaga. This Museum is one of six Picasso museums in Europe. Museo Picasso Malaga was opened in 2003 by the King and Queen of Spain. Interestingly the man himself was in conversations about the possibility of a Museum back in 1953 in the same location but I guess the timing wasn’t right. Following two exhibitions of his work in 1992 and 1994 the conversation of a permanent museum resurfaced and drum roll please we have the comprehensive Museo Picasso Malaga.

The building that the Museum is housed in is the Buenavista Palace which was originally built in the 16th century over the remains of a Nasrid palace. When the building was being converted to a museum in the late 1990’s excavation works were undertaken and low and behold remnants of a city wall and towers dating back to the Phoenicians were discovered. As a result of this find the basement of the building has been transformed into an archeological museum.

A slow walk back to our beautiful hotel, jump into our awaiting Uber and then off to the train station.